A closed room mystery in an isolated Japanese mansion on the island of Hokkaido in which the house
which has been deliberately built crookedly plays a special part. The owner has invited a number of
guests to spend Christmas with him and his daughter but the chauffeur of one of them fails to appear
the next morning. He is found inside his locked room dead with no external evidence of any intruder
(It being Christmas there is a lot of snow). Further deaths follow with the guests held in isolation by
the local police who are mystified by the events. A renowned private sleuth is sent to solve the case
which he does. The book is very slow-moving with the denouement and explanation of how the
crimes were committed taking some forty pages where the 'classic' detective tales of the 1920s to
1950s of took less than a page. Certain parts of the elaborate set-up did need extended explanation
though. Really only for the true addict of this type of crime novel.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Carrisi, Donato: The Whisperer
I finished this excellent novel some time ago but failed to comment on it at the time. The work has had a world wide success and I consider this to be well-deserved. Moving relatively leisurely with
occasional detours from the main plot (which turn out in part to be back story), the book deals with
he work of a policewoman who is a specialist in finding missing girls. She is attached to a special
force which is dealing with an unusual circumstance - a number of arms arranged in a circle in a
clearing. The arms are all of girls in the childhood and are of varying ages of detachment. The
woman is accepted somewhat reluctantly by the team which has been established for some time. The pace of the novel allows for character development of all the involved police which makes it a
chanage from so many works where all but the lead characters tend to be ciphers. I know I read
this when it was first issued as a paperback some years ago but found it more than satisfying a read
the second time around.
occasional detours from the main plot (which turn out in part to be back story), the book deals with
he work of a policewoman who is a specialist in finding missing girls. She is attached to a special
force which is dealing with an unusual circumstance - a number of arms arranged in a circle in a
clearing. The arms are all of girls in the childhood and are of varying ages of detachment. The
woman is accepted somewhat reluctantly by the team which has been established for some time. The pace of the novel allows for character development of all the involved police which makes it a
chanage from so many works where all but the lead characters tend to be ciphers. I know I read
this when it was first issued as a paperback some years ago but found it more than satisfying a read
the second time around.
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