This 10th book in the Sir Henry Merivale series, written by John Dickson Carr under the pseudonym Carter Dickson, involves a case at the Pineham film studio lots just as England is about to enter WW2. It is much more of a romantic suspense than I had expected, which was OK by me since I like romantic suspense!

Merivale himself doesn't appear until near the end and for a while I was wondering if this book was a stand-alone. ( )

THought it was one of his best.

The fact that Merrivale only came into the novel some 3/5 this the way through did not detract from matters

Felt a little let down by one matter - the fact a central character in fact lied about a crucial matter (not out of guilt, and for reasons that are totally explicable and natural in the circumstances, but it did direct the reader into a different direction)

Will read more of these

Big Ship

30 January 2017 ( )

Monica Stanton's first novel is apparently quite scandalous, filled with shocking details which have made it past the censors (and sent her sales soaring) but her story is the product of imagination rather than experience. She is a 22 year old innocent whose frustration with her cloistered and constrained life in her father's vicarage, lived under the watchful eye of her priggish aunt Flossie, has her indulging in daydreams and fantasies and then committing them to paper. At first, her aunt preens herself on the the novel's runaway success, but her enthusiasm is dampened when she learns just which literary genre her niece has chosen. And then comes the frequent lament: 'if only Monica had written a nice detective novel', such as those by successful mystery author William Cartwright. Continued ( )