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The Hampstead Mystery
The Hampstead Mystery
The care with which the story is written, the complicated plot, and the clash of the different practices of man-hunters lift it out of the common run of mystery tales and make this an absorbing book.
Book Excerpt
ourt judge, was found by the police at his home, Riversbrook in Tanton Gardens, Hampstead, to-day. Deceased had been shot through the heart. The police have no doubt that he was murdered."
But the morning papers of the following day did full justice to the sensation. It was the month of August when Parliament is "up," the Law Courts closed for the long vacation, and when everybody who is anybody is out of London for the summer holidays. News was scarce and the papers vied with one another in making the utmost of the murder of a High Court judge. Each of the morning papers sent out a man to Hampstead soon after the news of the crime reached their offices in the afternoon, and some of the more enterprising sent two or three men. Scotland Yard and Riversbrook were visited by a succession of pressmen representing the London dailies, the provincial press, and the news agencies.
The two points on which the newspaper accounts of the tragedy laid stress were the mysterious letter which had been sent to
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A notable judge is found shot to death in his deserted Hampstead home when he was supposed to be vacationing in Scotland. Neither the two Scotland Yard detectives nor the private investigator hired by the victim's daughter can make much headway amid all the red herrings strewn in their paths, not least of which is their desire to outdo each other. There's nothing really wrong with this book, but it didn't appeal to me. I thought the clues afforded the reader were too slight, and some of the writing a bit turgid.
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Very well done! It has a different perspective than most detective stories. Usually the police detectives are written as team players, but in this story it is every man for himself. I enjoyed it all the way through to the end.
06/25/2008
Very well written. Good characterization. A few twists and turns along the way with a surprise ending. I enjoyed it very much.
09/09/2007
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