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Murder Among Friends
Λονδίνο, Πόλεμος. Στους νυχτερινούς δρόμους οι πολίτες της αεράμυνας κάνουν έλεγχο για παραβάσεις της συσκότισης. Πίσω από τις βαριές κουρτίνες του διαμερίσματος της Σέσιλι Λάιτγουντ, οι καλεσμένοι μαζεύονται, για ένα μικρό πάρτι. Πολλοί είναι παλιοί φίλοι, οι περισσότεροι ανήκουν στον καλλιτεχνικό και λογοτεχνικό κόσμο και όλοι περιμένουν την άφιξη του διάσημου θεατρικού συγγραφέα Όμπρεϊ Ρίτερ.
Αλλά η είσοδος του είναι καθυστερημένη` εξοργιστικά, καταθλιπτικά, μοιραία καθυστερημένη. Στο διάδρομο, πάνω στη σκάλα, ακούγεται μαι άγρια ξαφνική κραυγή. Ο Ρίτερ είναι νεκρός. Άγρια χτυπημένο, το σώμα του έχει βρεθεί στο πάνω πάτωμα.
Πριν καλά-καλά αρχίσει, το πάρτι τελειώνει. Αλλά για κάποιο πρόσωπο η έρευνα, κατά πάσα πιθανότητα γνωστό στους παρόντες είναι έτοιμη να ξεκινήσει…
Αλλά η είσοδος του είναι καθυστερημένη` εξοργιστικά, καταθλιπτικά, μοιραία καθυστερημένη. Στο διάδρομο, πάνω στη σκάλα, ακούγεται μαι άγρια ξαφνική κραυγή. Ο Ρίτερ είναι νεκρός. Άγρια χτυπημένο, το σώμα του έχει βρεθεί στο πάνω πάτωμα.
Πριν καλά-καλά αρχίσει, το πάρτι τελειώνει. Αλλά για κάποιο πρόσωπο η έρευνα, κατά πάσα πιθανότητα γνωστό στους παρόντες είναι έτοιμη να ξεκινήσει…
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
1 person is currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Ferrars
91 books27 followersAka E.X. Ferrars.
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 28, 2023
Πολύ ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο. Η συγγραφέας φτάνει στη λύση αφού ξεγυμνωνει τους πρωταγωνιστές ενός πάρτι μετά φόνου. Κυριαρχεί η απαισιόδοξη ατμόσφαιρα της εποχής η ψυχογραφια των ηρώων και ο διάλογος είναι το κύριο όχημα για την εξέλιξη της πλοκής. Η απουσία αστυνομικου η ιδιωτικού ερευνητή δεν αφαιρεί τίποτα από τη γοητεία της υπόθεσης.
Μερικοί φίλοι από τα παλιά συναντώνται σε ένα πάρτι στο Λονδινο κατά τη διάρκεια του Β Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου εν μέσω αεροπορικών βομβαρδισμων. Κάποιοι έχουν χαθεί από καιρό. Ανάμεσα τους βρίσκεται και μια άγνωστη στους υπόλοιπους καινούργια φίλη της οικοδεσποινας. Το πρόσωπο που περιμένουν όλοι με αγωνία να εμφανιστεί, ένας διάσημος συγγραφέας, δολοφονείται.
3.5/5
Μερικοί φίλοι από τα παλιά συναντώνται σε ένα πάρτι στο Λονδινο κατά τη διάρκεια του Β Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου εν μέσω αεροπορικών βομβαρδισμων. Κάποιοι έχουν χαθεί από καιρό. Ανάμεσα τους βρίσκεται και μια άγνωστη στους υπόλοιπους καινούργια φίλη της οικοδεσποινας. Το πρόσωπο που περιμένουν όλοι με αγωνία να εμφανιστεί, ένας διάσημος συγγραφέας, δολοφονείται.
3.5/5
June 4, 2013
When I read the blurb, I was afraid the story line would not appeal to me. But Ferrars pulls it off. Middle-aged Alice is invited to a wartime party by her new friend Cecily, to meet the people in Cecily's circle. Someone in the flat upstairs is murdered, and one of Cecily's guests is arrested and convicted. But Alice just can't understand how the unassuming person she met became a murderer. She talks to the various guests at the party, each one of whom gives her a different picture of the victim and the culprit. Then Alice's husband puts his scientific mind on the problem, and turns the whole situation upside-down.
March 18, 2020
Cheat the Hangman (Murder Among Friends, British title) was another delicious read from E.X. Ferrars. I have become a huge fan of hers and am slowly tracking down her novels and wish they were more readily available on Kindle.
Alice Church feels compelled to prove that Janet Markland, a woman she has only just met at their mutual friend's party, could not be a murderess. When the woman is sentenced to hang, Janet is even more troubled and seeks out the other people at the party, one by one, over the course of days, as she becomes more and more convinced that Janet is innocent of the murder of a famous playwright they knew.
The opening read very much like a play as characters enter and exit the main drawing room, until the murder is discovered. With Ferrars books, I find myself rereading certain sentences, because I'm certain there's something hidden there that I must not overlook. So much psychological information is revealed about each character in the dialog, as they each describe their relationship with Janet. I can't say the ending was a surprise, but how Janet arrives there is particularly intriguing. Although the motive seemed a little weak, how the suspicion was cast on Janet was interesting. I have put E.X. Ferrars on my favorite authors list alongside Agatha Christie. And though Christie is still queen of plotting for me, I'd have to say Ferrars tops her with characterizations.
Alice Church feels compelled to prove that Janet Markland, a woman she has only just met at their mutual friend's party, could not be a murderess. When the woman is sentenced to hang, Janet is even more troubled and seeks out the other people at the party, one by one, over the course of days, as she becomes more and more convinced that Janet is innocent of the murder of a famous playwright they knew.
The opening read very much like a play as characters enter and exit the main drawing room, until the murder is discovered. With Ferrars books, I find myself rereading certain sentences, because I'm certain there's something hidden there that I must not overlook. So much psychological information is revealed about each character in the dialog, as they each describe their relationship with Janet. I can't say the ending was a surprise, but how Janet arrives there is particularly intriguing. Although the motive seemed a little weak, how the suspicion was cast on Janet was interesting. I have put E.X. Ferrars on my favorite authors list alongside Agatha Christie. And though Christie is still queen of plotting for me, I'd have to say Ferrars tops her with characterizations.
July 14, 2021
Set in the Blackout, this classic British mystery provided plenty of period detail, a clever plot and well-drawn characters.Will read more by Ferrars!
Read
September 19, 2022Annoying.
August 22, 2024
A strong effort from a writer unfamiliar to me. Tightly plotted and well-structured. Recommended.
November 10, 2024
A little gem of a story by a mystery writer who is currently out of vogue. Worth the read.
June 9, 2014
This book is a rather unusual mystery story. One knows right away who is suspected of the murder. She eventually stands trial, is found guilty and is sentenced to death. Only after this does someone question her guilt although it seems irrefutable. She speaks to others who were present at the time and finds out their views of the woman convicted of murder. They all agree that she is incapable of committing murder, but what about the proof?
The book was written in 1946 and is set during the war, so it is rather slow-moving for modern tastes, although it is as well-written as other Elizabeth Ferrars' mystery novels. It took me rather a long time to read, but I am glad I managed to finish it. I can recommend the book as an unusual mystery novel, quite different from others of the same genre.
The book was written in 1946 and is set during the war, so it is rather slow-moving for modern tastes, although it is as well-written as other Elizabeth Ferrars' mystery novels. It took me rather a long time to read, but I am glad I managed to finish it. I can recommend the book as an unusual mystery novel, quite different from others of the same genre.
February 23, 2014
Murder during war-time London. An okay read.
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Want to read
December 23, 2018Synopsis: a murder takes place upstairs from a house party and one of the guests is arrested. Alice can't understand and begins to ask questions.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews