What do you think?
Rate this book
Miles Bredon #4
Still dead,
After Colin Reiver is acquitted of responsibility for killing a child in a car accident he sets out on a sea cruise in the hope that it might ease local feeling and the voice of his own conscience. But when a few days after his departure Colin is found dead by the roadside, Miles Bredon, investigator for the Indescribable Insurance Company, must travel to Scotland to establish precisely when the death occurred. The body has disappeared and reappeared in the space of forty-eight hours and a large insurance premium is at stake.
4 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1934
10 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Ronald Knox
245 books116 followersMonsignor Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, author of detective stories, as well as a writer and a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio.
Knox had attended Eton College and won several scholarships at Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, but he left in 1917 upon his conversion to Catholicism. In 1918 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Knox wrote many books of essays and novels. Directed by his religious superiors, he re-translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, using Hebrew and Greek sources, beginning in 1936.
He died on 24 August 1957 and his body was brought to Westminster Cathedral. Bishop Craven celebrated the requiem mass, at which Father Martin D'Arcy, a Jesuit, preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells.
Knox had attended Eton College and won several scholarships at Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, but he left in 1917 upon his conversion to Catholicism. In 1918 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Knox wrote many books of essays and novels. Directed by his religious superiors, he re-translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, using Hebrew and Greek sources, beginning in 1936.
He died on 24 August 1957 and his body was brought to Westminster Cathedral. Bishop Craven celebrated the requiem mass, at which Father Martin D'Arcy, a Jesuit, preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 20, 2015
I have now read all of Monsignor Knox's detective stories and this, I feel, is by far the best of them.
The man's command of the English language is just marvellous and in this book there was much less of the "witty banter" that I found so annoying in some of the others. The plot is clever and although all the clues were there, I didn't quite figure it all out until the end.
However, like some other reviewers, I was a unpleasantly surprised that the accidental but fatal running over of a child was glossed over and taken quite so lightly.
Three stars would have been fairer but I've given it an extra one just for the quality of the prose.
The man's command of the English language is just marvellous and in this book there was much less of the "witty banter" that I found so annoying in some of the others. The plot is clever and although all the clues were there, I didn't quite figure it all out until the end.
However, like some other reviewers, I was a unpleasantly surprised that the accidental but fatal running over of a child was glossed over and taken quite so lightly.
Three stars would have been fairer but I've given it an extra one just for the quality of the prose.
February 10, 2019
I felt this went on rather too long, and, ultimately, I did not enjoy it as much as "The Three Taps".
The writing is excellent, but despite the dressing up and the interference with evidence which muddies the waters, this was a "who did it and when", the solution to which was not difficult.
Miles and Angela Bredon make an interesting couple (cf. Punshon's Bobby and Olive Owen and Bush's Ludo and Berenice Travers) without whose interaction, and the delightful Mrs. Wauchope, this would have been a somewhat flat affair.
3.5 stars
The writing is excellent, but despite the dressing up and the interference with evidence which muddies the waters, this was a "who did it and when", the solution to which was not difficult.
Miles and Angela Bredon make an interesting couple (cf. Punshon's Bobby and Olive Owen and Bush's Ludo and Berenice Travers) without whose interaction, and the delightful Mrs. Wauchope, this would have been a somewhat flat affair.
3.5 stars
March 19, 2022
I found "Still Dead" a little bit boring. Missing person mysteries should at least have a likeable character to care about but instead the book was overlong and didn't really keep my interest.
January 27, 2014
A good 'puzzle' type detective story of the Golden Era. Interesting contrast to the other Knox books I've read, which have all been about Christianity.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews