Death Takes a Hand

Cassie Swann #1

by Susan Moody

Book by Moody, Susan

Genres: Mystery, Crime

335 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

She grew up in Oxford then moved to Tennessee for 10 years. She published two historical novels and the novelisation of the Nescafe Gold Blend advertisements under the pen name Susannah James. More recently she has also used the nom de plume, Susan Madison. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassandra Swan is a former teacher of Biology at an English girls’ school, neither fashion model slim like her cousins nor plump as some of her current crop of clients. In this first episode for the Cassandra Swan Bridge Mysteries, we meet Cassandra as an extremely unfortunate organizer of, instructor in, and hostess for bridge weekends (somewhat analogous to the more common game conventions in the U.S.) held in the English countryside. Death Takes a Hand does, indeed, provide for a taut murder mystery with clues which hinge upon an ill-fated bridge game. Ill-fated? Of the three players sitting at the table, balanced by the dummy hand, all are deceased by the beginning.

I categorize Death Takes a Hand as a cozy mystery because so much of it takes place in the English countryside and because, the female protagonist seems as concerned with her “black thumb” regarding house plants and foisting off the unwanted attention of forward, “would-be” male lovers as she does with solving the mystery. At least, that’s the way it seems until her income is threatened by potential hotel owners/managers and clients beginning to believe that she is the bad luck element, the schlimazel lightning rod at the root of these deaths and another quite untimely death at another bridge weekend she organized.

The villain is well-established by the time of the expected revelation. The clues are available for the reader, but not emphasized. I also like the fact that Cassandra needs to solve the mystery for both the sake of her ongoing business and because of a certain amount of suspicion that comes upon her. She doesn’t go head-to-head against the police as with certain mystery characters and she is very much aware of how superior the inspector’s resources are to her own.

It may be that the male supporting characters are the most interesting in this novel. There is the one who seems to be a confidence-man, the one who seems to be a lower-class workman but seems incredibly aware of art and antiques for someone as crass as he is, and the one who is either a suspect or her best prospect for a beau. Nothing about her love life makes sense to me in reading from the male perspective, but the emotions she goes through in trying to decide how to deal with these “gentlemen” remind me of the time I visited the family of my cousin’s girlfriend. The girlfriend’s sister was gorgeous, actually a homecoming queen candidate. Yet, every time the phone rang, she ran to it hoping to hear from someone to ask her out on the following night (alas, I was heading out of town the next morning). “Wow!” I thought, “even the most beautiful girls in school seem anxious to get a date.” I quit being afraid to ask girls out after that. I got that same feeling in Cassandra’s attitude.

About the only thing I have in common with Cassandra is that we were both raised in a minister’s home. She was raised in one against her will due to unfortunate circumstances; I didn’t know how fortunate I had it. As she reached adulthood, she largely rejected the faith under which she was raised while I have grown to appreciate my faith (and have my understanding of it broadened) as I’ve grown older. Apparently, a slight bit of the ethical underpinnings of her religious background has remained. Alas, even so, it is a rather negative perspective on God as a proctor, cruelly observing lest one get any detail wrong. “What God would say for that matter, for despite her rejection, He nonetheless still lurked somewhere in the rear of her mind, an eternal Head Prefect, monitoring everything she did.” (p. 88)

I liked Death Takes a Hand. It won’t be one of the primary mystery series for which I reach in bookstores and my public library, but I won’t turn my nose up at the next one I find, either.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know anything about the card game Bridge, don’t care about the game, and don’t care to learn the game, yet I found this Bridge-centric mystery a great read. The game does play a major part in the story, but Moody’s writing makes it rather painless. Instead, we are focused on the character and plight of Bridge teacher Cassandra (Cassie) Swan, who had the great misfortune to stumble upon a murder scene, not once, but twice. If the first time was bad for business, then the second was disastrous, resulting in cancelled engagements and unwanted attention from the tabloids – “I Played Bridge With Cassie Swann, AND SURVIVED!!!!” She takes up the investigation, not from a case of Miss Marplesque nosiness, but to preserve her livelihood and to avoid a return to the girls’ school from which Bridge allowed her to escape. The character of Cassie is endearing, having to deal constantly with her weight obsessions, his moralistic upbringing and near constant attentions from the wrong sort of men. If there is any downside to the book, it’s that the police are treated rather shabbily, portrayed as rather dim; on the other hand, had the law been represented by a Morse, a Lynley or even a Ravyn, Cassie might not have had a chance to show she’s as good at sleuthing as she is at Bridge.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remarkably dated but nevertheless quite readable. The pacing was spot on; I deduced the murdered the chapter before the climax.

Feminist book club: The heroine never solves the crime. She walks into a trap to be rescued by a man.. I was impressed by the gender assumption twist.

A possible continuity error: was the murder scene the Macbeth Room or the Othello Room?

[Mare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't warm up to any of the characters.