Dead march in three keys: a murder story

by Peter Curtis

Originally published under the nom de plume Peter Curtis and under the titles Dead March in Three Keys (London: Davis, 1940) and No Question of Murder (New York: Doubleday, 1959).

It began when he met Antonia.

Richard Curwen fell in love - wildly, passionately - and the lovely Antonia returned his love.

But Richard and Antonia were penniless. And too spoiled and selfish to live as ordinary mortals. They wanted the best. The very best.

And so Richard married Eloise, Antonia's frail but wealthy cousin. The resemblance between Eloise and Antonia was astonishing. In fact, most people couldn't tell them apart.

Which was exactly what Richard was counting on.

Genres: Gothic, Fiction, Historical Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Pseudonym of Norah Lofts

Peter^^Curtis

Reviews

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more exciting than I had remembered. I sure didn't recall that Eloise was a drug addict. Its a quick read if you can manage to find a copy at a second hand book store. Mine is falling apart but still worth it. They should reprint it.

[EuroHackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The October 2021 #TBRChallenge theme is “Gothic.” I have no shortage of gothic novels on Mount TBR, but due to having multiple reading challenges going on at once, I was compelled to pick a short one, so I reached for this book, a lean 160 pages, originally published in 1940.

This was an odd book. The scene on the back of my copy never happened; the summary from other editions spoils the entire story. Richard Curwen falls madly in love with Antonia Dimrod the first time he lays eyes on her. They are kindred spirits: both are sociopathic hustlers, living on their wits and good looks. Both are desperately poor, moving from odd job to odd job in the hopes of earning enough bread to make it to the next diversion. Antonia is desperately beautiful, and in no time flat lands herself a much older, much richer husband. Richard is distraught, until Antonia suggests that he marry her shy and retiring cousin, Eloise Everard. Not only is she filthy rich, but she could practically be Antonia’s twin, at least in the looks department.

Richard is willing to do anything to keep his affair with Antonia burning brightly, so he works his charms on Eloise, and the two are soon married. Richard and Antonia resume their affair after the honeymoon trip, each getting high off the idea of forbidden romance and cuckolding their spouses. These two are a pair of prizes and more or less deserve each other. Eloise, on the other hand, returns from the honeymoon pregnant, and is soon swept under the wing of her overprotective Nanny, Emma Plume. That’s fine with Richard – he has more time to skip around to the deserted settlement in the middle of nowhere to meet his mistress.

Then things go pear-shaped. Antonia’s husband dies, but doesn’t leave her any money, so she’s back on the hustle. Richard is desperate to marry her, to the point of giving up Eloise and her piggy bank, but Antonia refuses, saying that they’ll be miserable inside a week if they are together but have no money. Antonia doesn’t refuse to give up their affair, though – she moves in with them, under the guise of being a widow in mourning, and the two of them are so hot and heavy that they manage to get caught.

Eloise has her child, Diana, whom she fusses over – as does Nanny Plume. Nanny Plume hates Richard Curwen on sight and is delighted when his affair with Antonia is brought out in the sunlight. Eloise doesn’t grant Richard the divorce he so desperately desires, however, knowing that staying married to him – and keeping him out of Antonia’s reach – will make him just as miserable as she is. She also starts losing her marbles a little bit, which makes Richard disdain her and Nanny Plume even more overprotective than usual.

Finally, after years of thwarted desire, Richard hatches a plan to rid himself of his hated wife. He sends Nanny and Diana off on vacation, convinces Eloise to move for her health, and buys an isolated plot of land called Moat House. He plays on Eloise’s worst fears, causes her to have a heart attack, and invites Antonia to take her place. They bury Eloise as Antonia, fire Nanny Plume, hire a new governess to bring Diana back from vacation, and settle into their new life together.

Antonia can’t play Eloise for very long; playing the little invalid is hard for this vivacious sociopath. So she and Richard make plans to ship Diana off to boarding school and travel around the world on Eloise’s money. The only problem is that Diana refuses to accept her ‘mummy’ and acts out – enough to make the governess concerned. Richard doesn’t know it, but Nanny Plume and the governess met when Diana exchanged hands, and they had a good long talk. Mrs. Curwen being nothing like what Nanny Plume warned her she’d be like was enough to compel the governess to write Nanny Plume at Christmastime.

Nanny Plume puts two and two together, realizes that Antonia is living as Mrs. Curwen in Eloise’s place, and vows revenge on the whole lot of them.

The story is told, in turn, by Emma Plume, Richard Curwen, and Antonia Meekin, so unreliable narration abounds. Still, it’s easy to develop serious distaste for both Richard and Antonia, who think nothing of killing a woman in their quest to be rich and together. Eloise was definitely cracked, but she deserved better than she received from her husband or her cousin. Richard constructed “the perfect murder” and considers his being caught solely down to Nanny Plume’s intense hatred of him. He could care less about his daughter, he’s just mad he was torn away from his illicit love affair. Ugh.

My copy of this novel calls the author The Grand Mistress of Gothic Romance and Suspense. There was definitely some suspense, and an overall gothic undertone, but this was a swing and a miss for me. The story was told in passive voice after the fact, so there wasn’t even on-page action to keep it moving. Meh. I’m glad my other Halloween-themed reads have been better than this.

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an extraordinarily odd book: Loft has what would be a brilliant bit of plotting for a conventional crime novel but for some reason decides to tell it in a way that totally scuppers it. I understand the appeal of the inverted crime novel, and when done well it’s astonishing - Malice Aforethought being the best example - but Loft takes a fine idea and flattens and guts it so it flails about uselessly and becomes totally inert in the process. Any tension is absolutely lost

And I think I know why she did it: she’s a very, very good writer. All the narrators are very well psychologically realised, even the villains. Better still is our ostensible heroine who in her first narration is sterling and loyal and brave and then, after a look at her from the villains’ perspective, when she returns there’s a definite prissiness and pettiness to her which is very nicely done. It’s tremendously bold for a book from 1940 with the villains being surprisingly open about their sex life

It’s no classic and is very much a better novel ruined by some very strange authorial decisions but is absolutely why I read these books: it’s pretty unique and fully committed to a wrong headed approach

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Curwen met and fell madly in love with Antonia, and she with him. However, they both were penniless and too selfish to live like ordinary mortals. So, Richard married Antonia's frail, wealthy cousin Eloise who looked so much like Antonia that people couldn't tell them apart. Which was what Richard counted on. I liked this book by one of my favorite authors, however it's not my absolute favorite book by Norah Lofts. I give it an A!

[Bonnie Seiwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a bad book, but it said on it that it was a Gothic and I would not have called this a Gothic by any stretch of the word. There is no atmosphere or mystery. It is just the story of a man who's lover convincing him to marry her cousin for money, and then events leading up to him deciding to scare her to death and have the cousin take her place because they are nearly identical. Had this been written so that we are never informed that he only married her for her money, was having an affair, and came up with this plan early on; the governess was the main character throughout the book and slowly uncovered what was going on, then it could have been a Gothic.

[Carrie Dalby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Norah Lofts is always a solid read. The different POV sections were interesting--not typical for Gothic novels of the era.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gothic.