The Deception

by Celia Dale

First American edition. Novel of psychological suspense originally published in England as "Helping with Inquiries."

Genres: Novels, British Literature

172 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

Not very much is known about the author Celia Dale except for a few scant details. Celia Dale was born in 1912 and she was daughter of the actor, James Dale and was married to the journalist and critic, Guy Ramsey until his death in 1959. She worked in Fleet Street and as a publishers adviser and book reviewer. Some of her books were dramatised on radio and TV. Dales first book appeared in 1943 but it was her later novels where she branched out in to the realms of psychological crime. In all, Dale produced thirteen novels and a collection of short stories.

Celia Dale took everyday domestic situations and gave them a bitter twist. In Helping with Enquiries there are only three main protagonists, their story revolving around the murder of the mother. In A Helping Hand the vulnerability of the elderly is masterfully portrayed. Dale won the 1986 Crime Writers Association Veuve Cliquot Short Story Award for Lines of Communication which appears in her short story collection, A Personal Call and other stories which show that Dale had the short story down to a fine art. Her final book in 1988 was Sheeps Clothing.

Celia Dale died on the 31st December 2011, just short of her hundredth birthday. - Excerpted from FantasticFiction

Novels
The Least of These (1944)
To Hold the Mirror (1946)
The Dry Land (1952)
The Wooden O (1953)
Trial of Strength (1955)
A Spring of Love (1960)
Other People (1964)
A Helping Hand (1966)
Act of Love (1969)
A Dark Corner (1971)
The Innocent Party (1973)
Helping with Enquiries (1979)
aka The Deception
Sheep's Clothing (1988)

Reviews

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

AKA The Deception - published under both titles

First published in 1979, the key characters come from a much earlier and different era. It has the air of a classic crime mystery yet is far more about character than plot.

Suburban London setting - Leonard returns home to find his wife - Edith Henderson, at home, murdered. Whodunnit? The police investigation barely tugs at the edges of the narrative.

This was all about upbringing, emotional neglect, education, standards, class and marriage. Emotional blackmail or even coercive control might be used about the focus of the book today but the way this story unfolds pins it into a Victorian morality despite this being the mid twentieth century.