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The Clock That Wouldn't Stop
Alex Summerhill was the confidante of thousands of readers of the daily newspaper to which she contributed a weekly advice column. Her warm-hearted counsel went out all over England, to distracted lovers, women with faithless husbands, men with faithless wives, parents with difficult children, children with difficult parents and young men wanting to find the perfect woman. Occasionally she received letters confessing to quite serious crimes. Realising what a perfect goldmine her correspondence could be for anyone with a slight leaning to blackmail, Alex took exceptional care of the letters sent to her by readers. But it was a letter that didn't reach her that precipitated murder.
- GenresMystery
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
1 person is currently reading
26 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 9, 2022
In complesso non mi è piaciuto. Bocciati stile, enigma, tensione, atmosfera. Alcune tematiche erano anche interessanti, tanto che ho voluto finirlo in due giorni per sapere chi fosse stato. Ma il finale ha spento anche quell'interesse. Sono rimasto deluso.
Lo stile è il solito della Ferrars: descrizioni minuziose dell'aspetto fisico e abbigliamento dei protagonisti, del luogo dove vivono ma in modo per me eccessivamente noioso e poco coinvolgente.
L'enigma sembra inizialmente promettente ma la soluzione, pur abbastanza inattesa almeno come identità, non mi soddisfa pienamente e la trovo al tempo stesso fortunosa e macchinosa. I personaggi appaiono inizialmente interessanti ma non vengono approfonditi come avrei voluto.
Dimenticabile
Lo stile è il solito della Ferrars: descrizioni minuziose dell'aspetto fisico e abbigliamento dei protagonisti, del luogo dove vivono ma in modo per me eccessivamente noioso e poco coinvolgente.
L'enigma sembra inizialmente promettente ma la soluzione, pur abbastanza inattesa almeno come identità, non mi soddisfa pienamente e la trovo al tempo stesso fortunosa e macchinosa. I personaggi appaiono inizialmente interessanti ma non vengono approfonditi come avrei voluto.
Dimenticabile
April 27, 2025
MY VERDICT:
Convoluted alibis and scattered plot that never quite delivers on its intriguing premise.
Alex Summerill wrote a weekly advice column in a daily newspaper that many people across England read.
She gave kind advice to readers with relationship problems like cheating spouses, and sometimes even people who admitted to crimes.
She was very careful with the letters people sent her, knowing they contained private information that could be used for blackmail. But strangely, it’s a letter that never makes it to her that leads to a murder…
My full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2025/04/25/...
Convoluted alibis and scattered plot that never quite delivers on its intriguing premise.
Alex Summerill wrote a weekly advice column in a daily newspaper that many people across England read.
She gave kind advice to readers with relationship problems like cheating spouses, and sometimes even people who admitted to crimes.
She was very careful with the letters people sent her, knowing they contained private information that could be used for blackmail. But strangely, it’s a letter that never makes it to her that leads to a murder…
My full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2025/04/25/...
September 18, 2013
Alex Summerill is an agony aunt for a magazine. Her previous assistant, Henrietta, is about to get married and Alex and her current assistant, Vivien, have been invited to the wedding. Alex is dubious about Vivian’s integrity and worries that she might use some of the letters sent in by readers with problems to blackmail the writers of the letters. She knows her thoughts are irrational but there is still something about Vivian which she does not like.
On the way to the wedding Alex opens a threatening letter and starts to feel even more uneasy. Staying in a seaside bed and breakfast establishment run by Henrietta’s eccentric aunt does nothing to soothe Alex’s uneasiness. This is a classic crime novel with a small group of suspects which includes some decidedly dubious characters. For a time it seems as though everyone’s life could be at risk and almost anyone could be a murderer.
I enjoyed this well written crime story with its intriguing plot and interesting characters. It is the first book I have read by this author and I think I will be reading more by her.
On the way to the wedding Alex opens a threatening letter and starts to feel even more uneasy. Staying in a seaside bed and breakfast establishment run by Henrietta’s eccentric aunt does nothing to soothe Alex’s uneasiness. This is a classic crime novel with a small group of suspects which includes some decidedly dubious characters. For a time it seems as though everyone’s life could be at risk and almost anyone could be a murderer.
I enjoyed this well written crime story with its intriguing plot and interesting characters. It is the first book I have read by this author and I think I will be reading more by her.
July 13, 2018
Interesting tale, with unexpected twists - but ultimately forgettable.
June 15, 2023
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
August 29, 2012
Alex has a new secretary to help her with her advice column, but she's not really sure if Vivian can be trusted. The two women are traveling to the wedding of Alex's old secretary, Henrietta, staying at the boarding house run by Henrietta's eccentric old aunt, filled with lodgers who seem, somehow, wrong for the small Devonshire town. When murder strikes, the reader will be as bewildered as Alex.
December 2, 2022
I struggle with Ferrars. It's just the way it is. I think she is using too much nonsense in her books - filling out a rather weak story with a lot of, as we say in Swedish (or I do anyway), lull, lull.
It's a lot of talk about almost nothing, just to hide her clues and not be too obvious with them.
I will read one more of hers, and then I'm off to a new and hopefully, in my opinion, better author.
It's a lot of talk about almost nothing, just to hide her clues and not be too obvious with them.
I will read one more of hers, and then I'm off to a new and hopefully, in my opinion, better author.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews