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A Tangled Web
Hugo Chesterman is on trial for murdering a policeman. Why did he do it? Or could he be innocent?
Daisy Bland is young, beautiful and naive, and her testimony threatens to send her husband to the gallows.
For Daisy, it all started when she literally bumped into Hugo and fell madly in love. She gave up everything for her job, her friends, her independence. Blinded by love, she asks no questions about his vague profession as a 'commission agent', his suspicious associates and his reckless financial decisions.
When Hugo is arrested for the murder of a policeman in a burglary gone wrong, Daisy doesn't know what to believe. Her husband's life is now in her hands.
First published in 1956, A Tangled Web is an intelligent, off-beat crime thriller.
"A persuasive study in criminal character that is a model fusion of the suspense story and mainstream fiction...wholly admirable writing." - The New York Times
Daisy Bland is young, beautiful and naive, and her testimony threatens to send her husband to the gallows.
For Daisy, it all started when she literally bumped into Hugo and fell madly in love. She gave up everything for her job, her friends, her independence. Blinded by love, she asks no questions about his vague profession as a 'commission agent', his suspicious associates and his reckless financial decisions.
When Hugo is arrested for the murder of a policeman in a burglary gone wrong, Daisy doesn't know what to believe. Her husband's life is now in her hands.
First published in 1956, A Tangled Web is an intelligent, off-beat crime thriller.
"A persuasive study in criminal character that is a model fusion of the suspense story and mainstream fiction...wholly admirable writing." - The New York Times
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
14 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Blake
97 books73 followersNicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
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April 30, 2025Cecil Day-Lewis (yes, father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis) was a well-known British/Irish poet and novelist, who wrote many of his mysteries under the psuedonym Nicholas Blake. “Day-Lewis” was apparently a combination of his birth father and adoptive father’s surnames. Most famed for his Nigel Strangeways gentleman-detective novels, of which he put out a total of fifteen between 1935 and 1966, he also wrote four standalone novels, including Death and Daisy Bland (aka A Tangled Web) (1956), A Penknife in my heart (1958), the Deadly Joker (1963), and The Private Wound (1968).
The character, Daisy Bland, is at the heart and soul of this novel. As our story opens, she is visiting a lawyer (Bruce Rogers) and Hugo Chesterman, her lover and father of her child, has been sentenced to death for wilful murder, partly on testimony she gave. Rogers feels out of his depth in dealing with Daisy and describes her as: “The most beautiful face he had ever seen. She cried easily. She was a creature who would cry easily, laugh easily, make love easily – a child of nature. Even now there was a sort of luxury in her desolation.” Daisy refers to the trial as a game where the two sides played with a man’s life, “scoring clever shots off each other,” like men playing cricket. The trial had been a cause celebre in Britain, partly because Daisy’s beauty had magnetised the onlookers.
Then, we are swept back to the point where the two lovers first met. Daisy, who worked in a dress shop, was delivering a hat to a well-to-do customer, but Hugo, in a hurry, always in a hurry, knocked the box and the hat slid onto the wet pavement, ruining it. Daisy was as if in a trance and let him take the lead from then on. “The sense of deferring what would happen lay heavily upon her, like the scent of white lilac from the bush beside them, making her breathless.” Hugo explained to her that they were escapists and running away from real life. Daisy, for her part, remained pure innocence, never questioning where money or jewelry came from until she could not ignore it any longer – that he was a first-class cat burglar. But even then, when all evidence pointed to Hugo’s guilt of a widely-publicized murder, she helps him bury the gun. If you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of women writing to inmates like Lyle and Erik Mendendez, wonder no more. Day-Lewis uses the person of Daisy to explain it all.
But that is not the end of the story because this story is all about betrayal and back-stabbing. It is all about the power one wields by forcing a betrayal and the power one-time friend and confidante Jocko feels when manipulating Daisy to betray Hugo, a betrayal that Jocko is convinced would doom their eternal love for each other. It is about a trial and an execution where Daisy’s ever-changing story is critical.
The character, Daisy Bland, is at the heart and soul of this novel. As our story opens, she is visiting a lawyer (Bruce Rogers) and Hugo Chesterman, her lover and father of her child, has been sentenced to death for wilful murder, partly on testimony she gave. Rogers feels out of his depth in dealing with Daisy and describes her as: “The most beautiful face he had ever seen. She cried easily. She was a creature who would cry easily, laugh easily, make love easily – a child of nature. Even now there was a sort of luxury in her desolation.” Daisy refers to the trial as a game where the two sides played with a man’s life, “scoring clever shots off each other,” like men playing cricket. The trial had been a cause celebre in Britain, partly because Daisy’s beauty had magnetised the onlookers.
Then, we are swept back to the point where the two lovers first met. Daisy, who worked in a dress shop, was delivering a hat to a well-to-do customer, but Hugo, in a hurry, always in a hurry, knocked the box and the hat slid onto the wet pavement, ruining it. Daisy was as if in a trance and let him take the lead from then on. “The sense of deferring what would happen lay heavily upon her, like the scent of white lilac from the bush beside them, making her breathless.” Hugo explained to her that they were escapists and running away from real life. Daisy, for her part, remained pure innocence, never questioning where money or jewelry came from until she could not ignore it any longer – that he was a first-class cat burglar. But even then, when all evidence pointed to Hugo’s guilt of a widely-publicized murder, she helps him bury the gun. If you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of women writing to inmates like Lyle and Erik Mendendez, wonder no more. Day-Lewis uses the person of Daisy to explain it all.
But that is not the end of the story because this story is all about betrayal and back-stabbing. It is all about the power one wields by forcing a betrayal and the power one-time friend and confidante Jocko feels when manipulating Daisy to betray Hugo, a betrayal that Jocko is convinced would doom their eternal love for each other. It is about a trial and an execution where Daisy’s ever-changing story is critical.
March 12, 2021
Having enjoyed the Nigel Strangeways series by Nicholas Blake (or Cecil Day-Lewis, to give the author his correct name) I was keen to read some of his stand-alone novels.
"A Tangled Web," was published in 1956 and centres on a young woman called Daisy Bland. Daisy is a country girl, who is working in a milliners shop in London, when she literally bumps into Hugo Chesterman. Hugo is charming, funny and, before the day is out, Daisy has thrown away her past life and has fallen desperately in love with him. Although Daisy is happy, it is clear that Hugo has a secret. As Daisy becomes aware of Hugo's criminal tendencies, it results in his arrest and unwitting betrayal by Daisy.
This is a novel which deals with the why of a crime, rather than who or how. Daisy is the innocent and naive young girl, whose charm beguiles not only Hugo, but also his friend, Jacko, with terrible consequences. Overall, this is an interesting look at a crime, with the emphasis on the personalities of those involved, rather than the motives. Although Day-Lewis used a pen name for the crime novels which he used as a source of income, they are well worth discovering and I am delighted they are back in print.
"A Tangled Web," was published in 1956 and centres on a young woman called Daisy Bland. Daisy is a country girl, who is working in a milliners shop in London, when she literally bumps into Hugo Chesterman. Hugo is charming, funny and, before the day is out, Daisy has thrown away her past life and has fallen desperately in love with him. Although Daisy is happy, it is clear that Hugo has a secret. As Daisy becomes aware of Hugo's criminal tendencies, it results in his arrest and unwitting betrayal by Daisy.
This is a novel which deals with the why of a crime, rather than who or how. Daisy is the innocent and naive young girl, whose charm beguiles not only Hugo, but also his friend, Jacko, with terrible consequences. Overall, this is an interesting look at a crime, with the emphasis on the personalities of those involved, rather than the motives. Although Day-Lewis used a pen name for the crime novels which he used as a source of income, they are well worth discovering and I am delighted they are back in print.
August 28, 2011
Cecil Day Lewis was one of Britain’s leading 20th century poets, his career culminating in his appointment as Poet Laureate. He was also a prolific and exceptionally interesting author of detective novels, under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake.
As a crime writer he is best known for the books featuring amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways. As you’d expect they have a somewhat literary bent but what really makes Nicholas Blake’s books stand out is the element of moral ambiguity that he is almost always able to include. This makes Blake slightly unusual among golden age English detective story writers.
A Tangled Web is not one of the Nigel Strangeways novels and it’s a particularly unconventional crime story. Published in 1956, in many ways it’s more akin to the crime novels of Graham Greene than to the mainstream of British crime fiction with moral problems and character flaws being more important than the plot. Although in fact A Tangled Web has a clever plot and can certainly be enjoyed simply as crime fiction.
A young girl named Daisy loses her job as a result of a chance encounter with a mysterious and very attractive young man. She may have lost her job but she doesn’t mind at all since she has fallen instantly in love. And Hugo reciprocates her feelings.
Hugo cares nothing for the rules of society. How he makes his living is a mystery at first to Daisy but it soon transpires that he is a cat burglar. Hugo is mostly kind and attentive and introduces Daisy to an excitingly different way of life, but he is troubled by bad dreams and he has a very short temper. This proves to be an especially unfortunate attribute when a police inspector is shot dead during a bungled burglary. Hugo falls under suspicion and is arrested, and faces the very real possibility of ending his criminal career at the end of a hangman’s rope. But is he really a killer? Or simply the victim of the tendency of the police to jump to conclusions when faced with an obvious suspect?
A Tangled Web features a particularly chilling villain, and this villain plays an unexpected role. Most of all though it is an intensely moving story of loyalty and betrayal.
If you have a taste for slightly off-beat crime fiction this one is well worth seeking out. It was republished in the Pan Classic Crime series a few years back and is reasonably easy to find. And anything by Nicholas Blake is worth reading.
As a crime writer he is best known for the books featuring amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways. As you’d expect they have a somewhat literary bent but what really makes Nicholas Blake’s books stand out is the element of moral ambiguity that he is almost always able to include. This makes Blake slightly unusual among golden age English detective story writers.
A Tangled Web is not one of the Nigel Strangeways novels and it’s a particularly unconventional crime story. Published in 1956, in many ways it’s more akin to the crime novels of Graham Greene than to the mainstream of British crime fiction with moral problems and character flaws being more important than the plot. Although in fact A Tangled Web has a clever plot and can certainly be enjoyed simply as crime fiction.
A young girl named Daisy loses her job as a result of a chance encounter with a mysterious and very attractive young man. She may have lost her job but she doesn’t mind at all since she has fallen instantly in love. And Hugo reciprocates her feelings.
Hugo cares nothing for the rules of society. How he makes his living is a mystery at first to Daisy but it soon transpires that he is a cat burglar. Hugo is mostly kind and attentive and introduces Daisy to an excitingly different way of life, but he is troubled by bad dreams and he has a very short temper. This proves to be an especially unfortunate attribute when a police inspector is shot dead during a bungled burglary. Hugo falls under suspicion and is arrested, and faces the very real possibility of ending his criminal career at the end of a hangman’s rope. But is he really a killer? Or simply the victim of the tendency of the police to jump to conclusions when faced with an obvious suspect?
A Tangled Web features a particularly chilling villain, and this villain plays an unexpected role. Most of all though it is an intensely moving story of loyalty and betrayal.
If you have a taste for slightly off-beat crime fiction this one is well worth seeking out. It was republished in the Pan Classic Crime series a few years back and is reasonably easy to find. And anything by Nicholas Blake is worth reading.
March 4, 2012
Quite enjoyed this story. It started off a bit slow, but the story progressed very nicely. I liked Daisy, she was a loyal, intelligent personality. The mystery was secondary to the development of the characters and the plot. It all tied together nicely in the end. Excellent.
December 21, 2024
Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym for Cecil Day-Lewis, a poet, who was also--you guessed it--the father of Daniel Day-Lewis. Learned me something new!
I read a book recently which talked about classic mystery stories and this was one of them.
I read a book recently which talked about classic mystery stories and this was one of them.
March 5, 2023
I found this book to be very depressing and never found anything that would make me feel otherwise. It's more of a "howdunnit" than a "whodunnit", with the first half of the book focusing on the relationship between the male criminal and the female love interest. Once the "bad deed" is done, it becomes more of a police procedural.
I'm not a fan of the "howdunnit" form of mystery and this book was no exception. The biggest mystery was in the first half of the story during which we are waiting to find out exactly what crime will occur (we KNOW one will -- it's obvious). Once it does occur, the story doesn't improve much. Most of the second half of the book consists of a police detective brow-beating the love interest into giving him evidence that can be used against her lover/criminal. The entire story is a sad descent into psychological torment for almost everyone concerned! I found it very difficult to finish.
I'm not a fan of the "howdunnit" form of mystery and this book was no exception. The biggest mystery was in the first half of the story during which we are waiting to find out exactly what crime will occur (we KNOW one will -- it's obvious). Once it does occur, the story doesn't improve much. Most of the second half of the book consists of a police detective brow-beating the love interest into giving him evidence that can be used against her lover/criminal. The entire story is a sad descent into psychological torment for almost everyone concerned! I found it very difficult to finish.
February 12, 2020
(letto in italiano con il titolo "Il dilemma di Daisy Bland")
Romanzo stranissimo, anche per Blake che pure non era il primo che capita (e lo si vede bene in un dialogo nevrastenico fra la coppia di protagonisti e i loro cognati intellettuali).
Ora, che un noir intitolato "A tangled web" o, solo nell'edizione Dell, "Death and Daisy Bland" fosse stato tradotto in italiano in un modo completamente diverso, già fa intuire come la Mondadori stessa non sapesse come classificarlo e sperasse di aggiungergli appeal mettendo il nome della protagonista e il termine dilemma nel titolo. Dubito comunque che l'opera abbia riscosso questo gran successo, visto il contenuto.
Intanto, e' uno dei soli quattro romanzi scritti con lo pseudonimo Nicholas Blake privi della figura di Nigel Strangeways. Come lo splendido "The private wound", ma molto più scialbo.
Si tratta, per di più, di un racconto quasi filosofico, imperniato sull'assunto iniziale e sulla successiva dimostrazione che una persona pura e innocente (reminiscenza della hardiana Tess?) non può in alcun modo perdere la sua innocenza, malgrado le prove cui verrà sottoposta dalla vita e gli incontri sbagliati che farà.
La diciottenne Daisy, bellissima, campagnola e ingenua (diciamo pure: limitata), si trova a lavorare a Londra e a diventare l'innamoratissima amante di un ladro di buona famiglia, il nevrotico ma affascinante Hugo. Il quale si rifiuterà sempre di sposarla (errore enorme, come si vedrà al processo da cui uscirà accorciato della testa), anche di fronte alla gravidanza della ragazza.
Psicologicamente Blake si mostra, come sempre, qualche spanna sopra la media, mostrando con efficacia i rovelli mentali, i dubbi dei suoi personaggi, e poi le loro esitazioni, i loro scrupoli, la superstizione della malavita e l'eterna sopravvalutazione della propria furbizia da parte dei fuorilegge.
Ma il punto saliente, che tale è e rimane, vista anche la brevità, l'asciuttezza della trama e la malinconica atmosfera che sin dall'inizio l'autore sparge a piene mani, è costituito dalla saldezza dell'amore di Daisy per il suo uomo, che non vacilla mai, neanche di fronte alla confessione di un omicidio. L'amore tutto vince, e l'amore è amorale, punto.
Fosse stato un romanzo italiano, nel 1956 qualche guaio con la censura e l'Indice dei Libri Proibiti il nostro Poeta Laureato c'è l'avrebbe avuto. Per sua fortuna, arrivò nel porto franco dei Gialli Mondadori nientemeno che nel 1994, quando ormai non poteva che passare inosservato quel pericolosissimo messaggio.
Romanzo stranissimo, anche per Blake che pure non era il primo che capita (e lo si vede bene in un dialogo nevrastenico fra la coppia di protagonisti e i loro cognati intellettuali).
Ora, che un noir intitolato "A tangled web" o, solo nell'edizione Dell, "Death and Daisy Bland" fosse stato tradotto in italiano in un modo completamente diverso, già fa intuire come la Mondadori stessa non sapesse come classificarlo e sperasse di aggiungergli appeal mettendo il nome della protagonista e il termine dilemma nel titolo. Dubito comunque che l'opera abbia riscosso questo gran successo, visto il contenuto.
Intanto, e' uno dei soli quattro romanzi scritti con lo pseudonimo Nicholas Blake privi della figura di Nigel Strangeways. Come lo splendido "The private wound", ma molto più scialbo.
Si tratta, per di più, di un racconto quasi filosofico, imperniato sull'assunto iniziale e sulla successiva dimostrazione che una persona pura e innocente (reminiscenza della hardiana Tess?) non può in alcun modo perdere la sua innocenza, malgrado le prove cui verrà sottoposta dalla vita e gli incontri sbagliati che farà.
La diciottenne Daisy, bellissima, campagnola e ingenua (diciamo pure: limitata), si trova a lavorare a Londra e a diventare l'innamoratissima amante di un ladro di buona famiglia, il nevrotico ma affascinante Hugo. Il quale si rifiuterà sempre di sposarla (errore enorme, come si vedrà al processo da cui uscirà accorciato della testa), anche di fronte alla gravidanza della ragazza.
Psicologicamente Blake si mostra, come sempre, qualche spanna sopra la media, mostrando con efficacia i rovelli mentali, i dubbi dei suoi personaggi, e poi le loro esitazioni, i loro scrupoli, la superstizione della malavita e l'eterna sopravvalutazione della propria furbizia da parte dei fuorilegge.
Ma il punto saliente, che tale è e rimane, vista anche la brevità, l'asciuttezza della trama e la malinconica atmosfera che sin dall'inizio l'autore sparge a piene mani, è costituito dalla saldezza dell'amore di Daisy per il suo uomo, che non vacilla mai, neanche di fronte alla confessione di un omicidio. L'amore tutto vince, e l'amore è amorale, punto.
Fosse stato un romanzo italiano, nel 1956 qualche guaio con la censura e l'Indice dei Libri Proibiti il nostro Poeta Laureato c'è l'avrebbe avuto. Per sua fortuna, arrivò nel porto franco dei Gialli Mondadori nientemeno che nel 1994, quando ormai non poteva che passare inosservato quel pericolosissimo messaggio.
March 17, 2021
This is an interesting stand-alone crime novel by Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of Cecil Day-Lewis), based on a true crime from the early 20th century. Daisy Bland, a naive country girl working in London, meets and falls in love with the charming Hugo Chesterman. Before long, it becomes clear that Hugo has a criminal past, and when a serious crime is committed Daisy unwittingly finds herself responsible for Hugo’s betrayal.
Rather than the more traditional mystery that Blake adopts in his Nigel Strangeways series, this novel looks at a crime through the characters involved in it, and their relationships. It explores the nature of the criminal, their recklessness and love of danger, and what happens when love enters their life. It is a well written and engaging story.
Rather than the more traditional mystery that Blake adopts in his Nigel Strangeways series, this novel looks at a crime through the characters involved in it, and their relationships. It explores the nature of the criminal, their recklessness and love of danger, and what happens when love enters their life. It is a well written and engaging story.
July 18, 2023
Thought the rampant misogyny was gonna make this book a one star but then-
Nicholas Blake got me invested in this story I guess damn. Man has a way with words I must say.
Quotes I liked enough to write em down:
“How touchy men are, she thought——touchy and vain and difficult”(146).
“A man could live without hope, he realized: he could live simply on the wholesome and nourishing fact of not being dead”(249).
Nicholas Blake got me invested in this story I guess damn. Man has a way with words I must say.
Quotes I liked enough to write em down:
“How touchy men are, she thought——touchy and vain and difficult”(146).
“A man could live without hope, he realized: he could live simply on the wholesome and nourishing fact of not being dead”(249).
Read
August 8, 2020Rather forgettable but fluidly written story, apparently based on a true crime. Not all that tangled, either.
March 16, 2021
This is a hard book for me to rate as I didn't particularly enjoy reading it, always anticipating an unhappy ending, but the writing is excellent and the story engrossing.
June 30, 2011
Super character study. I'm reminded of Rendell and Vine. You know the crime up front and you have to journey back with the characters to find out how they got there. Daisy a is a wonderfully simple heroine.
Want to read
February 5, 2019Synopsis: Daisy Bland, a naive young woman, falls in love with a charming burglar, but her testimony threatens to convict him of murder.
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