Not in the Script

by John Bonett, Emery Bonett

A dream film production turns into a murder mystery nightmare... On the train from London to Steeple Tottering, journalist Hazel Fairweather scores an unexpected scoop when she shares a compartment with a crew from Pegasus Pictures. It turns out that they are en-route to her home town to shoot a film about a local legend. The appearance of the film crew has an electrifying effect on the small community. Farmer Wormwell demands screen credit for his sheep, and Hazel develops an interest in film designer Paul Heritage, to the detriment of her deadlines. But when the broken body of director Lars Porsen is found at the bottom of a cliff, everything changes. A tube of lipstick indicates Porsen’s death was murder and Paul and Hazel are implicated. So Hazel becomes the unwilling confidante of the eccentric Professor Mandrake in a desperate attempt to track down a killer and clear their names… Praise for Not in the ’Pure delight’ - Los Angeles News 'Not in the Script is crammed with the lovely character studies, irony and wit which grace the best of Britishers. And this is one of the best’ - Albuquerque Tribune ‘This one is fun straight through’ - Boston Globe ‘A cleverly written story. It has satire, a great deal of humor, and plenty of wise observation’ - Western Times (UK) John and Emery Bonett met at a Spanish language class. Instead of learning Spanish they became engaged. Emery had been a repertory actress, a scene-painter, a showgirl at the Prince of Wales, the back legs of a horse, and finally a writer. John had been in various disreputable banker, Civil Servant, journalist, sales promotion executive. Jointly and separately they have written for radio and television, short stories, song lyrics, and film scripts.

Genres: Mystery

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Wemple · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book when I started reading it, but when I got further into it, I couldn't stop reading it. I had to find out what happened!

[Angshuman Chatterjee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsatisfactory

A thoroughly unsatisfactory mystery. It's more of a juvenile love story with a murder thrown in for spice. The murderer and his motive, too, were contrived to say the least. The detection was sketchy and how the murderer was identified was never disclosed. Two stars for the nice prose.

[Carol Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternative title: Not in the Script

[S A W Steel · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a shame!

A reasonably good story well written but marred by the poor or even non existent proof reading. Typos and bad formatting galore.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: intrigue-laden London film people invade a sleepy English village. A murder occurs setting everyone against everyone, locals included!