Night Walk

Henry Gamadge #12

by Bob Shaw, Don Punchatz (Illustrator)

For 'refusing to co-operate' the Emm Luther Special Police took out Earth agent Sam Tallon's eyes and imprisoned him on a dark and eerie swamp from which nobody ever escaped.

But then Tallon invented a way of seeing - ludicrous, agonizing, yet still a way to make escape possible. He 'saw' through the eyes of a bird. A dog, a woman guard and, later, even saw himself through the eyes of his enraged Lutheran pursuers. Madness and death were his constant companions as he schemed and fought and struggled for his life. Any other man would have gladly given up, but then, Sam Tallon had no choice, for he was the unfortunate possessor of the single most important secret in the universe - a secret which had to be returned to Earth, somehow.

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Crime, Golden Age Mystery, Suspense

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Bob Shaw was born in Northern Ireland. After working in structural engineering, industrial public relations, and journalism he became a full time science fiction writer in 1975.

Shaw was noted for his originality and wit. He was two-time recipient (in 1979 and 1980) of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. His short story Light of Other Days was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.

Reviews

[Ubik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambitious and entertaining, but I will admit, actually quite silly and unbelievable in a lot of parts. There are also things that just werent explained.

After being blinded by an enemy interstellar agent, Sam Tallon (our hero) goes to a prison on the planet Emm Luther where he invents, with the help of another blind prisoner, a goggle set that will allow a blind person to "see" through another being's eyes (read: human, bird, dog, rat, anything with a set of working eyes). The concept is extremely neato, but doesnt make any scientific sense whatsoever. What you do get is a lot of amusing scenarios involving the split screen vision of a pigeon (extreme close-up of his own ear and whatever else the pigeon is looking at with the other eye), scenes where Sam has to hold a dog up to his face in order to get a line of sight on something, and seeing his enemy looking through the line of sight on a gun aimed at himself.

It was a good read, a good romp, but dont expect to be enlightened by it. Nevertheless, I will be giving Bob Shaw at least one more shot to get an overall idea of his capabilities

[Eggp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blind guy regains sight
gets his friends and lovers killed
remains a jackass.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½

[Bria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a random old pulp scifi book! A very interesting premise of being able to use the eyes of anything around you. Plausible, given the plasticity of the brain, but implausible given how long it would take to adapt, different visual acuities etc of different animals, the role of proprioception and visual cues in movement, etc - but still very fun to think about, especially since I only *just* finished a coursera course on the brain and how it determines where it is in space.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night Walk (1947) is the twelfth book to feature Elizabeth Daly's antiquarian book dealer and part-time sleuth, Henry Gamage. Gamage makes his way to the isolated village of Frazer's Mills when an old friend finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. Garry Yates comes to the village in an effort to see his lady love on the sly. Rose Jenner's guardian doesn't like her to see strange young men--doesn't really like her meeting any young men at all, truth be told. But Yates has made her acquaintance and the two have fallen in love. He has the chance to be in the area, so he takes it.

He just happens to arrive on the very night that a mysterious prowler roams through the village, scaring various inhabitants. The prowler moves from Edgewood, a rather exclusive sanitarium, where s/he rattles Mrs. Norbury's door handle to trying to enter the Public Library where Hattie Bluett is working late on a donation of books, to leaving a fire axe outside the room that Yates is given at a local rooming house. But the prowler isn't finished. Because someone has entered the Carringtons' stately home (home of Rose Jenner) and killed her elderly guardian.

Yates is sure he'll be a suspect as soon as the police know he's Rose's suitor--a suitor who would have found no favor with old man Carrington. And even if he's lucky enough not to be suspected (he thinks he has an alibi), he still wants Gamage to get to the bottom of things for Rose's sake. Gamage goes undercover as an inmate of Edgewood (supposedly in need of recuperation from overwork) and soon he's following the footsteps of the prowler and tracking down clues. Appropriately enough, our bookish detective finds a vital clue in the local library and he's quite sure that prowler was no random maniac, but someone well-known to the deceased.

Gamage is a low-key detective who does his sleuthing primarily through conversation with the villagers and official help from local police (who have had a good word about him from his friends on the force in the city). A bit of reconstruction comes in handy as well. Daly offers up engaging characters and plays fair with her clues--making for an entertaining read. I particularly enjoyed the scenes in the library and the way she worked books into the plot. ★★★ and 3/4. (rounded to four here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third reading of this book and I was shocked by just how much I had no recollection of. This did give me the wonderous benefit of reading this again anew (though I did remember the big twists and turns). This may have been based on another planet, but this greatly resonates with the cold war that was ticking away in the background when this was written. With not a huge number of characters, Sam Tallon manages to carry the story well enough by himself. There is an impactful contrast between the usually gentle Sam and the occasional and extreme bouts of violence that befalls him and those around him. In one scene he is actually captured and raped by the owner of a tea shop.
In the end, this is a much deeper and more involved book than I expected. Some nicely thought out concepts and a main character that can be rooted for throughout his plight. The end reveal is one of the best I have read.

[Joel J. Molder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5 stars.

An intergalactic spy has the coordinates to one of only 12 known habitable worlds in the universe. He’s caught, blinded, then sent to a prison. With ingenuity and a bit of luck, he escapes using a device that allows him to see what others see, be that birds, dogs, or humans. In the end, his journey to freedom may just stop an intergalactic war.

This story was my first Bob Shaw novel I’ve ever read. His writing is direct and straightforward, making this an easy read. I would’ve liked there to be a little bit more. . .oomph though.

Our main character, Sam Tallon, can be kind of bland in a Gary Stu sorta way. Still, you find yourself rooting for him as he struggles with his escape back to Earth while being blind.

There were a few parts where I felt the plot got too Hollywood—where the story felt a little too unbelievable. But the ending was satisfying, if a bit too much of a happy-go-lucky ending.

Still, not too bad for my first foray into it!

[Shiloah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been wonderful living near my sisters for the past 1.5 years because we enjoy sister time. We recently went book shopping together and I found this gem on a classic mysteries paperback shelf. We also challenged each other to read 2 of the books we bought that day before our next shopping trip. Done! This was an interesting jaunt into an old American classic detective book. I didn’t guess the criminal and enjoyed the experience.

[Will Sargent · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most enjoyable reads I've had since Wreath of Stars, also by Bob Shaw.
Shaw wrote easy to read, 200-page adventure yarns, packed with exotic locations and truly imaginative ideas, always with believable hard science.

Here he uses a novel optics idea to fuel a convict-on-the-run yarn to match Bester's Stars my Destination, Dick's Paycheck, Silverberg's Hawksbill Station and MJ Harrison's Centauri Device.

Our secret agent is blind, but wearing special goggles he can tap into nearby human and animal viewpoints for navigation, borrowing their eyes to look back at his movements.

Shaw obviously enjoys using optics in his stories. Wreath of Stars and Other Days Other Eyes employ similarly imaginative visual science ideas. I must say his books are a breath of fresh air after struggling through a pile of Masterworks classics that can be hit and miss.

I would have possibly made the animal viewpoints more interesting - using unusual colours, monochrome, pixellation and weird aspect ratios like that of a fly or spider. He missed a trick there, but in his defence he packs so much story into fewer than 200 pages, there probably wasn't room.

With Shaw I find I want to slow down to savour every location and character before it's over. Unlike, say, M John Harrison, where you are FORCED to slow down due to the painfully economical and imaginative phrasing (Harrison is fantastic in his own way, obv.)

There's some quite shocking moments of violence and the usual 60s/70s sexism, but it's mostly so great it's worth squinting with one eye shut past the infrequent clumsiness to get to yet more of the good stuff.

Looking forward so much to other short blasts from Shaw: Two timers, Vertigo, Other Days, Palace, Medusa, Ground Zero and his short story collections. I'm actually smiling as I look at these unread books in my bookshelf.

[Big Enk · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Bob Shaw must have been an optics aficionado or something - a consistent nucleation point for his works. Night Walk, Shaw's first novel, is kind of a spy thriller, hard SF mashup. Sam Tallon is a spy in the employ of the empire that controls Earth, who find himself in sole possession of the galactic coordinates to a new habitable world, a rarity with how random long distant space travel is. The problem is that Tallon has stolen the coordinates from a rival start-up empire, and buddy it's a long way back to Earth. Tallon believes that he has failed his mission once he's capture by the enemy, permanently blinded, and stuffed into a prison a thousand miles from the nearest space port. It's only then that we are introduced to the science that will serve as his crutch to get him home; a pair of spectacles that allow him to see through the eyes of nearby sentient creatures, human or otherwise.

I wish that Shaw had done a more thorough job of exploring the possibilities of this technology though. Far too often, Tallon remarks that he just "forgot" that he could switch his vision from his trusty dog companion to his assailants, or a a creature with a unique vantage point on the action. There are numerous occasions like this where I found myself internally screaming at Tallon to do something inventive with the central technology, and most of the time Shaw refuses to provide him with the IQ to do so. Right at the end Tallon also suggests that with the vision might come some amount of emotion or internal perspective. Okay, dang, that's cool, wish we could've explored that more too. None of this is helped by the fact that Tallon is typically insufferable, and not in way that's positive for the narrative or his character. He's catty and sarcastic from beginning to end.

Shaw has a very specific and pleasing way of blending semi-hard science with the narrative of his novels. He never lingers too long on exposition (à la Neal Stephenson) but always wants the reader to have a least a little bit of an idea as to how his ideas could work. It's a fine line and Shaw shows a habit of toeing it masterfully. He's creative with not just his science, but with his world building too - the little bit of it here was enjoyable. I love the struggle through the jungle surrounding the prison, I though the narrative was clear and concise, and I think that when he's really cooking Shaw can write characters that are a cut above his contemporaries.

Though I think in many ways Night Walk has a similar amount of problems as A Wreath of Stars, I think I prefer this work instinctively. My gut tells me there's more here to like, even if it doesn't live up to the potential that I see in it.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 2nd Henry Gamage mystery I've read. Elizabeth Daly started the series in 1940 and wrote 16 books. Gamage is a mysterious criminologist, he was involved in secret activities during WWII and has since been involved with old documents and papers, helping ascertain forgeries and such. He also finds himself involved solving mysteries and is somewhat similar to Margery Allingham's Albert Campion or Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey.
Night Walk was Daly's 12th Gamage mystery. Gamage is asked by an acquaintance to assist in investigating a murder that took place in upper New York state at the small community of Frazer's Mills. His friend is in love with a local girl, the ward of the victim, and he fears that she might be a suspect. Gamage assumes the role of patient at a local sanatorium, obtains the police support for his independent investigation and thusly the story starts.
It's a cozy style of story telling. Gamage wanders about the local area, asking questions, quietly observing and ultimately coming up with a possible solution and final answer. It's all done in a genteel, interesting style. It's easy to fall into the locale, to like the people and enjoy Gamage as a perceptive, low key investigator. The final solution might seem a bit pat, but it does not take away from the overall enjoyment of the story.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 2.5

Read this book for the O.W.L.s Magical Readathon in the prompt Arithmancy

I liked the premise of the book, however the final 1/3 and especially the end was rushed and not very credible in the story context.

[Henry Gee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name of Belfast-born Bob Shaw (1931-1996) is little known outside SF circles. This is a shame, but also ensures that each story or novel one uncovers will be an unexplored delight. I picked up this one as a paperback in a secondhand store (the cover here is for the Kindle edition). He is best known, if known at all, for his haunting short story The Light Of Other Days. Perhaps because he suffered from poor eyesight, light and vision are recurring themes in his fiction, and this is brutally so in Nightwalk. Sam Tallon is a spy from Earth who has been sent to the remote planet of Emm Luther to discover the coordinates of a new planet that the Lutherians had come across. Searching for new planets is a risky business. Each new planet is valuable, and planets with established populations will go to war over each discovery. Tallon is caught by agents of the Lutherian secret service, who put out his eyes, and exile him to a version of Devil’s Island – a tropical prison camp separated from the mainland by a swamp full of dangers, natural and man-made – from which nobody has ever escaped. But he does. With the help of a fellow inmate and a complaisant prison doctor, Tallon invents a pair of spectacles that allows him to see through the eyes of nearby people, even animals — most notably his faithful seeing-eye dog Seymour (the pun is deliberate). With this McGuffin he manages to … hey, I’m telling you the plot. This cracking adventure story comes from the late 1960s, an era when SF novels were short and sharp, marked by economical writing and pacy plot. Ah, for the light of other days.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bob Shaw’s debut novel is a taut, efficient and highly readable SF thriller.

Set in a future where Earth’s empire is set in opposition to the world of Em Luther, where space travel is via thousands of portals into and out of the realm of null-space, Tallon goes undercover to get the location of a newly discovered world, but is captured, blinded in a bid to escape and ends up in the isolated Em Luther prison called The Pavilion.

Befriended by another blind inmate, they manage to construct a device that allows them to “see” through another’s eyes, be they human or animal. In this they are facilitated by a government official called Helen Juste, who has her own reasons for wanting them to complete the project. Tallon escapes eventually and begins a long, perilous journey back to the capital in order to get the information sealed off in his brain to Earth.

Yes, it’s episodic but Tallon’s seeing device is a novel idea, the tensions between the worlds hover nicely in the background and Shaw even manages to shoehorn in a romance! He keeps this short novel moving along at a pace, the denouement is satisfying, the prose highly readable.

Very well done indeed.

[B Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ramping up to a 52+ book 2026.

Tallon (which despite the description- I saw only as Nathan Fillion) becomes blinded during a police chase after he stole local government secrets. He is then escorted to The Pavilion, a prison reserved for high profile and/or dangerous prisoners. He meets a friend who is also blind, and they (along with some help) build devices which eventually scales to them being able to see through other living beings eyes (within a certain distance).

What follows is a surprising (to me) amount of sticky situations. I really had a great time with this, and the happy ending (discovers faster interplanetary travel, gets the girl) left me satisfied with the read.

[Nesellanum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this read! Political intrigue and espionage, incredibly inventive future-tech, a dedicated animal sidekick, galactic exploration, and a short but sweet love story, all contained in a succinctly written book with an intensely satisfying ending. Shaw displays an elevated skill in storytelling and imaginative ideas, very much looking forward to reading more of his work. Highly recommend picking this up.

[Solim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and punchy sci fi book. A blind man gets revenge!

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be confused by the weird reviews if you like the Elizabeth Daly mysteries. Several of the reviews here are for the wrong book, a science fiction book of the same name written by Bob Shaw.

[Gingaeru · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, goodreads, this review is for the science fiction novel, "Night Walk" by Bob Shaw. NOT some random Henry Gamadge mystery. Get it together!

I loved the premise of a blind man who's able to see himself in the third person via the eyes of surrounding people and animals, so I risked reading yet another throwaway science fiction novel. Disappointed with the first few chapters, I put the book down for several days. But I returned to some decent concepts and enjoyable travel segments in the middle portion. From a certain point during his prison escape to the moment Tallon sits down in that unfortunate restaurant, I vividly experienced his journey through the bird's-eye view of a seagull, his fellow train passengers, pedestrians, and so on. After his unpleasant two-week captivity at the mercy of that freaky cat lady, the travel graciously resumed, and I was keen on his chat with the homeless fellows and his solo attack on the estate of the man who wore his confiscated original eyeset (just as the battery on his current set was about to deplete). Good stuff.

Those scenes convince me of this author's potential, but the rest isn't too good, and during the ending, things escalate to the level of silliness. As for the sudden romance, it's actually one of the more believable ones I've seen. It's a little ridiculous how people just blindly resign themselves to traveling through 80,000 portals to get from point A to point B. I was confused by certain details (or lack thereof) in the old blind doctor's elaborate prison break scheme. Other than that, I was put off by the sadistic brutality sprinkled throughout. I think I'll keep it on my shelf for its enjoyable parts, despite their being sandwiched between the stale, dry bread that is the rest. Maybe I'll sample some more Bob Shaw (his books sure had some interesting cover art).

"Factorization itself is a good idea, but they apply it backward... Take somebody like a surgeon. That man wants to be a surgeon—he wouldn't do any other job in the world—and yet he gets paid ten or twenty times as much as some poor guy who is doing work he hates... [speaking of Earth's current leader, Caldwell Dubois:] Well, he likes being head man, so why should he get so much more money than somebody who has to mind a machine he hates the sight of? No, brother, there should be a kind of psychological checkup every year on everybody who's working. When it shows that somebody is starting to like his job, his pay should be cut, and that would provide extra money for another guy who hates his work a bit more than he did a year before." - Ike
...

Error:
"Tallon smirked desperately, wondering if real cat lovers were supposed to be able to tell toms from tabbies at a glance." (p. 71)
-
For some reason, the author seems to have mistaken "tabby" as a word for female cats; tabbies are simply cats (of either gender) with dark stripes.
...

Typos include (but are not limited to):
"Nobody even hinted at the clause—he would have quite on the spot if they had..." (p. 8)
-
"He walked up sloping streets toward the center of city still enjoying the sense of freedom." (p. 70)
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"One her way back from the cash desk the brunette stopped at his table." (p. 71)
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"... he was able to pick up the first newcasts." (p. 78)
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"Tallon had never like them." (also p. 78)
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"Won't look a bit suspicious?" (p. 113)
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"The view of his face was lost as Helen eyes turned from him..." (p. 131)
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"The adress Helen had given Cherkassky..." (also p. 131)
...

Uses of "loom" (verb): 6
Uses of "here and there": 2
Uses of "gleam": at least 7
Use of "like so many": 1
...

6/10

"'Take it easy,' Winfield warned uneasily."

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mysterious prowler upsets the no-locked-doors peacefulness of the tiny hamlet of Frazer's Mills, first creeping into Edgewood, the rest home at the edge of the town, opening and closing a resident's door and escaping unseen before the elderly resident could look to to see who was there. Next, a guest at the local inn is disturbed by a noise outside his door... and the discovery of a fire axe, removed from it's place on the wall and left on the floor. Then the librarian glimpses a shadow outside her locked screen door. By the time the owner at Edgewood can alert the village of the prowler, a murder has occurred -- someone entered the Carrington's home at the opposite end of the village and bashed in the head of the senior Carrington.
Henry Gamadge is called in to see what he can make of it. A friend, Yates (the guest at the inn), is worried that his girl, the Carrington's ward, may be suspected when it's discovered that her alibi won't hold up -- she was with him instead of at the movies, and traveled home alone. But Gamadge is not concerned about the young lovers. He scents a darker purpose lurking in that village, and a second murder tips him to the culprit.
Elizabeth Daly's Night Walk preys on our fear of the terrors that hide in the darkness outisde our doors. Again, there is an inheritance in the plot. I begin to wonder if Ms. Daly didn't have a bug about inheritances--she wrote so often about them! A engaging read.

[Jessi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast and thought it well-described.
Frazer's Mills, NY is a small town; one created of buildings rich people built for their former servants, though nowadays it is mainly inhabited by their grandchildren. Not a lot of new blood in town and now the current generations are starting to leave. But it's always been a safe town with most of the inhabitants leaving their doors perpetually unlocked. At least, it was safe until the night there was a prowler. One who checked many of the doors in town and ended up leaving one man dead. His family wasn't suspected, he was worth more to them alive than dead, and the police were baffled.
One young man was staying in some transient housing and was worried that he might be suspected. So he called in an old friend, Henry Gamadge, a man who was known to police for his help with solving with other murders.
Before the book is over, there will be another murder.
A book that flows nicely, keeps the plot moving with some descriptions of characters (though the vast numbers of people can get confusing) but not huge amounts about each person.

[Jacqueline Vick]

We meet the local characters one-by-one as a prowler attempts to break into several locations. It's a bit creepy, this image of doorknobs slowly turning as each character in turn wonders if they've locked or latched the door. The final visitation ends in murder.

This is my first Henry Gamadge (the 12th in the series) and I didn't find him too impressive. There was a tendency in some authors at the time (1947) to simply tell the reader how witty or deep or clever the character was, which may have raised my expectations. And I imagine that Daly had to build up her character as much as possible. Why?

Henry's problem is he's a specialist in paper, which extends to forgeries and, I guess, all things criminal related to paper. It seemed fortuitous that the final clue would be...paper. I have visions of the author regretting her choice after the first book. Possibly the second.

There is enough suspicion to go around, and I couldn't possibly have guessed at the motive, as it all revolved around this paper that no one but the killer knew existed. And there weren't any hints at the motive before then.

That said, her writing style and some of the characters kept me going until the end. If you don't mind a pleasant-enough mystery on a lazy day, this book will be fine.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Daly is by most accounts one of America's "forgotten" mystery writers. She published a series of novels with lead character Henry Gamadge, a bibliophile who sometimes investigates mysteries. In this book, Gamadge visits the quiet town of Frazer's Mills at the request of a friend. A prowler has murdered a prominent citizen in the dead of night. A maniac, as most believe, or is there another explanation?

I found this book to be very entertaining, in large part because of Daly's writing style. The book is brief (less than 200 pages), yet the characters and setting are richly described and the story is not rushed. I was impressed at how quickly and easily the characters in this book became distinct individuals even after only a handful of chapters. Daly's description of the history and layout of Frazer's Mills was also easy to follow; some authors make it difficult to get a mental picture of the setting but that wasn't the case here. The mystery is why we come to the book, but it is the characters and setting that entice us to stay with it. That is well done here.

Kudos to Felony & Mayhem for bringing these books back into print. I will certainly track down more of the Gamadge books.

[Luca Dofus · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a poorly written book, this was a pleasure for the eyes and the mind. Very descriptive without it ever getting overwhelming, and occasionally leaving it to the reader to fill in gaps. The events go quickly and I did late nights gripped to the pages. Emotions develop a bit too quickly, but albeit it's a small book. I really liked it.
Personally I don't read science fiction questioning the science of it all the time, I am certainly in no position to do that. So I try to just enjoy the ideas, regardless of how 'possible' it might be.
The book read fast, the events and descriptions captured my attention and I often (if not all the time) find myself right beside Tallon.
p.s.: I bought this is in a bookstore that was piles on piles of old used books. The yellowed crunchy pages and old book smell certainly took part in the atmosphere of it all!

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comfortable Read

Not as good as later volumes. A bit slow but still enjoyable. Interesting portrait of an old style village and its inhabitants.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
It took longer than average for Gamadge to first appear in this 12th book in the series - so long, in fact, that I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a stand-alone rather than one of this series at all! He arrives at the behest of a friend and thus I guess it isn't too surprising that his expertise in books & documents only figures very slightly in the case (though they do play a part). I didn't see the solution coming at all which normally would cause me to bump up my rating to a 4*; I didn't do so in this case because I didn't feel that I could have figured it out, that certain knowledge Gamadge had wasn't made available to me the reader. Of course, now that I write that I can't name anything specific to corroborate my feeling!

[Carole Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I was not familiar with the Henry Gamadge mystery series. This is a book my sister passed on to me. A visitor to the village of Frazer's Mills in upstate New York happens upon the evidence that there is a prowler in the midst of this little quiet village. When a murder occurs, the people of the town are really upset and they all think that the prowler committed the murder. Well, Henry Gamadge arrives in the little town and meets the visitors and the villagers and goes about trying to solving the first murder and then another murder occurs. In all murder mysteries, the reader is trying to decide, who did the murder? I was surprised at the end, but that makes a good mystery.

[Diane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gamadge: “I also had a fact….it was that touch of the unusual that one always looks for and hopes to find in the background of a crime. Something unexpected, something off schedule, something that might possibly have had unusual results.”

Gamadge: “Criminology is always interesting. … you get such wonderful contemporary detail, and you don’t get it anywhere else, not in memories, not in memoirs, or letters, or even journals.”

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Daly has been described as Agatha Christie's favorite American mystery writer. Miss Daly is a most enjoyable author. Her mysteries are comfortable for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most notable is that her hero is calm, kind, and never pompous. He can be extremely clever and intelligent without lording it over those about him. The story line in this was interesting with very charming people and places throughout the book. A pleasant read.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Bird Book Deal | Doesn't really feel like there's enough book here | Gamadge wanders aimlessly for about a day, then traps the killer. There's only one possible suspect throughout, the motive is poor and not even hinted at, and lots of page space is used on the theory of a maniac stranger, even though the reader knows that's not the solution of a golden age cozy mystery. A let-down.