What do you think?
Rate this book
Duncan Maclain Mystery #5
Death Knell
A blind detective separates fact from fiction to save an innocent writer in this mystery by the author of Blind Man's Bluff.
Following the loss of his sight in World War I, ex-intelligence officer Capt. Duncan Maclain honed his other senses and became one of the most successful and well-known private investigators in New York City . . .
Acclaimed novelist Larmar Jordan and his wife, Lucia, are throwing a cocktail party in their luxury Fifth Avenue apartment. Among the guests are their friend Sybella Ford and her fianc�, Duncan Maclain. Everyone is in high spirits until the arrival of Larmar's mistress, Troy Singleton. Maclain may be unable to see, but even he can tell that certain partygoers are far from pleased by her presence.
However, the real drama unfolds when Troy returns the following day--only to wind up dead on the terrace. The police are certain Larmar pulled the trigger. He was the only person home at the time, and the murder weapon came from his extensive gun collection--but he didn't do it. At Lucia's request, Maclain takes the case. Now, the sightless sleuth must quickly unravel this twisted tale of murder, before the judge throws the book at Larmar . . .
Baynard Kendrick was the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army during World War I. While in London, he met a blind English soldier whose observational skills inspired the character of Capt. Duncan Maclain. Kendrick was also a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and winner of the organization's Grand Master Award.
Following the loss of his sight in World War I, ex-intelligence officer Capt. Duncan Maclain honed his other senses and became one of the most successful and well-known private investigators in New York City . . .
Acclaimed novelist Larmar Jordan and his wife, Lucia, are throwing a cocktail party in their luxury Fifth Avenue apartment. Among the guests are their friend Sybella Ford and her fianc�, Duncan Maclain. Everyone is in high spirits until the arrival of Larmar's mistress, Troy Singleton. Maclain may be unable to see, but even he can tell that certain partygoers are far from pleased by her presence.
However, the real drama unfolds when Troy returns the following day--only to wind up dead on the terrace. The police are certain Larmar pulled the trigger. He was the only person home at the time, and the murder weapon came from his extensive gun collection--but he didn't do it. At Lucia's request, Maclain takes the case. Now, the sightless sleuth must quickly unravel this twisted tale of murder, before the judge throws the book at Larmar . . .
Baynard Kendrick was the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army during World War I. While in London, he met a blind English soldier whose observational skills inspired the character of Capt. Duncan Maclain. Kendrick was also a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and winner of the organization's Grand Master Award.
- GenresMystery
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
6 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Baynard H. Kendrick
58 books11 followersAlso wrote under the pseudonym Richard Hayward
Kendrick was an American lawyer and executive who became a full-time writer in 1932. His first mystery novel, Blood on Lake Louisa was published in 1934.
In 1914 Kendrick was the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army, one hour after that country declared war.
He married Edythe Stevens in 1919 and Jean Morris in 1971, and became an executive and manager of hotels and publishing companies. Kendrick was the organizer and only sighted member of the Blinded Veterans Association.
He was also a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and held membership #1. In the 1960s he retired to Florida.
Kendrick was an American lawyer and executive who became a full-time writer in 1932. His first mystery novel, Blood on Lake Louisa was published in 1934.
In 1914 Kendrick was the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army, one hour after that country declared war.
He married Edythe Stevens in 1919 and Jean Morris in 1971, and became an executive and manager of hotels and publishing companies. Kendrick was the organizer and only sighted member of the Blinded Veterans Association.
He was also a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and held membership #1. In the 1960s he retired to Florida.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 1, 2022
Duncan Maclain is a private eye who was blinded during his service in World War I. The novel takes place in the 1940s in New York City. Larmar Jordan is professional writer with a wife named Lucia. The story opens when they are hosting a cocktail party in their apartment. Mclain is in attendance among others. A woman named Troy Singleton shows up with a note of invitation but neither Larmar nor his wife claim to have written it, but each accuses the other. It seems that Larmar has been seeing Troy on the side. She leaves but returns after everybody else has left. At one point she sits in the chair at his desk and while Larmar is off getting them drinks, she is suddenly shot dead. Larmar panics and moves things around so that when the police arrive, it seems obvious that Larmar is guilty, so they arrest him and haul him off to jail. Lucia believes his protestations of innocence and ends up hiring Maclain to help prove his innocence. And the story moves on from there.
December 15, 2019
Death Knell (1945) by Baynard Kendrick features Kendrick's series detective, Captain Duncan Maclain. Maclain is a private detective who lost his sight due to gassing in the First World War. He has gone through extensive training to help him enhance his other senses--particularly hearing and smell. He also has to German Shepherds to help him--one acting as his guide dog in unfamiliar settings and the other serving as protection, having been trained to attack at the sight of weapons or threatening movements on the part of others. Kendrick based his character on a young blind soldier that he met in the war, who was able to trace Kendrick's four years in the army by touching emblems on his uniform.* The soldier's accurate deductions based on touch alone mad such an impression on Kendrick that it helped him develop a most interesting sleuth.
In this, the fifth installment in the series, Maclain becomes involved more personally in the investigation than has previously been the case. The story opens with Maclain and his fiancee at a cocktail party in luxury apartment of Lamar and Lucia Jordan, friends of Maclain's fiancee. Maclain meets the various characters who will soon be involved in an impossible murder. Impossible, if you believe (as Maclain does) that Lamar Jordan is innocent of the crime. [But I get ahead of myself.] Jordan's household and guests include his agent, Sarah Hanley; Bob Morse, a man working up a feature on Lamar for his newspaper; Paul Hirst, his secretary; and his friend Ellis Brown Mitchell who is helping him catalogue his huge gun collection. Maclain has already picked up on undercurrents that indicate that all is not well when Troy Singleton shows up--unexpected, but waving an unsigned invitation. Troy is "mistress number thirteen or is it number twenty-four?" Lamar and Lucia each accuse the other of having invited the girl in order to cause a scene and when Troy doesn't get the attention she feels she deserves, she storms out.
...Only to come back when Lamar is alone in the apartment to tell him that she has one last thing to say to him and that he might benefit if he listens to her. He tells her to go out on the balcony while he mixes a couple of drinks. As he heads out to join her, he watches Troy slump down and when he reaches her he finds a small bullet hole. But there's no one else in the apartment...so who shot her?
Suddenly maddened, he tore through the privet hedge and leaned over the stone coping. There was nothing there, of course, except a drop of six stories, and another terrace below.
The angle of the shot will later reveal that it came from close in front of her--so it's not possible that someone in the building opposite could have killed her. So...naturally when the cops arrive they believe they've got the killer right there in front of them in Lamar Jordan. Maclain, who is called upon by his fiancee and Lucia to prove Jordan innocence, sets out to prove Jordan's story true.
The Duncan Maclain series is highly enjoyable. This is just my second outing, but I'm definitely on the lookout for more when I go book-hunting. The only down-side to this one was that I spotted immediately how the thing was done--which pretty much pointed to the who. I think Kendrick brought up a certain fact just a few times too much, if he'd slyly slid it in front of the reader and then ignored it, I might not have caught on. Maybe a too much fair play? But, that said, since this mystery takes on a more personal note, it gave us a good deal more insight into Maclain and the regular characters who appear with him. A good solid read.
*Info source: https://archive.org/details/deathknel...
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
In this, the fifth installment in the series, Maclain becomes involved more personally in the investigation than has previously been the case. The story opens with Maclain and his fiancee at a cocktail party in luxury apartment of Lamar and Lucia Jordan, friends of Maclain's fiancee. Maclain meets the various characters who will soon be involved in an impossible murder. Impossible, if you believe (as Maclain does) that Lamar Jordan is innocent of the crime. [But I get ahead of myself.] Jordan's household and guests include his agent, Sarah Hanley; Bob Morse, a man working up a feature on Lamar for his newspaper; Paul Hirst, his secretary; and his friend Ellis Brown Mitchell who is helping him catalogue his huge gun collection. Maclain has already picked up on undercurrents that indicate that all is not well when Troy Singleton shows up--unexpected, but waving an unsigned invitation. Troy is "mistress number thirteen or is it number twenty-four?" Lamar and Lucia each accuse the other of having invited the girl in order to cause a scene and when Troy doesn't get the attention she feels she deserves, she storms out.
...Only to come back when Lamar is alone in the apartment to tell him that she has one last thing to say to him and that he might benefit if he listens to her. He tells her to go out on the balcony while he mixes a couple of drinks. As he heads out to join her, he watches Troy slump down and when he reaches her he finds a small bullet hole. But there's no one else in the apartment...so who shot her?
Suddenly maddened, he tore through the privet hedge and leaned over the stone coping. There was nothing there, of course, except a drop of six stories, and another terrace below.
The angle of the shot will later reveal that it came from close in front of her--so it's not possible that someone in the building opposite could have killed her. So...naturally when the cops arrive they believe they've got the killer right there in front of them in Lamar Jordan. Maclain, who is called upon by his fiancee and Lucia to prove Jordan innocence, sets out to prove Jordan's story true.
The Duncan Maclain series is highly enjoyable. This is just my second outing, but I'm definitely on the lookout for more when I go book-hunting. The only down-side to this one was that I spotted immediately how the thing was done--which pretty much pointed to the who. I think Kendrick brought up a certain fact just a few times too much, if he'd slyly slid it in front of the reader and then ignored it, I might not have caught on. Maybe a too much fair play? But, that said, since this mystery takes on a more personal note, it gave us a good deal more insight into Maclain and the regular characters who appear with him. A good solid read.
*Info source: https://archive.org/details/deathknel...
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
May 29, 2020
Duncan Maclain is a blind detective (the tv show Longstreet was very loosely based on this series) with two GSDs, Schucke, a seeing-eye dog and Driest, an attack dog. He has a girlfriend, Sybella, a cook and man-of-all-work, Sarah and Cappo Marsh and he's friends with a couple, Spud and Rita, who don't figure prominently in this book.
Famous author, Larmar (Lamar?) Jordan is pouring cocktails when his mistress, Troy Singleton, is shot with Jordan's gun on his terrace, high above Fifth Avenue in, I assume, New York City. He is arrested as the most likely suspect and his wife hires Duncan Maclain to find proof that will release him. Police inspector Davis is satisfied that he's got the perpetrator but respects Maclain and more than tolerates his investigation. Maclain conducts a more-or-less typical fictional private investigation with a few modifications to compensate for his blindness.
I could do without some of the lapses into the pulp. When Maclain calls the hospital with an urgent message, he says "...don' t ask questions..." but when he is inevitably asked "Who is this?" instead of just giving the girl his name, his first answer is "I'm the messenger of God!"
Sometimes the author explains how Maclain copes with problems caused by his blindness but there are a couple times when these just turn into parlor tricks, like when he lights a cigarette. Both of Maclain's dogs get to take part in the investigation but their participation is sort of minimal. It is in no way a "dog" book.
Page 22: 1940's racist language alert.
Page 125 In this book, the girl who goes to visit the dangerous location at midnight without telling anyone where she is going is Sybella. In The Hidden Staircase it was Nancy Drew and in The Mystery at Hollowhearth House it was Susan Sand. Is someone keeping a list.
Shaun's pet peeve: On page 175 the "The drizzle had turned to a fine Scotch mist." This sentence is fine if a Drizzle is a cocktail and a Scotch Mist is the same cocktail with the addition of soda. It is not OK if it refers to precipitation in Scotland.
Famous author, Larmar (Lamar?) Jordan is pouring cocktails when his mistress, Troy Singleton, is shot with Jordan's gun on his terrace, high above Fifth Avenue in, I assume, New York City. He is arrested as the most likely suspect and his wife hires Duncan Maclain to find proof that will release him. Police inspector Davis is satisfied that he's got the perpetrator but respects Maclain and more than tolerates his investigation. Maclain conducts a more-or-less typical fictional private investigation with a few modifications to compensate for his blindness.
I could do without some of the lapses into the pulp. When Maclain calls the hospital with an urgent message, he says "...don' t ask questions..." but when he is inevitably asked "Who is this?" instead of just giving the girl his name, his first answer is "I'm the messenger of God!"
Sometimes the author explains how Maclain copes with problems caused by his blindness but there are a couple times when these just turn into parlor tricks, like when he lights a cigarette. Both of Maclain's dogs get to take part in the investigation but their participation is sort of minimal. It is in no way a "dog" book.
Page 22: 1940's racist language alert.
Page 125 In this book, the girl who goes to visit the dangerous location at midnight without telling anyone where she is going is Sybella. In The Hidden Staircase it was Nancy Drew and in The Mystery at Hollowhearth House it was Susan Sand. Is someone keeping a list.
Shaun's pet peeve: On page 175 the "The drizzle had turned to a fine Scotch mist." This sentence is fine if a Drizzle is a cocktail and a Scotch Mist is the same cocktail with the addition of soda. It is not OK if it refers to precipitation in Scotland.
July 18, 2023
I didn’t know that this was book number 5 in a series about a blind detective. I enjoyed it. Duncan Maclain is very believable as a blind detective. His strengths and limitations worked well in the various situations as he gathered clues to solve the murder. I will now start reading number one The Last Express.
The circumstances connected with Troy Singleton were different. Perhaps it was the people involved, Larmar and Lucia, Paul Hirst and Bob Morse, Brownie, and Sarah Hanley. They were ordinary New Yorkers to Duncan Maclain, friends of the woman he loved, who had unfortunately gotten themselves into a nasty jam. Gallagher, of course, might be dangerous due to his mental condition. Dan Pine was saber-toothed but he worked within the law, using a battery of large caliber lawyers. The fact that Troy Singleton was dead should have been a stop light to Duncan Maclain. He had heard the saying that blood begets blood and murder is the child of murder.
Excerpt from: "Death Knell" by Baynard Kendrick. Scribd. This material may be protected by copyright. Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/488452514
The circumstances connected with Troy Singleton were different. Perhaps it was the people involved, Larmar and Lucia, Paul Hirst and Bob Morse, Brownie, and Sarah Hanley. They were ordinary New Yorkers to Duncan Maclain, friends of the woman he loved, who had unfortunately gotten themselves into a nasty jam. Gallagher, of course, might be dangerous due to his mental condition. Dan Pine was saber-toothed but he worked within the law, using a battery of large caliber lawyers. The fact that Troy Singleton was dead should have been a stop light to Duncan Maclain. He had heard the saying that blood begets blood and murder is the child of murder.
Excerpt from: "Death Knell" by Baynard Kendrick. Scribd. This material may be protected by copyright. Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/488452514
May 17, 2023
A nice short mystery, I liked following a blind character it made descriptions of what is happening more based on sound and feel.
Want to read
March 2, 2019Synopsis: Maclain attends a party with people who were friends of Sybella Ford. A former mistress of one of them gets shot. Did Lamar do it?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews