Curtain Fall

Neil Carter #1

by Eileen Dewhurst

Joanna Stuart had once seen the window of a seaside hotel room when driving past with her husband. Its offer of peace and independence stayed with her and several years later, at a crisis point in her life, she compulsively returns to ‘the Window’. But she fails to find the expected tranquillity and isolation. Instead she becomes involved with the cast of the resort’s summer variety show, whose leading lady has recently been murdered. A member of the cast is obviously the murderer and a cloud of suspicion hangs over the tight-knit and loyal community.Baffled by lack of motive and frustrated by lack of progress, Detective Inspector Carter persuades Joanna to take advantage of the friendship offered to her by the players and helps him penetrate their closed ranks. Feeling a little treacherous she nevertheless comes to enjoy her role of amateur detective, and her strong involvement with the players helps her to shut out her own problems.During the last weeks of the glorious summer she gradually sees the pattern of the murder take shape, but it isn’t until she witnesses a reconstruction of the crime that the identity of the killer emerges, and Joanna’s own problems also become clarified. This is a subtle and fairly-clued whodunnit, full of character and movement and with a stunning climax which does not disappoint.

Genres: Mystery

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2012

About the author

Eileen Dewhurst was born in Liverpool, read English at Oxford, and has earned her living in a variety of ways, including journalism. When she is not writing she enjoys solving cryptic crossword puzzles and drawing and painting cats.

Series:
. Neil Carter
. Helen Markham-Johnson
. Phyllida Moon

Series contributed to::
. Perfectly Criminal
. Northern Blood

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was best when it focused on Joanna looking inward. The other characters, the "Summer Time" players and other denizens of the Seaview, were (with a few exceptions) indistinct. The mystery itself seemed secondary to Joanna's psychological journey.