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Still Dead

Page history last edited by Jon 14 years, 10 months ago

Knox, Ronald - Still Dead (1934)

 

A first-rate book and a wonderful example of fair-play detection, including the classic feature of footnotes in the denouement referring back to the pages on which the clues can be found. It begins with a leisurely introduction to the Scottish Reiver family: father Donald, married daughter Mary and her husband Vincent, and the ne'er-do-well son Colin. After an unsatisfactory childhood Colin begins his adult life by running over and killing a child on the Reiver estate, and the family decide for his own good to pack him off on an overseas trip. A month later Donald is taken ill; fearing the worst, Mary writes to Colin asking him to return.

 

And he does, or so it appears; at least, his body is seen the following Monday by the side of a road in the estate. By the time the police arrive to investigate the body is gone, but it returns to the same spot at the same time on Wednesday, this time for keeps. The doctor states he was killed the previous night - so who or what was lying there on Monday, and where was Colin in the meantime? There is an insurance angle, and Miles Bredon is called on to investigate for the Indescribable Insurance Company.

 

Bredon is young, cheerful and equipped with an attractive wife who makes her own contribution to the solution. Bit by bit he unravels the complicated sequence of events. Along the way we learn a bit about Scottish estates, Scottish shops and Scottish railways, make the acquaintance of an enigmatic doctor and a dear old aristocrat, and do a bit of rock-climbing for good measure. Knox clearly enjoys recounting the investigation as much as Bredon does conducting it. At the end everything falls into place and we have the satisfying feeling that all the loose ends are thoroughly tied up. What a shame that Knox's religious commitments took precedence over his writing career, or we could have had a dozen more of these to enjoy instead of just one!

 

I have one qualm, though - was running over and killing a child ever viewed quite so lightly as the book implies? Most families, Knox suggests, would have at least one member who had done such a thing. It was 'regarded by most people as a normal incident of adolescence' (p.17).  I know traffic safety figures have improved, but I didn't realise the road carnage of the 30s reached that level. It makes the odd murder seem trivial by comparison.

 

Read it if you can.

 

Jon.

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