Death Of The Day

By Tanith Lee

2004

First Published

4.07

Average Rating

360

Number of Pages

10H59M

Audio Length

When Steven Grace vanishes, leaving only the evidence of his broken car in a ditch, ripples of suspicion spread across the Sussex town of Seatree. Is anything what it seems? Detective Chief Inspector Knox thinks not, and he and his unusual sidekick, D.I. Rawthorn, find plenty on their hands to keep them awake during this long sleepless night. Jula, Steven's beautiful and oblique partner, appears to dislike Steven, as does her close companion, the tough Jack Hastings. Markessa though, the family friend, appears to have liked Steven far too much. Meanwhile the haunted, frightened Leigh, who has returned to Seatree on some mysterious quest of her own, provides other elements to complicate the case further. Why, for one, does the large house in historical Divers Lane - the house of white carpets and a ceiling painted like a sky - present such a sinister aspect? Here live the Alliats, timid Miranda who, in her youth, might have passed for an English Marilyn Monroe, and wealthy, busy George, with his big liver-spotted hands and white tombstone teeth. Lit up night-long, the Alliat residence, like a doomed lighthouse, seems to be sending rays of trouble and ancient menace in all directions, as something reaches towards the present from the far past. When a body is finally found - only the first of several - a domino effect begins that will topple many lives in ruins. Contained between sunfall and dawn of a single night, Death of the Day sets out to investigate not only a string of bizarre deaths, but the facades behind which men and women exist. It is very much a detective novel, darkly lighted and ominously rich.

Avg Rating

4.07

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

33%

4 STARS

44%

3 STARS

19%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Tanith Lee

Author · 131 books

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7." Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress. Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971. Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing. Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror. Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s. Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.