Part of Series
A “hard to solve and easy to read” mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author of the Peter Duluth series (Kirkus Reviews). Patrick Quentin, best known for the Peter Duluth puzzle mysteries, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Anthony Boucher wrote: “Quentin is particularly noted for the enviable polish and grace which make him one of the leading American fabricants of the murderous comedy of manners; but this surface smoothness conceals intricate and meticulous plot construction as faultless as that of Agatha Christie.” Lewis Denham has always been the black sheep of the family. Adopted into the “proper” Denham household after his working-class parents died, Lew never quite fit in with the rest of the clan—or maybe he simply couldn’t keep his nose elevated that high for that long without getting frostbite. Either way, when he announces his marriage to a British girl without checking how blue her blood is, the family is aghast. But things become truly appalling when Lew finds a dead man in his apartment—and it seems the lower-class victim had a connection with his upper-crust family. Now, feeling more outside the Denham ranks than ever, Lew will have to look past his family’s elite façade and find out who they really are. And he’s about to learn that none of them are too good to get a little blood on their hands . . .
Author
Patrick Quentin, Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge were pen names under which Hugh Callingham Wheeler (19 March 1912 – 26 July 1987), Richard Wilson Webb (August 1901 – December 1966), Martha Mott Kelley (30 April 1906–2005) and Mary Louise White Aswell (3 June 1902 – 24 December 1984) wrote detective fiction. In some foreign countries their books have been published under the variant Quentin Patrick. Most of the stories were written by Webb and Wheeler in collaboration, or by Wheeler alone. Their most famous creation is the amateur sleuth Peter Duluth. In 1963, the story collection The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. AKA: Πάτρικ Κουέντιν (Greek)
