Margins
Homicide House book cover
Homicide House
1950
First Published
3.69
Average Rating
243
Number of Pages

Part of Series

The old house was truly one of a kind—overflowing with atmosphere, dripping with character, and loaded with history. That history included tales of betrayed love and bitter vengeance, but Mr. Pinkerton found that such stories only added to the mansion's appeal. That appeal held a certain romance until the night when ghosts of hatred and violence rose to sweep again through darkened hallways, trailing black scandal—and bloody, brutal murder. As it had happened so often before, Mr. Pinkerton, a mild man with watery eyes, finds himself embroiled again with murderous forces. It’s been twelve years since we’ve heard of Mr. Evan Pinkerton, the little, timid man who seems to attract trouble, and continually harasses Inspector Bull of Scotland Yard. They’re back now in Homicide House. The story is laid in postwar London, and Mr. Pinkerton is living at No. 4 Godolphin Square. Despite the fact that he owns the apartment house, he shares meagre quarters on the top floor with the chef. Years of living with the penny-pinching Mrs. Pinkerton (now fortunately deceased) have accustomed him to discomfort, and Mr. Pinkerton is quite happy living where he is. One day a young American comes swinging along the Square. He attracts Mr. Pinkerton’s attention when he stops in front of No. 22, directly across from No. 4, and now a shell of a house with only a stairway leading nowhere. The American is so obviously distressed at the sight of the bombed-out house, that Mr. Pinkerton breaks a habit of longstanding and speaks to him. When the stranger tells him he is looking for a girl whom he met six years before in an air-raid shelter, and that he knows only that she lived at No. 22 Godolphin Square, Mr. Pinkerton comforts him by revealing that she is living quite safely at the very house in which he himself has rooms. It takes only one more innocent question to start in motion a train of singularly unpleasant events, and the stranger and Mr. Pinkerton find themselves in the midst of violence and murder. — Title also published as Murder On the Square.

Avg Rating
3.69
Number of Ratings
16
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
13%
3 STARS
50%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

David Frome
David Frome
Author · 5 books

David Frome is the nom de plume of Zenith Jones Brown (or Zenith Brown), who also wrote as Leslie Ford. She wrote several books under the pen-name David Frome while living in England, the most endearing of these featuring timid and elderly widower Evan Pinkerton. Her other series (also based in England) is the Major Gregory Lewis Mysteries.

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