The Man in the Net is a taut and well-crafted example of Patrick Quentin mystery thriller. Quentin typically sets up an unexpected scenario or unusual premise and this is more than fulfilled in this novel. John Hamilton left his lucrative job with a New York advertising agency to move to the country and try his hand at painting. His first show is not a success and he is under some pressure from his wife, Linda, to return to the city to make some money. Linda is having increasing difficulty coping with the dullness of life in the country and has succumbed to alcoholism, although she is able to keep this completely secret from everybody except John. So when John returns from a business trip to find his paintings slashed and Linda missing, later to be found dead, he cannot prove how unstable and violent she had become and the suspicions of the locals put him firmly in the frame for her murder.
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)
