3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The story opens with an account of a man being hanged for murder. The narrator describes him as the best man he has ever known. A question forms in my mind: why would a man described as being like this be executed for murder? Intriguing.

The narrator and the man facing execution, John Travers, have a friendship that goes back to childhood. Tragic circumstances meant that they both moved back to the UK, having been in India. They were living in Surrey and were as close as brothers. They both applied to Sandhurst together.

The narrator, Tom Toogood, is then best man for Travers when he marries Muriel. It was at this point that he first met Muriel’s mother, Helga, too, and she was a woman that he had some strong opinions about.

Now they were married, he left them to get on with their lives, and they slowly drifted apart as friends. One day, out of the blue, he received a telegram from John saying:

MURIEL SERIOUSLY ILL THINK MENTAL HEALTH

FOR GOD’S SAKE COME AT ONCE. JOHN

He hurried to their house in Bournemouth where he found both John and Muriel ill. Helga was caring for them and really didn’t want to see Tom, a doctor now, there at all. It was a strange set of circumstances, and as he began to unpick what was going on, it would become stranger still.

The complex relationship between the four main characters unfolds and unravels as the story’s pace quickens. And I am not going to add any more than that, as it will spoil the story…

I thought that this was a fairly good book, even though it is pretty predictable. But even though I guessed what had happened, the how and why of how the author got us from the opening scene to the dramatic ending is what made the book for me. It can be very dark at times; after all, it is a very early example of a psychological thriller, but I didn’t find it that scary. What I would say, particularly on this edition, is to read the introduction after you have read the book. However, the author does say when to stop reading it, and when to read the story.

 

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