- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Pan Books; Pan Classic Crime edition (9 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330373218
- ISBN-13: 978-0330373210
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 167,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Frank Cairnes, a popular detective writer who now embarks on a real-life crime of his own, determined to hunt down the runaway motorist who killed his small son Martin.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth a reprint,
By
This review is from: The Beast Must Die (Paperback)
What a start! One of the best opening paragraphs I've ever read. The story concerns a crime novelist seeking murderous revenge on the hit and run killer of his only child. The first half is in diary format as the struggle with conscience occurs and the second concerns the investigation by the sleuth Nigel Strangeways.This is a clever and interesting crime novel. The whodunnit is really quite secondary as the 'killer' is obvious and it becomes more an issue of whether he gets away with it. There's a very well-written period feel with everyone from Johnny Weismuller to Epstein getting a mention. This is what you might expect given that Blake is actually the former Poet Laureate C. Day Lewis. I hesitate to award five stars for two reasons. Firstly, Strangeways and femme are a pair of arrogant unsympathetic characters that make you root for the villain! Secondly, Mr Blake is really an excellent novelist rather than crime writer and as such, the 'crime' aspect has two or three really frustrating flaws. Couldn't help thinking of Hamlet and 'conscience doth make cowards of us all' through the entire thing. This is clever,thought-provoking and well constructed; recommended.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unusual murder mystery with a highly original twist!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Beast Must Die (Paperback)
Felix Lane sets out to murder the man who ran down and killed his six-year-old son, and fails - but then the man is murdered anyway ... and Nigel Strangways, private investigator, is called in to save Felix from his own folly. Originally published in the first half of this century, this book starts slowly but grips your attention from the first. It starts with Felix's diary then, with the murder, moves into the more usual third person storytelling, and twists and turns with great agility. Anyone who likes a good murder mystery in the Agatha Christie style will love this book.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Classic Whodunnit,
By
This review is from: The Beast Must Die (Paperback)
I admire Beverley Cousin's initiative and admit I've gone back to the Eric Amblers and Cyril Hares I found in my library, but I wonder what the Barbara Vines and the Minette Walters think when they read or have read what can really be qualified as an "exercice de style". Georgette Heyer did it quite well too. The book is intellectually satisfying. It lacks all the rest.
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