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A strange tome and a terrified wife draw a 1950s antiquarian book dealer into a murder case in this mystery by Agatha Christie's favorite American author. Young Rena Austen, newly wed, is afraid she's made a terrible mistake. Her husband, once a dashingly romantic figure of a wounded war hero, has become a moody lay-about, and they are sharing a gloomy house on the Upper East Side of New York with his unpleasant, always-there family. When her husband reacts in a frighteningly angry way to show more Rena pulling a particular volume off the library shelf, she has had enough, and flees her home in fear for her life. Thankfully, Henry Gamadge is on hand to solve the mystery of the book-and the dead body that inevitably turns up. show lessTags
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As in Death and Letters, a young woman escapes from an oppressive family, in this case that of her husband, a lame war veteran she married a year before.He had grown cold to her, and had been violently angry when he found her with an account of a particular Victorian trial. She managed to escape with the aid of a nice young man (who promptly fell in love with her), ad took the case to Gamadge. He saw the book was the key to the case, but she did not know what it was. Meanwhile a harmless young workingman is murdered in circumstances implicating the brother and sister of her husband. Gamadge realizes the book id the case of the Tichbounre Claimant and recognizes an imposture is involved (as in Book of the Dead). In tis book Daly show more restrains her tendency to a sudden revelation of an unexpected ending --one witness's testimony suggests an unexpected result, but it turns out the expected villain is guilty after all. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1951
- People/Characters
- Henry Gamadge
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- First words
- A girl and a dog came down the steep brownstone steps; the dog in short, frog-like leaps (he was a Boston terrier, large for his breed), the girl holding on to his leash with one hand, to her cap-like hat with the other.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)P.S. That Boston terrier. Oh well, they tell me he is old.
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- Members
- 111
- Popularity
- 291,742
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.19)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 3





























































