The Dead Shall Be Raised & Murder of a Quack
by
George Bellairs
Order:
USA
Can
Poisoned Pen, 2017 (2017)
Softcover, e-Book
Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth
T
wo for one! A bargain at any price.
The Dead Shell Be Raised
and
Murder of a Quack
are both written by English author George Bellairs and first published in 1940, on the cusp of the time considered the Golden Age of Crime Writing.
P
oisoned Pen Press and the British Library Crime Classics have joined in a business venture to re-publish well-known authors' works that have not been available for the intervening years. It would be a shame not to have access to the above two excellent books. I thoroughly enjoyed both, and can't recommend one above the other.
T
he Dead Shall Be Raised
involves the Home Guard – remember, this was a war year – unearthing a skeleton on the moor above a small village. It's in the exact spot where the body of a young textile worker was found twenty-three years before. Intriguing? You bet! A young man had disappeared at the same time as the body was found. Could this skeleton be his? And is a murderer still at large?
T
hen on to
Murder of a Quack
. The body of a local
quack
(what unlicensed doctors were called then) is found hanging in his consulting room. The licensed doctor is not too well-used in this small village of Stalden. Suicide? Murder? Again, intrigue. Also ambition, blackmail, false alibis, fraud, and botanical trickery keep the story moving at a brisk pace. And make it well worth a read.
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