It’s been a few weeks, so it’s about time we had another British Library Crime Classic to break up the summer romances, right? But don’t worry, if you want some more sun lounger recommendations, I have the very thing for you tomorrow never dear!
A reclusive scientist is found dead in his study during a storm, hours after a dinner to mark his daughter’s engagement. The dinner guests are stranded in the house because of the weather – and the telephone line has been cut. There are clues and motives a plenty, which of the closed group of suspects carried out the crime?
Twice Around the Clock is Billie Houston’s only novel – and it’s really quite impressive. She was an actress and singer who was part of a variety act with her sister in the 1920s until she retired because of ill health in the mid 1930s – as far as I can work out at a similar time to when she wrote this. The title comes from the amount of time that the novel covers – you start with the murder then the clock rewinds twelve hours to show you the lead up to the murder and then carries on until twelve hours after the death. It’s fast paced and has a bit of humour to it. It also has a murder victim who you are delighted to see dead after you see him alive and tormenting people and animals*. Basically it’s a good enough read that you wish Houston had written more!
This is one of the newer British Library Crime Classics (it came out in April) and it’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, which means it won’t be on Kobo until that ends. But it’s also in paperback and you can buy direct from the British Library shop.
Happy Reading!
*there is a scene featuring animal cruelty in this but it’s brief and also clear that everyone else in the book finds it abhorrent – it’s just the victim who thinks it’s ok
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