As a Thief in the Night
(1928)
Blurb:
My review:
One
of Freeman’s
three or four best, although not one of his best-known books. The crime is modelled on the Maybrick case:
murder of a chronic invalid by arsenic poisoning suspected by his
brother, with
suspicion falling on his wife. Narrated
by Rupert Mayfield, once engaged to the victim’s dead sister-in-law,
Stella
Keene, and now unsure whether he loves the victim’s wife or the ward. Characterisation superior to other Freemans,
even the drug-addicted and neurotic secretary, while the murderer is a
superb
portrait of obsession. Science, as
usual, fascinating, especially the
To the R. Austin Freeman Page.