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The Blurb On The Back:
It’s business as usual for Mr Glossop as he does his regular rounds delivering wages to the government buildings scattered across New Zealand’s desolate Canterbury plains. But when his car breaks down he is stranded for the night at the lonely Mount Seaver Hospital, with the telephone lines down, a storm on its way and the nearby river about to burst its banks.
Trapped with him at Mount Seager are a group of quarantined soldiers with a serious case of cabin fever; three young employees embroiled in a tense love triangle, a dying elderly man, an elusive patient whose origins remain a mystery ... and a potential killer.
When the payroll disappears from a locked safe and the hospital’s death toll starts to rise faster than normal, can the appearance of an English detective working in counterespionage be just a lucky coincidence - or is something more sinister afoot?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Using Ngaio Marsh’s opening chapters and title, Stella Duffy does a decent job of completing this INSPECTOR ALLEYN MYSTERIES crime novel such that I couldn’t tell who wrote what. The supporting cast are broadly drawn and the ending a little disappointing due to an antagonist’s identity, but overall the mystery kept me guessing and entertained until the end and I’d check out both the Marsh originals and Duffy’s work on the strength of this.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
It’s business as usual for Mr Glossop as he does his regular rounds delivering wages to the government buildings scattered across New Zealand’s desolate Canterbury plains. But when his car breaks down he is stranded for the night at the lonely Mount Seaver Hospital, with the telephone lines down, a storm on its way and the nearby river about to burst its banks.
Trapped with him at Mount Seager are a group of quarantined soldiers with a serious case of cabin fever; three young employees embroiled in a tense love triangle, a dying elderly man, an elusive patient whose origins remain a mystery ... and a potential killer.
When the payroll disappears from a locked safe and the hospital’s death toll starts to rise faster than normal, can the appearance of an English detective working in counterespionage be just a lucky coincidence - or is something more sinister afoot?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Using Ngaio Marsh’s opening chapters and title, Stella Duffy does a decent job of completing this INSPECTOR ALLEYN MYSTERIES crime novel such that I couldn’t tell who wrote what. The supporting cast are broadly drawn and the ending a little disappointing due to an antagonist’s identity, but overall the mystery kept me guessing and entertained until the end and I’d check out both the Marsh originals and Duffy’s work on the strength of this.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
