The Unfinished Clue
Sir Arthur Billington-Smith is not a nice person: he is arrogant, opinionated, and abusive. His verbal abuse makes life a constant misery for his hapless wife, Fay. One truly awful weekend when Fay is trying to host a house party, Arthur's son and heir, Geoffrey, brings home Lola de Silva, a Mexican cabaret dancer who is wonderfully obtuse, vastly colorful, and totally unsuitable as a future Lady Billington-Smith. Arthur is absolutely incensed and takes his rage out on everyone. Therefore, when he is found stabbed to death in his study later in the day, all those in the house become suspects. The characters are all rather one-dimensional: a scheming female foreigner, an idiot son, the married couple from hell, and a strong, silent lover. In spite of this, however, multiple red herrings in the plot are cleverly designed to keep the listener guessing until the last chapter. Narrator Clifford Norgate does a very nice job of vocally "typing" each character, so it is easy to visualize the speakers and keep all the suspects separate. The audiocassette is in a flimsy cardboard box and will require sturdier packaging for library circulation. Recommended for larger public libraries where the works of Heyer are popular. Barbara Rhodes, Northeast Texas Lib. Syst., GarlandCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.