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Keith Calder #11
The Worried Widow
While investigating the apparent suicide of Jenny Henrickson's husband, detective Keith Calder must match wits with his old rival, Inspector Munro, to solve a sinister crime
- GenresMystery
189 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1988
21 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Hammond
103 books20 followersGerald Hammond, (Gerald Arthur Douglas Hammond) son of Frederick Arthur Lucas (a physician) and Maria Birnie (a nursing sister) Hammond; married Gilda Isobel Watt (a nurse), August 20, 1952; children: Peter, David, Steven. Education: Aberdeen School of Architecture, Dip. Arch., 1952. He served in the British Army, 1944-45. Although born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, he worked in and retired to the country he most loved, Scotland.
He also writes under the names of Arthur Douglas and Dalby Holden. He was an architect for thirty years before retiring to write novels full-time in 1982. He has written over 50 novels since the late 1960s.
His novels center around guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, and dog training.
He also writes under the names of Arthur Douglas and Dalby Holden. He was an architect for thirty years before retiring to write novels full-time in 1982. He has written over 50 novels since the late 1960s.
His novels center around guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, and dog training.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2026
Spoilers ahead. I won't go over the background or setting because this book is part of a series and should be read from the start.
Hendrickson, a union rep who had been partially paralyzed from a stroke, was found to have committed suicide in his summerhouse. He was in his wheelchair and had apparently done so by putting his shotgun in his mouth. His widow did not believe that he would do such a thing and hires Calder to investigate.
From the evidence that he could see, including the inability of Hendrickson to use his shotgun as inferred, Calder concludes that Hendrickson was unable to shoot himself that way. Hendrickson had lived in a high-end cul-de-sac of 8 houses and after establishing that no strangers had been in or out of it, it is determined that the killer was one of the other homeowners.
What happens next is a sort of Clue whodunit where Calder and his family tries to pinpoint the movements of the other residents in order to rule them in or out. The reason why I only gave this book 3 stars is because there's only so much mileage you can get out of a plotline like that. A short sideplot is best but it becomes tedious when it becomes the backbone of the whole book. And it wasn't done linearly either. It might have been better if the characters were ruled out 1 by 1 but there seemed no rhyme or reason in the order of ruleouts. After a while, I got tired of the minutiae of the reasoning and just wanted to get to the end.
There were a few sideplots thrown in to keep it a bit fresh and this type of plotline hasn't been done before in the Calder series but as I said, the Clue based plot had to carry too much weight and got tedious.
Hendrickson, a union rep who had been partially paralyzed from a stroke, was found to have committed suicide in his summerhouse. He was in his wheelchair and had apparently done so by putting his shotgun in his mouth. His widow did not believe that he would do such a thing and hires Calder to investigate.
From the evidence that he could see, including the inability of Hendrickson to use his shotgun as inferred, Calder concludes that Hendrickson was unable to shoot himself that way. Hendrickson had lived in a high-end cul-de-sac of 8 houses and after establishing that no strangers had been in or out of it, it is determined that the killer was one of the other homeowners.
What happens next is a sort of Clue whodunit where Calder and his family tries to pinpoint the movements of the other residents in order to rule them in or out. The reason why I only gave this book 3 stars is because there's only so much mileage you can get out of a plotline like that. A short sideplot is best but it becomes tedious when it becomes the backbone of the whole book. And it wasn't done linearly either. It might have been better if the characters were ruled out 1 by 1 but there seemed no rhyme or reason in the order of ruleouts. After a while, I got tired of the minutiae of the reasoning and just wanted to get to the end.
There were a few sideplots thrown in to keep it a bit fresh and this type of plotline hasn't been done before in the Calder series but as I said, the Clue based plot had to carry too much weight and got tedious.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews