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The Deadly Joker
Het idyllische dorpje Netherplash Cantorum leek een ideale plaats om wat op verhaal te komen na een zenuwinzinking. John Waterson beschouwde het dan ook als een buitenkansje dat hij daar een huis kon kopen. Voor zijn jonge vrouw Jenny was er geen beter oord om weer helemaal de oude te worden. Twee jaar geleden hadden zij het plaatsje ontdekt en bij beiden was het liefde op het eerste gezicht geweest. Maar die liefde verdween toen zij er goed en wel woonden en één van de dorpelingen zich als een practical joker ontpopte. De grappen van dat heerschap werden steeds minder grappig en op een dag liepen ze uit op moord...
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
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About the author
Nicholas Blake
97 books73 followersNicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 18, 2022
Having read all of the Nigel Strangeways books, I am now reading all of Nicholas Blake's (Cecil Day-Lewis's) stand alone mysteries. This was published in 1963 and involves the quiet village of Netherplash in Dorset, where John Waterson is planning on a peaceful retirement with second wife, Jenny. John has two children from his first marriage; his journalist son, Sam, and seventeen year old daughter, Corinna. However, as all crime lovers know, villages may look picturesque but are rarely as tranquil as they look. Before long, poison pen letters are causing ill feeling and a spate of practical jokes also stir up resentment.
Nicholas Blake's mysteries are a mixed bag and they vary in quality. Although his writing is always good, he often has quite objectionable characters and often deliberately offensive language. Although this is not the best of his mysteries, there was still much about it which was interesting and I am glad that I read it.
Nicholas Blake's mysteries are a mixed bag and they vary in quality. Although his writing is always good, he often has quite objectionable characters and often deliberately offensive language. Although this is not the best of his mysteries, there was still much about it which was interesting and I am glad that I read it.
February 26, 2022
Despite Blake’s elegant writing, I didn’t enjoy this mystery at all. Set in a small country village, it is an unpleasant and unsettling story of a practical joker whose jokes become more disturbing until eventually there is a murder.
Throughout the book, there is an undercurrent of malevolence, underpinned by racism, misogyny and a disturbing piece of animal cruelty. The mystery is rather weak and the culprit will probably be obvious to a modern reader, so it may have worked better as an early psychological thriller, but overall I found this very disappointing.
Throughout the book, there is an undercurrent of malevolence, underpinned by racism, misogyny and a disturbing piece of animal cruelty. The mystery is rather weak and the culprit will probably be obvious to a modern reader, so it may have worked better as an early psychological thriller, but overall I found this very disappointing.
September 7, 2019
Glad I read it. Poor plot, nice writing style. Will not seek out more by the author.
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July 14, 2020One of those delightful old-fashioned English village mysteries, with an academic narrator and generally tony pals.
November 1, 2016
Some good phrases. Didn't finish.
October 23, 2014
This is not one of the Nigel Strangeways books, but I found it enjoying nevertheless. The narrator is a middle-aged man who has moved to Netherplash Cantorum with his young wife, Jenny. There is an ill-defined mental breakdown in Jenny's background, one of the symptoms of which was the writing of anonymous letters.
They settle down in the village and observe some of the typical issues of 1950s England, such as the fact that the nouveau riche Ronald Paston has bought the local manor and is trying to establish himself as the squire, while his beautiful Indian wife, Vera, is shunned by the locals. The former owner of the manor, Aylwin, is a practical joker; his half-brother Egbert is an inveterate skirt chaser, and soon the narrator and Jenny are subject to vague feelings of unease. Egbert makes a play for the narrator's teeenage daughter, then for Jenny. Vera's habit of walking around the village in the disguise of a teenage boy comes to an abrupt halt after local boys chase and wound her. Another boy is hurt after a mysterious figure chases him over the edge of a quarry. A beloved pet is strangled and strung up to a chandelier. Things come to a tragic climax during that prototypical English entertainment, a Flower Show, when Vere is murdered in full view of the assembled villagers.
I enjoyed the description of village life, but as a mystery, this wasn't much of a puzzler. There was only one real suspect, and sure enough, that person was guilty.
They settle down in the village and observe some of the typical issues of 1950s England, such as the fact that the nouveau riche Ronald Paston has bought the local manor and is trying to establish himself as the squire, while his beautiful Indian wife, Vera, is shunned by the locals. The former owner of the manor, Aylwin, is a practical joker; his half-brother Egbert is an inveterate skirt chaser, and soon the narrator and Jenny are subject to vague feelings of unease. Egbert makes a play for the narrator's teeenage daughter, then for Jenny. Vera's habit of walking around the village in the disguise of a teenage boy comes to an abrupt halt after local boys chase and wound her. Another boy is hurt after a mysterious figure chases him over the edge of a quarry. A beloved pet is strangled and strung up to a chandelier. Things come to a tragic climax during that prototypical English entertainment, a Flower Show, when Vere is murdered in full view of the assembled villagers.
I enjoyed the description of village life, but as a mystery, this wasn't much of a puzzler. There was only one real suspect, and sure enough, that person was guilty.
June 6, 2015
I enjoyed this book. Nicely written, a bit dated, but a smooth read. It wasn't too difficult to figure out who did it (and who would be the victim) but some of the rationale had not occurred to me. I really like his Nigel Strangeways books better but this was not bad.
August 16, 2013
Have enjoyed other Nicholas Blake books more, but this wasn't bad - just not to his normal standard
June 8, 2020
It was a fine NIcholas Blake mystery. Not one of my favorites of his but still entertaining. I liked the rural Dorset location and the cast of characters.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews