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Horatio Green
Death to Slow Music
It opens with the bright lights, the summer sea, the scream of seagulls and another scream...a shrill animal scream that has nothing to do with a shillingsworth of horror on the Ghost Train. It is a tale of murder on the pier; of a woman killed instantaneously by a bullet through the left ear; of the man she has gone to meet; of the middle-aged doctor who examines the corpse; of the theatre and a well-known composer of operettes; of a temperamental actress and a sinister earl; of a clairvoyant and strange remark about chrysanthemums; of a high-diving exhibition and an extraordinary bet; and, fortunately for the law and order, of our favorite private investigator,Mr. Horatio Green.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Beverley Nichols
100 books149 followersJohn Beverley Nichols (born September 9, 1898 in Bower Ashton, Bristol, died September 15, 1983 in Kingston, London), was an English writer, playwright, actor, novelist and composer. He went to school at Marlborough College, and went to Balliol College, Oxford University, and was President of the Oxford Union and editor of Isis.
Between his first novel, Prelude, published in 1920, and Twilight in 1982, he wrote more than 60 books and plays on topics such as travel, politics, religion, cats, novels, mysteries, and children's stories, authoring six novels, five detective mysteries, four children's stories, six plays, and no fewer than six autobiographies.
Nichols is perhaps best remembered as a writer for Woman's Own and for his gardening books, the first of which Down the Garden Path, was illustrated — as were many of his books — by Rex Whistler. This bestseller — which has had 32 editions and has been in print almost continuously since 1932 — was the first of his trilogy about Allways, his Tudor thatched cottage in Glatton, Cambridgeshire. A later trilogy written between 1951 and 1956 documents his travails renovating Merry Hall (Meadowstream), a Georgian manor house in Agates Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, where Nichols lived from 1946 to 1956. These books often feature his gifted but laconic gardener "Oldfield". Nichols's final trilogy is referred to as "The Sudbrook Trilogy" (1963–1969) and concerns his late 18th-century attached cottage at Ham, (near Richmond), Surrey.
Nichols was a prolific author who wrote on a wide range of topics. He ghostwrote Dame Nellie Melba’s "autobiography" Memories and Melodies (1925), and in 1966 he wrote A Case of Human Bondage about the marriage and divorce of William Somerset Maugham and Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, which was highly critical of Maugham. Father Figure, which appeared in 1972 and in which he described how he had tried to murder his alcoholic and abusive father, caused a great uproar and several people asked for his prosecution. His autobiographies usually feature Arthur R. Gaskin who was Nichols’ manservant from 1924 until Gaskin's death from cirrhosis in 1966. Nichols made one appearance on film - in 1931 he appeared in Glamour, directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes, playing the part of the Hon. Richard Wells.
Nichols' long-term partner was Cyril Butcher. He died in 1983 from complications after a fall.
Between his first novel, Prelude, published in 1920, and Twilight in 1982, he wrote more than 60 books and plays on topics such as travel, politics, religion, cats, novels, mysteries, and children's stories, authoring six novels, five detective mysteries, four children's stories, six plays, and no fewer than six autobiographies.
Nichols is perhaps best remembered as a writer for Woman's Own and for his gardening books, the first of which Down the Garden Path, was illustrated — as were many of his books — by Rex Whistler. This bestseller — which has had 32 editions and has been in print almost continuously since 1932 — was the first of his trilogy about Allways, his Tudor thatched cottage in Glatton, Cambridgeshire. A later trilogy written between 1951 and 1956 documents his travails renovating Merry Hall (Meadowstream), a Georgian manor house in Agates Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, where Nichols lived from 1946 to 1956. These books often feature his gifted but laconic gardener "Oldfield". Nichols's final trilogy is referred to as "The Sudbrook Trilogy" (1963–1969) and concerns his late 18th-century attached cottage at Ham, (near Richmond), Surrey.
Nichols was a prolific author who wrote on a wide range of topics. He ghostwrote Dame Nellie Melba’s "autobiography" Memories and Melodies (1925), and in 1966 he wrote A Case of Human Bondage about the marriage and divorce of William Somerset Maugham and Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, which was highly critical of Maugham. Father Figure, which appeared in 1972 and in which he described how he had tried to murder his alcoholic and abusive father, caused a great uproar and several people asked for his prosecution. His autobiographies usually feature Arthur R. Gaskin who was Nichols’ manservant from 1924 until Gaskin's death from cirrhosis in 1966. Nichols made one appearance on film - in 1931 he appeared in Glamour, directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes, playing the part of the Hon. Richard Wells.
Nichols' long-term partner was Cyril Butcher. He died in 1983 from complications after a fall.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 27, 2018
Cosy crime in a theatre milieu. Once again, retired detective Horatio Green, or Poirot-lite if you prefer, manages to solve the crime even though precious few actual clues are offered. Strangely enough, the reader is also able to see who must be the killer, but it’s not clear how or why until the denouement when Poirot / Green divulges information which had been withheld from the reader. So it doesn’t really work as a mystery with no suspense and no psychological depth (as a Christie novel would have) but it remains an enjoyable read written with the charm and panache of Nichols’ usual style. There is some - possibly intended – comedy in the characters who come alive on the page all too vividly. One character is Noel Coward to the life (he really ought to have sued!) and another character was based on Nichols himself, so in his fate (a putative suicide) Nichols was committing suicide, though in the end the character turned out to be a victim. An entertaining romp.
February 17, 2024
Okay, I'm going to get this out of the way first:
This is a 1950s English crime novel, so of course there's going to be something—some attitude, some careless talk—that is horrific to the contemporary reader.
One day, I'd like to find one that manages to avoid making one's toes curl.
Freaking hell, Bev!
But ... time and tide, and if we couldn't blink our way past the horrors, we'd never be able to read anything written more than a five years ago by fully-paid-up SJWs anyhow. So moving on ...
This is highly readable. I'd started and chucked about four books in a week (not in a 'this is bad' way, mostly in a 'I'm not in this mood' way), so this was the first one that actually kept me reading past chapter one.
He has quite a way with him, it has to be said. And it's hard to put your finger on what.
Characters are eccentric and mostly a bit thin. A bit over-drawn, except, perhaps, for Waller the police inspector. Even the detective — Horatio Green — didn't quite land.
And mystery-wise, it's a hot mess. But the ones I like best very often are. I'm not really a whodunnit reader, I'm a reader perpetually in search of smart-arse protagonists who make a lot of snarky comments about various things, but in just the right tone of voice. There, I said it.
In this case, the narrator said quite a lot of snarky things about lots of people, both directly and indirectly.
And there's a distinct undercurrent of queer sensibility to it—if you're attuned to the way it was done back then, back there.
So I sighed, made a cup of tea, grabbed a packet of Digestives, and gave in.
This is a 1950s English crime novel, so of course there's going to be something—some attitude, some careless talk—that is horrific to the contemporary reader.
One day, I'd like to find one that manages to avoid making one's toes curl.
Freaking hell, Bev!
But ... time and tide, and if we couldn't blink our way past the horrors, we'd never be able to read anything written more than a five years ago by fully-paid-up SJWs anyhow. So moving on ...
This is highly readable. I'd started and chucked about four books in a week (not in a 'this is bad' way, mostly in a 'I'm not in this mood' way), so this was the first one that actually kept me reading past chapter one.
He has quite a way with him, it has to be said. And it's hard to put your finger on what.
Characters are eccentric and mostly a bit thin. A bit over-drawn, except, perhaps, for Waller the police inspector. Even the detective — Horatio Green — didn't quite land.
And mystery-wise, it's a hot mess. But the ones I like best very often are. I'm not really a whodunnit reader, I'm a reader perpetually in search of smart-arse protagonists who make a lot of snarky comments about various things, but in just the right tone of voice. There, I said it.
In this case, the narrator said quite a lot of snarky things about lots of people, both directly and indirectly.
And there's a distinct undercurrent of queer sensibility to it—if you're attuned to the way it was done back then, back there.
So I sighed, made a cup of tea, grabbed a packet of Digestives, and gave in.
May 9, 2024
Toisaalta ihanan hitaasti etenevä, toisaalta tuskastuttavan yksityiskohtainen tarina.
April 8, 2016
His third detective novel. Very readable. Dated, but that doesn't detract. Set in a seaside resort.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews