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Speak No Evil
Elizabeth Dakin has reason to fear her older, wealthy husband. Throughout their two-year marriage — a union made in haste after the death of her father — she has been the victim of his alcoholic bouts of rage. She never imagined she had to be afraid for him.
But when she stumbles upon his dead body, suddenly the life they lived in a Jamaican paradise is revealed for the sham that it is. Or so she thinks. For suddenly Elizabeth finds herself the lead suspect in his murder...
But when she stumbles upon his dead body, suddenly the life they lived in a Jamaican paradise is revealed for the sham that it is. Or so she thinks. For suddenly Elizabeth finds herself the lead suspect in his murder...
172 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1940
4 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Mignon G. Eberhart
143 books70 followersMignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 28, 2015
I was really disappointed with this book. Mignon G. Eberhart (MGE)was a prolific and popular mystery writer. Her career from 1929 to 1988. I have read several of her books and liked them. However, this one is an exception.
After her father's death, Elizabeth married Robert Dakin, who was more than twice her age. He was more of a father figure than a husband. Elizabeth did not love Robert, and quickly learned his dark secret - he was a violent alcoholic. When he drank, he became abusive - and he drank more and more as time went on. Elizabeth had been infatuated with Robert's nephew and heir, Dyke Sanderson, who shows up suddenly. Soon Robert's secretary (and probable mistress) Ruth and his former wife, Charmian, also show up. In addition, Cyril Kirby, their British friend, is present. It is not long before there are arguments and recriminations - and Elizabeth finds Robert found dying of a gunshot. Obviously, the killer is one of the guests or a member of the household.
I give points to MGE for concealing the facts of the murder so well. I didn't figure out who did it or how. The problem is, by the end of the book, I didn't really CARE. Elizabeth is an extremely stupid, naive young woman who just wants a man to do all her thinking for her since she's in capable of it herself. With Robert gone, she really is clueless about everything. I couldn't understand why the inspector kept thinking she was a suspect. I kept hoping she would be the next victim. I'm not spoiling anything by saying she's not, though that should not be a surprise. I thought about giving this three stars, but I just could not qualify that.
If you want to read a book by MGE, I suggest "Five Passengers from Lisbon." It is much better written and very suspenseful.
After her father's death, Elizabeth married Robert Dakin, who was more than twice her age. He was more of a father figure than a husband. Elizabeth did not love Robert, and quickly learned his dark secret - he was a violent alcoholic. When he drank, he became abusive - and he drank more and more as time went on. Elizabeth had been infatuated with Robert's nephew and heir, Dyke Sanderson, who shows up suddenly. Soon Robert's secretary (and probable mistress) Ruth and his former wife, Charmian, also show up. In addition, Cyril Kirby, their British friend, is present. It is not long before there are arguments and recriminations - and Elizabeth finds Robert found dying of a gunshot. Obviously, the killer is one of the guests or a member of the household.
I give points to MGE for concealing the facts of the murder so well. I didn't figure out who did it or how. The problem is, by the end of the book, I didn't really CARE. Elizabeth is an extremely stupid, naive young woman who just wants a man to do all her thinking for her since she's in capable of it herself. With Robert gone, she really is clueless about everything. I couldn't understand why the inspector kept thinking she was a suspect. I kept hoping she would be the next victim. I'm not spoiling anything by saying she's not, though that should not be a surprise. I thought about giving this three stars, but I just could not qualify that.
If you want to read a book by MGE, I suggest "Five Passengers from Lisbon." It is much better written and very suspenseful.
February 19, 2019
I enjoy Mignon Eberhart for her descriptions of lush, warm scenes; and she never fails to set them up in my mind's eye.
A common theme in many of her stories, the innocent protagonist (Elizabeth) is trapped in a worthless marriage, has her next husband all lined already, then winds up being the prime suspect in the murder of husband #1.
The gimmick of the three monkeys is ignored for most of the book, but explained in the end in a rather disappointing connection, with little significance.
The long and complicated explanation at the end was a bit tedious but a satisfactory conclusion.
Understanding the murder requires a visualization of the odd room arrangement, which is described but not illustrated; so here is my version for your enjoyment (see my blog) Note that Elizabeth has to pass through the "little passage" and Robert's study (murder scene) in order to get to the rest of the house.
A common theme in many of her stories, the innocent protagonist (Elizabeth) is trapped in a worthless marriage, has her next husband all lined already, then winds up being the prime suspect in the murder of husband #1.
The gimmick of the three monkeys is ignored for most of the book, but explained in the end in a rather disappointing connection, with little significance.
The long and complicated explanation at the end was a bit tedious but a satisfactory conclusion.
Understanding the murder requires a visualization of the odd room arrangement, which is described but not illustrated; so here is my version for your enjoyment (see my blog) Note that Elizabeth has to pass through the "little passage" and Robert's study (murder scene) in order to get to the rest of the house.
March 30, 2020
Mignon is my new favorite writer of romantic mystery ... of the six I have read (Escape the Night, The Glass Slipper, Fair Warning, The Dark Garden, The Pattern, and Speak No Evil), this might be my favorite so far.
In Speak No Evil, the reader is easily drawn into the beautiful and tragic lives of an old money family on location in their second home, an exquisite villa in Jamaica overlooking Montego Bay. This is a well-written and laid-out classic 'whodunit' with great character development and beautiful scenery.
As always Mignon delivers a wonderful climactic conclusion which is never what one would expect.
The mystery, romance and suspense never lets up in Speak No Evil!
Mignon's novels from the 30s, 40s and 50s are literary jewels ...
I think her 'Danger in the Dark' might be my next read ... followed by 'Hasty Wedding!'
In Speak No Evil, the reader is easily drawn into the beautiful and tragic lives of an old money family on location in their second home, an exquisite villa in Jamaica overlooking Montego Bay. This is a well-written and laid-out classic 'whodunit' with great character development and beautiful scenery.
As always Mignon delivers a wonderful climactic conclusion which is never what one would expect.
The mystery, romance and suspense never lets up in Speak No Evil!
Mignon's novels from the 30s, 40s and 50s are literary jewels ...
I think her 'Danger in the Dark' might be my next read ... followed by 'Hasty Wedding!'
November 18, 2023
Elizabeth had just reached the point where she knew she didn’t want to be married to Robert Dakin any more, when a shot rang out and she found him dead. Suddenly her greatest fear wasn’t her husband, but being accused of his murder. And then she began to fear someone was trying to kill her too…
Set in Jamaica in 1941 during the period when the Second World War was a distant British preoccupation to Americans, this book is worth a read for that alone. In some ways there is an overly-complex set-up of both people and geography, but read as a psychodrama about a woman subject to coercive control, in a West Indies somewhere between Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea and Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery, this is an interesting book.
Set in Jamaica in 1941 during the period when the Second World War was a distant British preoccupation to Americans, this book is worth a read for that alone. In some ways there is an overly-complex set-up of both people and geography, but read as a psychodrama about a woman subject to coercive control, in a West Indies somewhere between Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea and Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery, this is an interesting book.
April 24, 2020
This was one of the better Mignon Eberhart books I've read! And I've read around 10 by now.
The protagonist wasn't too dull, and the characters were differentiated well and pretty interesting. I missed the obvious clue until halfway through the book, and figured out who did it before the end but it was still very satisfying. The excitement ramped up in the back half of the book and the ending was great! Didn't like that the inspector wasn't on top of things, but it had to be done so the male love interest could really be the one who saves the day.
Fun mystery!
The protagonist wasn't too dull, and the characters were differentiated well and pretty interesting. I missed the obvious clue until halfway through the book, and figured out who did it before the end but it was still very satisfying. The excitement ramped up in the back half of the book and the ending was great! Didn't like that the inspector wasn't on top of things, but it had to be done so the male love interest could really be the one who saves the day.
Fun mystery!
July 21, 2023
Most disappointing. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...
August 10, 2019
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
April 30, 2025
Datatissimo giallo pieno di divagazioni sentimentali da latte alle ginocchia, che spreca una scrittura decorosa e alcune idee tutto sommato interessanti (le tre scimmiette del titolo). Queste ultime – le idee, ma pure le scimmiette - vanno a infrangersi contro un finale ben poco sorprendente e che nel suo unico colpetto di scena lascia più perplessi che altro, senza contare il colpo di grazia – quello sì, realmente letale - inferto dall’immancabile e qui più che mai prevedibile appendice amorosa. La descrizione in dettaglio della condizione della protagonista, donna sottomessa a qualsiasi uomo le si pari davanti, era probabilmente l’interesse principale della scrittrice, ma l’impulso misandrico inghiotte l’intreccio giallo. Accade, con modalità diverse, anche (e non solo) nel recente "La ragazza del treno", romanzo al cospetto del quale anche il peggior scarto della Eberhart rischia di passare per capolavoro.
*!
*!
August 13, 2012
This novel had some of the usual characters of mysteries written before WWII--a young woman married to a much older wealthy man, a would-be lover in the background and a vindictive ex-wife.
Since this book was published in 1940, Miss Eberhart placed it in the Caribbean so that she could have the wealthy setting without the fear of bombing. The young men in the book were going to war, but for the time of the murder all of the necessary characters were there.
I enjoyed this locked room mystery and had guessed wrong as to who the murderer was.
Since this book was published in 1940, Miss Eberhart placed it in the Caribbean so that she could have the wealthy setting without the fear of bombing. The young men in the book were going to war, but for the time of the murder all of the necessary characters were there.
I enjoyed this locked room mystery and had guessed wrong as to who the murderer was.
April 16, 2016
The protagonist was stuuuupid, naive, and needy. The motive was convoluted. Disappointing...if this had been my first Eberhart, I'd never read another. BUT since it wasn't, I will.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews