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The Beast Must Die (Nigel Strangeways, #4)

Nicholas Blake

Start date: March 10, 2018

Finish date: April 4, 2018

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: We've read the previous Nigel Strangeways books as buddy reads, and are continuing with the eccentric sle…more
[close] We've read the previous Nigel Strangeways books as buddy reads, and are continuing with the eccentric sleuth's cases.

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Buddy reads

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What Members Thought

Apr 20, 2013 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Published in 1938 and picked by the Observer as one of the 1,000 novels everyone should read, this is the fourth in the Nigel Strangeway series, following on from A Question of Proof, Thou Shell of Death and There's Trouble Brewing. It is a stand alone mystery, although characters from previous books do appear, or are mentioned; Inspector Blount was first in "Thou Shell of Death" (in which novel Strangeways also meets his wife Georgia) and a mutual friend of the main character, Frank Cairns, and ...more

37 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2021 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, septimo-circulo, crime-fiction-uk, 1930s, ipso-books

full post here
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/01/...

and yikes!

It's sad that so many people tend to discount books written long ago (in this case the 1930s), because there are some true gems to be found if they'd just look. Case in point: this book, which had me going right up until the last page. No lie. It's also an intelligent read, not just some average mystery book that you've read a thousand times.

While I'm very a much a mystery series purist, meaning I have to read them in order, over full post here
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/01/...

and yikes!

It's sad that so many people tend to discount books written long ago (in this case the 1930s), because there are some true gems to be found if they'd just look. Case in point: this book, which had me going right up until the last page. No lie. It's also an intelligent read, not just some average mystery book that you've read a thousand times.

While I'm very a much a mystery series purist, meaning I have to read them in order, over the rest of this year I'll be making a lot of exceptions, including this book which is number four in the series featuring Blake's private detective Nigel Strangeways. There's a reason for this -- my crime/mystery shelves are overflowing with books I've picked up here and there over the decades that I've never read, so in trying to get through at least some of them, I needed some organizational help. I found it by chance while reading through a book called Serial Crime Fiction: Dying for More (eds. Jean Anderson, Carolina Miranda and Barbara Pezzotti; Palgrave MacMillan 2015) when I came across Miranda's chapter entitled "More Than the Sum of its Parts: Borges, Bioy Casares and the Phenomenon of the Séptimo Circulo Collection" (31-40). Fascinated, I went online to discover exactly which titles were included, landing here. As I read through the list, I realized that I owned more than quite a few of these books, and thus the decision was made to read as many as I can this year and very likely on into the next. Problem solved.

The Beast Must Die is, if I may say so, a brilliant piece of writing, worthy of the mental round of applause I gave it upon finishing. It is a solid whodunit -- I went through more than one round of "it was him/her" and still did not get it right. It's also a story about which I won't be saying very much, since any hint of what happens here would be a crime in itself. What I will divulge is that Frank Cairnes, a writer of crime novels under the name of Felix Lane, is out to get whoever it was that was responsible for the death of his young son in a hit-and-run accident. As the novel opens, we are made privy to Felix Lane's diary entry of 20 June 1937, which begins as follows:

"I'm going to kill a man. I don't know his name, I don't know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him ..."

which, as an opener, is just sheer genius on the author's part. No way will anyone want to stop reading at that point!

My first venture into the mind of Nicholas Blake has most certainly been a successful one. Not only is it worthy of my picky inner armchair-detective self, but it also offers an insightful character study as well as the ingenious use of literary references that fell into place in my head only after finishing the book. Definitely not your typical 1930s, golden-age mystery, and it's one I can most certainly recommend. I loved Georgia Strangeways; I'll now have to backtrack and go back to book number one to find out more about Nigel.

My advice: do NOT read reviews of this book that want to take you to the big reveal. You'll kick yourself if you do, trust me. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review