From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Morning After Death (Nigel Strangeways, #16)

Nicholas Blake

Start date: November 14, 2020

Finish date: December 9, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Nicholas Blake reads

Why we're reading this: Last in our series of Nigel Strangeways buddy reads.
[close] Last in our series of Nigel Strangeways buddy reads.

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Archive: Nicholas Blake reads

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What Members Thought

Nov 07, 2020 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am saddened that I have now reached the final book in the Nigel Strangeways series - number sixteen in fact, published in 1966. This series started in the mid thirties and went right through to the mid sixties. During this time, Nigel Strangeways lost his wife in the blitz, found a new love and, in many ways, mirrored that of his creator, Nicholas Blake - pen name of Cecil Day-Lewis. Indeed, even in this novel, there is a scene where a much younger woman makes a pass at Strangeways and our wea ...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it

Shelves: vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2012, academic-mystery

In the Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake, Nigel Strangeways has contacted an acquaintance from Oxford days who happens to be the Master of Hawthorne House at Cabot University for permission to come and do some research in the famous Ivy League library. Strangeways is welcomed at the American university and is introduced to a interesting cast of characters. There are the three brothers who are all professors of the university--Josiah (Classics), Chester (Business), and Mark (English) Ahlberg- In the Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake, Nigel Strangeways has contacted an acquaintance from Oxford days who happens to be the Master of Hawthorne House at Cabot University for permission to come and do some research in the famous Ivy League library. Strangeways is welcomed at the American university and is introduced to a interesting cast of characters. There are the three brothers who are all professors of the university--Josiah (Classics), Chester (Business), and Mark (English) Ahlberg--who have brought their sibling rivalry with them. There is the graduate student John Tate--accused of plagiarizing some of of Josiah's work, but claiming that it's really the other way 'round. Tate's sister, Sukie, who is highly protective of her brother and who has been involved with more than one of the brothers Ahlberg. And then there's Charles Reilly, Irish poet and drunken, would-be rapist.

Strangeways swears that he has come to America for peace and quiet and thoughtful poetic research. All that goes by the wayside when Josiah Ahlberg is found shot to death and stuffed in on of the lockers on campus. Zeke Edwardes, Master of the House, requests that Strangeways use his investigative skills to assist the police and look out for Cabot University's interests. Nigel is reluctant to put his oar in--citing his unfamiliarity with US police procedures, but he can't resist when Sukie bats her eyes at him and begs for his help as well.

There are all sorts of motives--from the sibling squabbles that may have represented something far more dangerous to the possibility that Tate was looking for revenge on the man who blighted his career to the Irish poet hoping to keep his amorous adventures underwraps. Nigel must sift through false alibis and cover-ups in order to help the local police find the culprit--and even when they do, the motive isn't quite as clear as it would seem.

I always enjoy the Blake detective novels. He has quite a flair for dialogue--it's quite like watching a verbal tennis match at times. And the fact that "Blake" is a pseudonym for Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968-1972, is very apparent in his lyrical style. The best of his books come with terrific descriptions and language as well as the good dialogue. He sets up a pretty twisty plot as well. Four stars.

This review is mine and was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting any portion. Thanks. ...more

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