Anthony Quinn

[Nigeyb]

I must check my library service


Thanks

[David]

I took it into my custody earlier today.

A rather generous 28 days has been given by Aberdeen City Libraries before I need to hand it back, most likely with reluctance.

[Nigeyb]

Hurrah


Turns out my library service has multiple copies of....


The Mouthless Dead



There's a lot of reserves against them but I will bide my time and swoop soon


I can't wait to discover what you make of it David



A powerful and gripping crime novel based on the Wallace Murder, a national cause célèbre of the 1930s and still unsolved today, by the author of Curtain Call and Our Friends in Berlin

One night in 1931 William Wallace was handed a phone message at his chess club from a Mr Qualtrough, asking him to meet at an address to discuss some work. Wallace caught a tram from the home he shared with his wife, Julia, to the address which turned out, after Wallace had consulted passers-by and even a policeman, to not exist.

On returning home two hours later he found his wife lying murdered in the parlour. The elaborate nature of his alibi pointed to Wallace as the culprit. He was arrested and tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, but the next month the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict and he walked free.

Fifteen years on, the inspector who worked the case is considering it once more. Speculation continues to be rife over the true killer's identity. James Agate in his diary called it 'the perfect murder', Raymond Chandler said 'The case is unbeatable. It will always be unbeatable'. And on a cruise in 1947, new information is about to come to light.

*

A voyage of discovery... this superior whodunnit becomes a danse macabre as the terrible truth is gradually revealed ― The Times

Anthony Quinn is one of our most underrated novelists, so I'm always happy to sing his praises. Initially, The Mouthless Dead is a fictional account of the infamous unsolved murder of housewife Julia Wallace in Liverpool in 1931. But then the story and its narrator takes a series of unexpected turns until its final, chilling paragraph. I was gripped ― Red Magazine

This absorbing account of one of the most famous unsolved British murder cases creates a fascinating narrative about what really happened. The Mouthless Dead is as engrossing as it is unsettling ― Emma Flint, author of Little Deaths

A beguiling real-life crime thriller and an elegiac meditation on murder, marriage and loneliness ― Chris Brookmyre

Anthony Quinn has found an ingenious way of shaping the story into a gripping work of fiction... a compelling mixture of crime story and character study ― Sunday Times

A dark, unsettling, completely addictive mystery, which draws you in with all the momentum and all the loving attention to period detail that we've come to expect from Anthony Quinn ― Jonathan Coe

[David]

These are platinum-plated testimonials, adding to my eagerness to get stuck in.

[David]

The Mouthless Dead.

This, uncharacteristically, was a bit difficult to get into, as the opening chapters feature a large number of characters with whom it’s difficult to keep track.

It’s settled down now, about a third of the way through.

I report in since a budding film producer has just declared, “…Hitch - I mean, Hitchcock - is making a film of Rope, the Hamilton play…” (page 109/274)

[Nigeyb]

Thanks David


Always love a Hamilton reference

[David]

Inventiveness defined.

A true-life story about a “perfect murder”/unsolved crime in Liverpool around which Quinn spins his own yarn, with an imagined conclusion - or is it? - arrived at during an Atlantic crossing. Masterful in language, intrigue, suspense, and surprise, as we’ve come to expect from this author.

Suspend reality (if the book’s gritty situations so allow) and immerse yourself in the prose, the atmosphere, and the narrative jolts at which Anthony Quinn excels.

[Nigeyb]

Sold


Thanks David

Quinn's done it again eh?

Like the postman....