1980 collection of short stories (written between 1940 and 1980) with
murder as a theme.
But not mystery stories, which is what I've otherwise read from
Ferrars; there may be some element of working out what's going on in a
situation, but mostly these are suspense stories, often in which a
murder goes awry because of one tiny error.
"The Dreadful Bell": woman with a leg in plaster is stuck in a top
floor flat in Edinburgh. The batty old neighbour seems nice enough,
but is her husband up to something?
"After Death the Deluge": the water tank bursts in a shared house, but
who's trying to cover up what's going on?
"The Truthful Witness": child innocently sees a thing she shouldn't.
"Go, Lovely Rose": a nutter did it, but we know that up front. Mostly
it's how he gets caught.
It disgusted him to discover that all her little kindnesses to him
had simply been little kindnesses that had come from the warmth of
her heart and not from any desire to take possession of him.
"Drawn into Error": a neat way of establishing an alibi.
"Safety": from the days when non-safety matches were a thing.
"A Very Small Thing": a murder victim manages to confound the plot.
"Scatter His Ashes": a woman recalls her father's murder. I think this
is the best of them, with some really interesting exploration of
character.
"Undue Influence": woman goes to her daughter's to convalesce after an
accident, but comes to realise she's being cut off from all other
contact.
Some of these are pretty grim, and there are the usual Ferrars nervy
women and feckless men, each constantly trying to trap the other into
marriage; but the last two stories in particular are sublime, and the
collection would be worth reading for them alone.
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