The Book of the Lion

by Elizabeth Daly

Paperback, 1948

Status

Available

Call number

813.52

Publication

Toronto: Bantam, 1985

Description

It should be a fairly routine job for Henry Gamadge: Examining the papers of a dead poet and playwright with some early promise but not much commercial success. But it's not so much the life and letters as the death of the author (murdered in Central Park) that interests Gamadge. Add in a dead witness and the odd behavior of the family, and Gamadge decides something criminal is afoot.

User reviews

LibraryThing member antiquary
I was interested in this story because it involved a (real) missing work by Chaucer, The Book of the Lion, but as I recall I was disappointed by the result.
LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz
Henry Gamadge, bibliography expert, is asked by Avery Bradlock to examine and value the correspondence by Avery’s late brother. Gamadge’s visit to Bradlock introduces him to the unusual circumstances of the brother’s death and the behaviour of the widow. Stories don’t add up and some
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behaviours seem suspicious.

The family is not very close. In fact, the space the widow lives in seems to be shut off from the main family home. There is the fact that the widow is so secretive about her husband’s death by murder. Why was the husband out so late the night of his murder? Where were they getting the money to live on if this poet/writer hadn’t written anything new in the last few years?

Gamadge is known for his expertise on books, but he has become more known for his success in solving murders. This mystery is right up his alley.

Elizabeth Daly’s books were written in the last of the 1940s to 1950s and are in the vein of Christie and Sayers. One of my favourite eras.
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Original language

English

Original publication date

1948

Physical description

148 p.; 18 cm

ISBN

0553248839 / 9780553248838
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