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ladypalma's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
nik_reads02's review against another edition
1.0
DNF
Just could get through it, the odd Insta-romance that seems a trademark of JJF is tedious and slows down the entire book. I just didn’t care anymore.
Just could get through it, the odd Insta-romance that seems a trademark of JJF is tedious and slows down the entire book. I just didn’t care anymore.
sirius_feanor's review against another edition
2.0
This is so much a gothic novel! With fainting damsels, evil men scheming to deprive a lady of her fortune, terrible secrets, a revenge plot and so on.
magistratrium's review
3.0
3 1/2 stars. Seven people are found dead in an empty house. Who they are and how they died is the central puzzle of the book. I was riveted by the plot for most the whole book although I thought the ending was slightly bizarre. There are great historical details, the plot is tight, and the central characters are well drawn. Overall a fun vintage mystery.
jbleyle63's review
3.0
This novel opens dramatically with a nervous thief discovering seven dead bodies during a burglary attempt on an apparently vacant estate house in Essex. The setup and first half of this mystery proved exciting and entertaining. The second half landed a little flat with coincidences that strained the old suspension of disbelief which made me appreciate all the more the plotting powers demonstrated by Agatha Christie in her great And Then There Were None. Overall pleasing enough that I have added another Farjeon title, Thirteen Guests, to my Want-To-Read list and continue with kudos to the British Library Crime Classics series for resurrecting these long out of print mysteries from the Golden Age.
rachelish's review against another edition
2.0
I was going to like it more but then I realised that the girl really was just a fainting female in need of rescue and it's a little bit yucky that the man fell in love with a painting of her aged 12. I was hoping for more of a twist tbqh. Also none of the dead people bar one had a proper backstory or family and the two sailors didn't even get surnames. The classism stinks the whole novel right up
Eta: actually it makes less sense the more I think about it. I've taken off another star
Eta: actually it makes less sense the more I think about it. I've taken off another star
chewdigestbooks's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a unique classic mystery that at times had me laughing, because of the foresightedness of the detective, his total willingness to accept a freelance reporter as a full partner in the search, and the general way they all got their parts of the story/crime and worked them out.
One of the unluckiest burglars I've ever come across breaks into a house only to find 7 people dead in the parlor. As he is running from the house like he's on fire, he runs into a freelance reporter that just happens to have docked his boat on the river nearby and they both go to the police. (The reporter trails him because how often do you see a shabby man running like their are ghosts after him, totally understandable.)
What's odd from there is that Detective Inspector Kendall almost takes on the reporter, Hazeldean as an investigative partner. Sure that happens in cop shows, but we're talking full partners here, like telling him everything and listening to his theories. DI Kendall also subtly sets Hazeldean up to do some of his investigating for him once he sees that the reporter is entranced by the portrait of a girl in another room. (It reminds me of the book/movie Laura.)
Hazeldean doesn't know it, but it is part of Kendall's plan to have him cross the channel in search of the girl, now woman, in the portrait to see what she knows. What he finds is more than he can handle though and eventually Kendall and the local police catch up to save his rear end.
The mystery itself is interesting and complicated, but it's really the wry humor and intelligence of human behavior of DI Kendall that did it for me in Seven Dead. Occasionally, the DI asks Hazeldean if he can trust him not to run to an editor before the mystery is solved and his answers, while not 100% yes, crack me up. Also, I wasn't aware that there were freelancers in 1939 when this was written.
This classic detective novel is a part of a group re-released by the British Library in the UK and Poisoned Pen Press here in the U.S. and I've loved all but one. They've aged well and there is something about the dry or witty British humor that just tickles me to no end.
If you love a good mystery, just about any in this series have been grand, so grab them before they disappear from print again!
One of the unluckiest burglars I've ever come across breaks into a house only to find 7 people dead in the parlor. As he is running from the house like he's on fire, he runs into a freelance reporter that just happens to have docked his boat on the river nearby and they both go to the police. (The reporter trails him because how often do you see a shabby man running like their are ghosts after him, totally understandable.)
What's odd from there is that Detective Inspector Kendall almost takes on the reporter, Hazeldean as an investigative partner. Sure that happens in cop shows, but we're talking full partners here, like telling him everything and listening to his theories. DI Kendall also subtly sets Hazeldean up to do some of his investigating for him once he sees that the reporter is entranced by the portrait of a girl in another room. (It reminds me of the book/movie Laura.)
Hazeldean doesn't know it, but it is part of Kendall's plan to have him cross the channel in search of the girl, now woman, in the portrait to see what she knows. What he finds is more than he can handle though and eventually Kendall and the local police catch up to save his rear end.
The mystery itself is interesting and complicated, but it's really the wry humor and intelligence of human behavior of DI Kendall that did it for me in Seven Dead. Occasionally, the DI asks Hazeldean if he can trust him not to run to an editor before the mystery is solved and his answers, while not 100% yes, crack me up. Also, I wasn't aware that there were freelancers in 1939 when this was written.
This classic detective novel is a part of a group re-released by the British Library in the UK and Poisoned Pen Press here in the U.S. and I've loved all but one. They've aged well and there is something about the dry or witty British humor that just tickles me to no end.
If you love a good mystery, just about any in this series have been grand, so grab them before they disappear from print again!
veronian's review against another edition
3.0
Note: in the public domain by Canadian copyright laws and available as a free ebook at https://www.fadedpage.com/
bev_reads_mysteries's review
4.0
The title is just a tad misleading--there are more than seven deaths in the story, but it is the seven bodies found together in one abandoned house that sets the investigation off with a gruesome beginning. Ted Lyte, petty thief and pickpocket, spies an empty house and decides to make a career move--into the housebreaking business. The house is nice and isolated, on the outskirts of a village. It has an abandoned air about it. There's no one in sight and the shuttered windows just seem to call his name. So, he goes round to the back and makes his way through a window into the kitchen. After fortifying himself with some bread and cheese, he finds a splendid bit of silver, scoops it up, and wonders what else there might be. But, being all nervous on his first ever spot of burglary, he decides to take what he's got and run.
And yet...there's a door with a key in it that tempts him. His curiosity gets the better of him (much to his regret) and he opens the door and finds--not a treasure in need of safe-keeping, but seven people. All dead. He takes to his heels, shedding silverware along way, until he runs into Thomas Hazeldean, amateur yachtsman and freelance journalist, who spots him as the petty thief he is. He also recognizes that the gibbering man has had quite a fright and hauls him off to the police station where Inspector Kendall has been bemoaning how quiet it has been in detective-land. That's all about to change....
Hazeldean and Kendall form an alliance of sorts and begin investigating the mystery. One clue is a revolver bullet hole in the portrait of a very pretty young woman, Miss Fenner. Miss Dora Fenner and her uncle are the legitimate residents of Haven House, but they are not among the seven found dead in the drawing room. All evidence points to the Fenners have left the place in a hurry. Hazeldean follows the Fenner trail to Boulogne, France where he runs into a mysterious silk merchant and suspicious and uncommunicative servants. He does manage to track down Miss Fenner, but before he can really get down to discussing the mystery with her, he is hit over the head and locked in a room.
Meanwhile, Inspector Kendall has been uncovering clues at Haven House. He's got everything from two dead cats, a missing bicycle, a hidden laboratory, and an abandoned lifeboat from an ocean-going vessel. All trails lead to France, where Mr. Frenner is missing, his friend--a certain Dr. Jones--has died in a plane crash, and a lot of rough house has been going on in the boarding house where they all lived while in France. Kendall and Hazeldean uncover most of the answers--but they won't get the final solution until they make one final trip in Hazeldean's boat.
This is an interesting and eclectic hodge-podge of a book. It starts out in classic detective mode with a dash of possibly impossible crime thrown in. It then moves into a thrilleresque mode, and ends with a chase scene that is done slightly in reverse. I thoroughly enjoyed another outing with Inspector Kendall (whom I first met in Thirteen Guests). He is a steady copper with a somewhat quirky sense of humor (I don't think Sergeant Wade appreciates it as much I do, though) and an intelligent penchant for noticing details. Hazeldean is also a nicely fleshed-out character, though he does seem to have been invented expressly to fulfill the thriller-hero role in the second portion of the adventure and to fall in love with Miss Fenner. Still, he does do a good bit of detective work himself.
I plume myself on having pinpointed the killer's identity (and most of the slight twist involved). Fortunately, that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. I did find the ending to be a bit anti-climatic and wish there had been a better way of revealing ALL to us. I'm also a bit baffled as to But...putting aside those few quibbles, I thought this well-plotted and quite enjoyable.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of reveiw. Thanks.
And yet...there's a door with a key in it that tempts him. His curiosity gets the better of him (much to his regret) and he opens the door and finds--not a treasure in need of safe-keeping, but seven people. All dead. He takes to his heels, shedding silverware along way, until he runs into Thomas Hazeldean, amateur yachtsman and freelance journalist, who spots him as the petty thief he is. He also recognizes that the gibbering man has had quite a fright and hauls him off to the police station where Inspector Kendall has been bemoaning how quiet it has been in detective-land. That's all about to change....
Hazeldean and Kendall form an alliance of sorts and begin investigating the mystery. One clue is a revolver bullet hole in the portrait of a very pretty young woman, Miss Fenner. Miss Dora Fenner and her uncle are the legitimate residents of Haven House, but they are not among the seven found dead in the drawing room. All evidence points to the Fenners have left the place in a hurry. Hazeldean follows the Fenner trail to Boulogne, France where he runs into a mysterious silk merchant and suspicious and uncommunicative servants. He does manage to track down Miss Fenner, but before he can really get down to discussing the mystery with her, he is hit over the head and locked in a room.
Meanwhile, Inspector Kendall has been uncovering clues at Haven House. He's got everything from two dead cats, a missing bicycle, a hidden laboratory, and an abandoned lifeboat from an ocean-going vessel. All trails lead to France, where Mr. Frenner is missing, his friend--a certain Dr. Jones--has died in a plane crash, and a lot of rough house has been going on in the boarding house where they all lived while in France. Kendall and Hazeldean uncover most of the answers--but they won't get the final solution until they make one final trip in Hazeldean's boat.
This is an interesting and eclectic hodge-podge of a book. It starts out in classic detective mode with a dash of possibly impossible crime thrown in. It then moves into a thrilleresque mode, and ends with a chase scene that is done slightly in reverse. I thoroughly enjoyed another outing with Inspector Kendall (whom I first met in Thirteen Guests). He is a steady copper with a somewhat quirky sense of humor (I don't think Sergeant Wade appreciates it as much I do, though) and an intelligent penchant for noticing details. Hazeldean is also a nicely fleshed-out character, though he does seem to have been invented expressly to fulfill the thriller-hero role in the second portion of the adventure and to fall in love with Miss Fenner. Still, he does do a good bit of detective work himself.
I plume myself on having pinpointed the killer's identity (and most of the slight twist involved). Fortunately, that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. I did find the ending to be a bit anti-climatic and wish there had been a better way of revealing ALL to us. I'm also a bit baffled as to
Spoiler
how our killer knew to stuff the chimney with newspapers ahead of time. He obviously couldn't do it while seven people were sitting there watching him. Was he just a boy scout gone bad and "always prepared" in case he needed to knock off a few people?First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of reveiw. Thanks.
verityw's review against another edition
4.0
A clever locked room mystery that evolves into a mad chase. I really enjoyed it and hadn’t worked out the solution until very late on, but the ending is rather far fetched.