The Last of the Country House Murders

In England after the Revolution, the 'Last of the Country House Murders' is planned -by the Government. The murder of Jules Tanner, aesthete and survivor of the old regime, is to be decked out as a tourist attraction, and Haines, once the school sneak, now the compliant Government agent, has the task of selecting possible murderers and arranging a suitably excit- ing crime. But should the murderer be Bessy, Jules's ex-fiancée, Cedric, the recluse who has proved to his own satis- faction that the universe does not exist, or perhaps the famous Siamese twins, Dora and Violet? Haines is drawn into a world he thought long vanished, a world where jewels flash and there are kippers for breakfast, and, confused, almost nostalgic, he begins to fear that he will have to commit the crime himself- 'what could be more banal, more bourgeois pre- Revolutionary theatre than that? The detective as murderer...' But nothing is quite as Haines fears or hopes in a world where the Milky Way is thought to be only 'a corneal smudge'.

Witty and bizarre, The Last of the Country House Murders offers intriguing insights into England, both as it is now, and as it might become.

Literatura Estrangeira