Dancing With Death

It is the aftermath of the Second World War and the country is in the grips of post-war austerity. Tommy and Duds Lethbridge have inherited a manor house in Buckinghamshire and plan on a weekend-long celebration to keep their minds off the drabness of the times. They have very little food or drinks to offer their guests, so the onus falls on the attendants to chip in their ration books...Unfortunately everything goes wrong at the party: all the inviteesseems to be falling out with each other, in particular the two highly attractive twin sisters. Flo and Jo. The drinks are running low and Duds is beginning to regret that they ever thought up this house party. But in the early hours of New Year's Day, one of the sisters is found dead, an apparent suicide. Duds realises that as well as the police, it might be a good idea to call in the services of her good friend Lady Lupin, the somewhat scatter-brained wife of the Glanville vicar...and amateur detective. The Coroner seems convinced that it is indeed suicide. But Lupin is not so sure...Dancing with Death (1947) was one of four murder mysteries penned by Joan Coggin (1898-1980) and they are all absolutely first rate. The novel has a very strong plot and is written in a stylish and humourous manner which delighted critics at the time, and will surely equally delight the growing audience for Golden Age Detective fiction.

It is the aftermath of the Second World War and the country is in the grips of post-war austerity. Tommy and Duds Lethbridge have inherited a manor house in Buckinghamshire and plan on a weekend-long celebration to keep their minds off the drabness of the times. They have very little food or drinks to offer their guests, so the onus falls on the attendants to chip in their ration books...Unfortunately everything goes wrong at the party: all the inviteesseems to be falling out with each other, in particular the two highly attractive twin sisters. Flo and Jo. The drinks are running low and Duds is beginning to regret that they ever thought up this house party. But in the early hours of New Year's Day, one of the sisters is found dead, an apparent suicide. Duds realises that as well as the police, it might be a good idea to call in the services of her good friend Lady Lupin, the somewhat scatter-brained wife of the Glanville vicar...and amateur detective. The Coroner seems convinced that it is indeed suicide. But Lupin is not so sure...Dancing with Death (1947) was one of four murder mysteries penned by Joan Coggin (1898-1980) and they are all absolutely first rate. The novel has a very strong plot and is written in a stylish and humourous manner which delighted critics at the time, and will surely equally delight the growing audience for Golden Age Detective fiction.