Part 1. In the Midst of Life
Part 2. We are in Death
e-Book, 182 pp.
(Tina Rhea #27)
ISBN 978-1-55497-487-0
$10.00
This novel is written under a pseudonym which disguises a well-known novelist. It is his first venture into detective fiction, and we have a pleasant conviction that the great company of thriller readers will demand many encores from ‘Quentin Downes’.
No Smoke – No Flame almost betrays the identity of its author in its trenchant characterization, its convincing realism and its refreshing sense of fun. Indeed, in Inspector Abie Kozminski, Mr Downes has created a personality unique among sleuths, and one who takes immediate rank beside Hercule Poirot, Inspector Alleyn, Lord Peter Wimsey and Father Brown.
The tangled skein that this endearing Whitechapel character has to unravel is of a complexity that will baffle the reader until the conventional last page, which produces a surprise which is not only spectacular but genuine, and according to the rules. The thrill-packed story is enacted in a number of typically English settings, including a residential ‘olde worlde’ village and, we are sorry to say, a publishers’ office.