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4.0 out of 5 stars
Jewels, sedatives - and murder, May 12 2002
In the Rejected Client Variation of the classical Silver format, Maud Silver's first interview with her prospective client opens the book without the usual preliminary skirmishes between the various suspects-to-be. Louis Brading believes that someone has been doping him to make him sleep heavily - possibly to get at his collection of historic jewels, most of which have some connection with crime. He isn't married, although he's courting someone, and his only heir is his cousin, Charles Forrest. Brading has a mean streak; for instance, his secretary, James Moberly, stays with him under threat of exposure of his involvement in jewel thefts long ago (he'd quit if Brading would release him). Frankly, doing time in prison rather than as Brading's secretary might have been easier; a prison sentence for theft is finite, and the worst has actually happened, rather than being kept hanging over one's head. Miss Silver refuses to take the job of spying on Moberly, since it isn't her line, and advises Brading to release Moberly.Charles Forrest, for his part, isn't interested in the collection for itself, but did manage to mysteriously acquire enough cash to renovate his house. Only his adopted sister Lilias lives with him - he divorced Stacy Mainwaring for desertion a few years ago. Stacy, for her part, has avoided Charles and Ledshire for years, but on taking a lucrative job of painting a miniature of the formidable Myra Constantine, learns too late that Myra is staying in Louis Brading's old house-turned-country club - next door to Charles Forrest. Louis Brading, of course, is the murder victim - he of the money and vengeful temperament. The question is, who killed him? Anybody who crossed him might well kill him in a kind of self-defense, although the law wouldn't see it that way. Lilias is a chronic liar and troublemaker - did she try to mess up Brading's engagement, as she might have sabotaged her brother's marriage? Was Charles hard up for money? Or did James Moberly finally snap?
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