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The second shot

Anthony Berkeley

1920300 pagesabout 5–7 hours
1920
first published
  • 1920Hodder & Stoughton · ENG
  • 1930Hodder & Stoughton · 312 pages · ENG
  • 1931Pub. for the Crime Club, inc., by Doubleday, Doran & company, inc. · 320 pages · ENG
  • 2010The Langtail Press · ENGISBN 9781780020983
  • 2001House of Stratus · 300 pages · ENGISBN 9780755102075

Detective writer John Hillyard is entertaining a small house party at Minton Deeps Farm when a shocking accident takes place. Shortly after enacting a murder drama for their own amusement, the guests are returning to the house when Eric Scott Davies, the man who played victim, is found dead after two gunshots go off. The police suspect murder, but when Roger Sheringham is summoned from London it is not by Superintendent Hancock but by one of the guests. In a web of scandal, opportunity and multiple motives, the case turns out to be more complex than even Sheringham could have expected.

How it feels

AtmosphereNoir

How it reads

Plot intensityEventful

When and where

ThemesJustice
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