And Death Came Too by Richard Hull

And Death Came Too

by Richard Hull

And Death Came Too is a golden age mystery from the sardonic and sly Richard Hull. Master of the inverted mystery, here he weaves a true-to-style, classic whodunnit.

After three nights of celebration in the oppressive August heat, four friends consider a very peculiar invitation.
Intrigue and restlessness triumph over exhaustion, and the group begrudgingly accepts… but upon their arrival at Mr Yeldam’s house, their host is nowhere to be seen. A man plays an odd game of solitaire, a strange woman flees out a back door, and the bizarre becomes deadly when a police constable enters, announcing Yedlham has been found stabbed to death in the other room.
Who had the motive and means to kill this reclusive man? With the prime suspect missing, the clock is ticking to solve this case before the four friends are accused of murder.

And Death Came Too was first published in 1939.

PRAISE FOR RICHARD HULL & AND DEATH CAME TOO 

‘While the twists defy summary, the resolution is satisfyingly elusive until the final pages.’ — Barry Turner, The Daily Mail
‘You will never guess who did it.’ — Reader Review
‘full of humour and an unpredictable plot’ — Reader Review
‘Required reading’ — Saturday Review of Literature
‘A model for mystery writers’ — The New Yorker
‘utterly original’ — John Cournos
‘well worth reading’ — Isaac Anderson, New York Times
‘how delightfully witty Mr. Hull can be’ — Charles Hannon Towne, NY American
‘Most assured… splendid writing’ — New York Sunday News

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

And Death Came Too is a reformatting and re-release of a 1939 mystery by Richard Hull. Publication date 17th Jan 2019 by Agora books, it's 221 pages and available in ebook format. Other editions are available in other formats.

This is a classic golden age interwar British mystery from a somewhat lesser known author. I reviewed another of his mysteries, Excellent Intentions, on my blog earlier. The author was certainly not afraid of testing alternative narrative styles and plot devices. This book starts in the literal middle of a conversation at a dance and the beginning is so jarring that I wondered if my eARC was missing some pages or an introduction. The ending is also very steep and, for me, abrupt. That being said however, it is well written (if a product of its time period). The characters are mostly just sketched in, and the strongest facets of the mystery are the pacing and dramatic tension. Hull was very adept at the 'show, don't tell' school of writing and I spent probably 80% of the book with a very wobbly and uncertain feeling of near-dread.

The intro and denouement were the weakest parts of the mystery. The plotting is intricate and the pacing is methodical (but I never found it plodding, it's not dull, it's deliberate). I did hope that my guess about 'whodunit' wasn't spot on, but I was disappointed. I would submit that it could seem a bit predictable simply because modern readers are viewing it through the lens of history and so many authors have adopted the plot device since the 1930s that it's become a lot more mainstream.

Agora seem to be engaged in the worthwhile goal of reintroducing these out of print golden age authors to a new, and hopefully appreciative, audience. Possibly worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this and some other Hull mysteries are included in the KU subscription library.

I enjoyed it, and I appreciate the publisher for making these long out of print classics available again.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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