With an introduction by Jonathan Coe
1930s King's Cross, London.
When aspiring film actress Estella Lamare is found dead on the cutting-room floor of a London film studio, Cameron McCabe finds himself at the centre of a police investigation. There are multiple suspects, multiple confessors and, as more people around him die, McCabe begins to perform his own amateur sleuth-work, followed doggedly by the mysterious Inspector Smith.
But then, abruptly, McCabe's account ends . . .
Who is Cameron McCabe? Is he victim? Murderer? Novelist? Joker?
And if not McCabe, who is the author of The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor?
The problem is that for all its inventiveness and clever ideas and observations on the detective genre, the book is just not much fun to read. It is dry, particularly in its final quarter, and while the twist in its final pages is excellent it takes far too long to get there.
Read my full review on Mysteries Ahoy!