The Spoilt Kill
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring crime classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.
'The grey eyes, so apt for tragedy, looked steadily up at me.
"You can't trust me, can you?" she said.'
Shentall's, a long-established institution of the Staffordshire Potteries industry is under attack. With its designs leaked to international competition and its prices undercut, private investigator Hedley Nicholson has been tasked with finding the culprit of the suspected sabotage.
But industrial espionage may just be the beginning. Delving further into the churning heart of Shentall's Pottery, Nicholson's prying is soon to unearth rumours of bonds cruelly smashed to pieces, grievances irrevocably baked in stone and a very real body, turning and turning in the liquid clay.
First published in 1961, The Spoilt Kill received widespread critical acclaim and praise from contemporary crime writers such as Julian Symons. Widely heralded as a perfect golden age mystery, this piece of British crime fiction marked a shift in the genre towards mysteries characterized by psychological elements. It was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger and remains a finely crafted masterpiece of the crime genre.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1961, this innovative mystery from Kelly (1927 2017) effectively uses time shifts to create suspense. The owner of a Staffordshire pottery company has hired PI Hedley Nicholson to shadow an employee, designer Corinna Wakefield, because he suspects Corinna of stealing new designs on the behalf of a rival firm. After two weeks keeping an eye on Corinna while posing as a consultant, Nicholson joins a tour she's conducting of the pottery factory. In one building, while the people on the tour are distracted, Nicholson notices a shocked expression on Corinna's face after she raises the trapdoor of a vault that holds liquid clay. Inside is a dead body. Nicholson recognizes the person, whose identity remains a tantalizing secret well into the book. A lengthy flashback charts the events leading up to that grim find, and a final section focuses on the murder and industrial spying. Subtle characterizations enhance the well-crafted plot. This is a superior addition to the British Crime Classics series.
