“Elizabeth Daly rose like a star on the
mystery fans’ horizon with Unexpected Night.”—The New York Times
“Spooky from start, with extra shivery climax at [a] theatrical
performance where death plays leading role.”—The Saturday Review
Amberly Cowden was staying at a Maine golf resort just as he
attained the age of majority, and with it a one million dollar inheritance. “He
is imagined to have celebrated his coming of age by going out and falling off a
cliff. Poor old Amby.” “Poor old Amby,” indeed, but it is fine news and better
timing for his relatives. Had he died before reaching the age of 21, every cent
of the money would have gone to “some French connections” utterly alien to
Amberly’s American relations.
As luck would have it, the extra-keen sleuth Henry Gamadge is at the
resort for a bit of R & R. Never one to ignore a suspicious turn of events,
Gamadge vows to get to the bottom of young Amberly’s death, no matter what the
cost.
From the jacket:
Distinguished by a delightful humor and by
the freshness of its writing, this novel tells of terror and strange murder in
a Maine seacoast resort.
An army family, the relatives and
hangers-on of a rich young invalid, a summer theater group of Irish players, an
expert on documents, and the salt Maine air are the components of Miss Daly’s
novel.
The reasons why it was necessary for
Amberley Cowden’s body to be found on the beach at the bottom of the cliff near
the hotel and for his sister alma to be repeatedly frightened are part of the
solution of this original and unusual plot. Young Gamadge doesn’t think it
strange that Amberly Cowden has died, but he begins to worry when one of the
Irish players tells him that he had the evil eye. It turns out that the actor
was very nearly right.
With great skill and a fine feeling for
people and detail Miss Daly makes her first novel individual and vividly alive.