Last Ditch - Hardcover

Ngaio Marsh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316546747 ISBN 13: 9780316546744

Publisher: Little Brown & Company, 1977

Synopsis

Ricky Alleyn perhaps you know his father, Roderick? first appeared in Spinsters in Jeopardy, as a child. He s now 21, and has taken himself off to a secluded island to write a novel. Or think about writing a novel. Or look for distractions so he can avoid writing a novel. The distractions abound, mostly in the form of colorful local characters (and a rather dishy one), so all is beer and skittles (well, except for the novel) until Ricky stumbles across a murder and then gets himself kidnapped. Which is too bad for Ricky (and the murder-victim), but dandy for the reader, as it brings Inspector Alleyn to the island, and he s on top form. A subtheme involving drug-running may strike a jarring note, but remember, Last Ditch was first published in 1977, and as such, it offers a remarkable look at what happens when the characters and conventions of the Golden Age fetch up in the distinctly tarnished present."

About this title

Review:

"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --"New York "magazine

Book Description:

P. I. Leo Waterman's late father was once one of the region's most powerful and colourful political characters. But just how seriously Waterman senior transgressed during his time on earth comes into question when one of "the Boys" - Leo's "residentially challenged" barfly allies - digs up a human skeleton in Dad's backyward.The remains that remain belong to "Wild Bill" Waterman's staunchest foe - an ultra-conservative muckraking journalist who vanished mysteriously thirty years before. Leo has always struggled in his father's shadow - but he's convinced that his old man was much too savvy to have committed murder - let alone to have interred the victim in his own backyard.But in order to clear his father's damaged name, the dutiful son is going to have to start digging up a very dangerous past . . . and to do his damnedest not to get buried beneath it. 'I am utterly beguiled by G. M. Ford's Leo Waterman . . . Ford writes with a toughness leavened by grace and wit' MARGARET MARON 'A fine new mystery' SEATTLE TIMES

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown & Company
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 0316546747
• ISBN 13: 9780316546744
• Binding: Hardcover