Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

 

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

I received this e-book from Crime Classics via NetGalley. It is published in the series from Agora Books called Uncrowned Queens of Crime. 

It’s very nice to get to know other writers who have written classic crimes, and I have thus been inspired to read authors unknown to me before.

In this novel a young debutante is found dead buried in snow. Although she is covered in snow her body temperature is high and the cause of death resembles a heat stroke. 

It is not a heat stroke but she has been poisoned with an overdose of a diet drug.  

In charge of the investigation is Inspector Foyle with the help of psychiatrist Dr Basil Willing.

Foyle and Willing have different ways of solving cases, and Willing tries to convince Foyle about the value of psychology in criminal investigation. He states that a blunder is the one form of clue a criminal can neither remove, conceal nor destroy - the one clue that is entirely beyond his conscious control. 

So when trying to find out who the killer is you will have to look for blunders. Alas I did not succeed, but was well entertained trying to.

This is the first of 14 novels featuring Psychiatrist- detective Basil Willing - so I will hopefully be able to get hold of some of the others.

What I also like about this book is the list in the beginning : "Persons of interest in this mystery". Makes it so much easier if you forget a name. Each person is also shortly described.

I read the e-book on NetGalleys new app: NetGalley Shelf and it was fine.