Reginald Ashcombe builds the old machine and builds it fair: a closed circle, six respectable motives, one body, and every clue laid in plain sight for the reader willing to see it. His drawing-room murders are urbane and unhurried, the misdirection elegant, the reveal a click of restored order. Justice, in his hands, is a matter of good manners and better deduction.
Urbane, puzzle-precise, fair-play. Clues laid in plain sight, a brilliant detective, a tidy reveal. Witty drawing-room dialogue, elegant misdirection, justice served by deduction.
Preoccupations
the closed circle of suspects · the perfect alibi · respectable murderers · order restored
In conversation with
Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Horowitz
A line
"There were seven people at the dinner, six of whom had a motive, and the seventh, of course, was already dead."
There were nine setters at the centenary table, and only one of them could have written the last clue in the dead man's grid — because only one of them already knew how the evening would end.
There were eight people at the long table the night Aubrey Stint died, and only one of them had spent two years making a perfect little copy of the house — small enough to lie about, too honest to do it.