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SHADOWS BEFORE
by Dorothy Bowers
Rue Morgue Press, July 2005
191 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 091523081X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

SHADOWS BEFORE is the second of four novels featuring Inspector Dan Pardoe and was originally published in 1939.

Matthew Weir was tried for the murder by poisoning of his sister-in-law in 1937. Acquitted of this charge he moved his family to Spanwater, a manor house in the Cotswolds village of Steeple Cloudy where he tries to start afresh. However it's only two years later that his wife suddenly dies of arsenic poisoning. Is Weir guilty of murder once, twice or not at all? Scotland Yard in the shape of Inspector Dan Pardoe and his stalwart Sergeant Salt are sent to investigate.

It seems the late Mrs Weir was an amateur herbalist and was prone to taking long walks. Her fading mind, however, had caused her husband to hire a companion, Aurelia Brett. Before Miss Brett's arrival, Mrs Weir had been visiting a woman who had rented a nearby cottage, but she disappeared one night leaving Mrs Weir extremely agitated. After her arrival, Miss Brett complained in a letter to her former landlady, of over sleeping. What was going on at Spanwater?

I found SHADOWS BEFORE a bit slow to get into at first with all the scene setting and the characters being introduced. However once the death occurred and the police arrived I began to enjoy it much more as the pace increased.

The plot is quite convoluted and the whodunit is not something I believe you can work out from all the evidence presented, even with studying the prologue closely. Inspector Pardoe is an attractive character, clever but not showy and worth meeting again.

The final two Inspector Pardoe books, DEED WITHOUT A NAME and FEAR AND MISS BETONY are now available from Rue Morgue Press. A standalone novel, THE BELLS OF OLD BAILEY, will be available in August 2006.

Reviewed by Karen Meek, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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