The Strange Crime in Bermuda / Too Many Bottles - (Stark House Mystery Classics) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (Paperback)

About the Book

Two suspense novels originally published in 1937 and 1951. Strange Crime is an intriguing tale of a sudden disappearance on a Caribbean island. Too Many Bottles involves a mysterious death by pills, which could have been accidental-or murder.

Book Synopsis

STRANGE CRIME IN BERMUDA

Hamish Grier received a telegram from his old friend Hector Malloy asking him to visit him in Bermuda. On the ship down he meets Stephanie Rose, a brash young lady who turns out to be Molloy's island neighbor. But the day Hamish arrives, Molloy disappears. His beautiful wife, Faquita, believes there is something horribly wrong but Molloy's business partner, Reggie Cornwall, is positive that everyone is simply overreacting--Molloy will turn up. But the rumors suggest that Molloy may have been involved with Miss Rose. Were they planning to run away together? Or could he be the victim of a strange accident? When Hamish finds one of Faquita's servants dead in a trunk, Molloy's disappearance takes on a sinister edge. And it's not long before Inspector Jesser becomes involved, with Hamish now in the very thick of it.

TOO MANY BOTTLES

The cocktail party that night gives James Brophy a great idea for a new mystery story. He'll call it The Party Was the Pay-Off. But it's a challenge trying to write when his wife Lulu is always interrupting his thoughts. And she's in a real mood tonight. Maybe it's the pills. Pills for this, pills for that. She asks Brophy to get her the new bottle, but when she finally comes down to the party, Lulu is in such a horrible state she's chases all the guests away. It's only the next morning when Lulu is found dead in her bed that Brophy realizes that his story title has taken on a new meaning. Her doctor suspects foul play. Her sister Norma believes it to be suicide. One of the party guests starts crying murder. And by the time Lieutenant Levy is brought it, it begins to look like Brophy is his prime suspect. After all, his marriage was failing, and who else had access to all of her pills? Someone had given Lulu the wrong medicine--and the pay-off was death.

Review Quotes

"Back in the early Thirties, before anybody ever heard of "psychological novels of suspense," Elisabeth Sanxay Holding was writing them, and brilliantly. For subtlety, realistic conviction, incredible economy, she's in a class by herself." -Anthony Boucher "She is a master at constructing a tightly interwoven plot and at creating an atmosphere rife with terror." -Springfield Republican "Her gift for psychological insights marks her as an important precursor to later writers such as Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell." -Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian