Series
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Audible Studios (2013)
Original publication date
1938
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I am going to kill a man. I don't know his name, I don't know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him . . . What do you do when you plan a murder then, inexplicably, your victim turns up dead, and not by your hand? Respected crime writer Frank Cairnes is plotting the perfect murder of George Rattery, the hit-and-run driver who killed his young son, but when his intended victim is found dead and Cairnes becomes the prime suspect, the author insists he has been framed. Pleading his innocence, an old friend calls in private detective Nigel Strangeways to help prove that Cairns has been framed. Strangeways must unravel a fiendishly plotted mystery if he is to discover what really happened to George Rattery.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member cmbohn
This book opens with a twist - the narrator confesses to be planning a murder. The reader soon learns that the narrator is Frank Cairnes, also known as writer Felix Lane, and the man he is planning to murder is the hit and run killer of his only son, Martie. Cairnes doesn't know who the man is yet,
You might think with a beginning like that, the rest of the book would be rather anticlimactic, but it's not. The first part is written in as a diary that Cairnes keeps, but the rest of the book is sort of catching up to what really happened. It seems that the reckless driver, George Rattery, was indeed murdered, but did Cairnes do it or did someone else beat him to the job? Nigel Strangeways comes in to investigate and finds plenty of motives for murdering Rattery, but the evidence is inconclusive about the identity of the murderer.
This was a good solid mystery that I really enjoyed. I liked the beginning and had fun following along and trying to guess, Did he really do it? (I guessed wrong, but I don't think that will help you!)
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but he makes some pretty accurate deductions and soon has his victim in his sights.You might think with a beginning like that, the rest of the book would be rather anticlimactic, but it's not. The first part is written in as a diary that Cairnes keeps, but the rest of the book is sort of catching up to what really happened. It seems that the reckless driver, George Rattery, was indeed murdered, but did Cairnes do it or did someone else beat him to the job? Nigel Strangeways comes in to investigate and finds plenty of motives for murdering Rattery, but the evidence is inconclusive about the identity of the murderer.
This was a good solid mystery that I really enjoyed. I liked the beginning and had fun following along and trying to guess, Did he really do it? (I guessed wrong, but I don't think that will help you!)
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LibraryThing member Tendulkar01
One of the greatest crime novels ever written
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Clever mystery with plenty of twists. I did suspect the guilty party at several points and was strongly tempted to skip to the end & check but refrained. I'm glad I didn't cheat because Blake (or Cecil Day-Lewis to use his real name) did keep me second guessing myself and threw several very
I would recommend it to any fans of the Golden Age mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie, Margerie Allingham, Josephine Tey, Rex Stout, etc. One thing I like about this style of crime story is it is relatively short without a lot of extraneous stuff about the detective's home life or romantic problems.
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plausible red herrings across the trail. I would recommend it to any fans of the Golden Age mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie, Margerie Allingham, Josephine Tey, Rex Stout, etc. One thing I like about this style of crime story is it is relatively short without a lot of extraneous stuff about the detective's home life or romantic problems.
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LibraryThing member Garrison0550
I'm not really a murder mystery type reader, but I really liked this book. Good writing, great story, totally worth a read!
LibraryThing member TomDonaghey
The Beast Must Die (1938) by Nicholas Blake. This is a novel or revenge gone awry. When his young son is killed by a hit and run driver, Felix Lane knows he must avenge the boy. But no one saw the car or the driver and the police are at a loss. He sets out on his own. This businessman turned
But it is a turn of luck when splashing though one of many deep, water filled ruts which make up a great portion of the country roads that he gets his break. He follows up which leads him to the movie industry and a beautiful young woman.
Te first portion of the story is a diary written by Lane. He details the search, the clues and the thread that leads him to the driver. And it outlines the steps he took to get near the murderer. It ends at the point where he it set to destroy the monster that killed his son.
The second section is told directly by Lane as he sets about confronting the killer, only to have his plan thwarted at the last moment.
The last section introduces Nigel and Georgia Strangeways as the amateur detectives on the case. They have been called in by Lane because Inspector Blount of The Yard is looking into the case. Blount has been called in because Lane’s intended victim has been murdered only a few hours after Lane’s failed attempt. Lane looks to the official eye as the most likely suspect due to the circumstances. It is up to the Strangeways’s to untangle the problem
The Beast Must Die is the best of all the Strangeways novels, of which there are seventeen. This is a dark twisted tale of plotting and revenge, of callous actions and unintended results, and it is a jolly good read.
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mystery writer thinks through the logic of the situation, narrowing down the suspects from all people who drive in England to a very select few.But it is a turn of luck when splashing though one of many deep, water filled ruts which make up a great portion of the country roads that he gets his break. He follows up which leads him to the movie industry and a beautiful young woman.
Te first portion of the story is a diary written by Lane. He details the search, the clues and the thread that leads him to the driver. And it outlines the steps he took to get near the murderer. It ends at the point where he it set to destroy the monster that killed his son.
The second section is told directly by Lane as he sets about confronting the killer, only to have his plan thwarted at the last moment.
The last section introduces Nigel and Georgia Strangeways as the amateur detectives on the case. They have been called in by Lane because Inspector Blount of The Yard is looking into the case. Blount has been called in because Lane’s intended victim has been murdered only a few hours after Lane’s failed attempt. Lane looks to the official eye as the most likely suspect due to the circumstances. It is up to the Strangeways’s to untangle the problem
The Beast Must Die is the best of all the Strangeways novels, of which there are seventeen. This is a dark twisted tale of plotting and revenge, of callous actions and unintended results, and it is a jolly good read.
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LibraryThing member alexlubertozzi
I read an out-of-print edition of this book and was amazed at how good it was. It's a genre mystery set (and written) in 1938 England. Part of the Nigel Strangeways mystery series, this was written by Cecil Day-Lewis under the pen name Nicholas Blake. Day-Lewis was a poet laureate of England and
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the father of Daniel Day-Lewis. The Beast Must Die (which, as a title, makes sense when you get to the end--it's from a bible passage--but otherwise makes you think the book is something else) concerns a distraught father whose young son is killed in a hit-and-run accident. The father (a writer of mysteries under a pseudonym) is obsessed with trying to discover the identity of the hit-and-run and driver and exact revenge. The first half of the book is his diary, and the second half is written in the third person and unravels the mystery of what really happened in the diary. Great book, but sadly out of print in the U.S. I'm going to look for the other Nigel Strangeways mysteries. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Other editions
The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake (Paperback)