Some Deaths Before Dying

by Peter Dickinson

Overview

Harrowing Suspense in the Most Unexpected Places

Paralyzed by a debilitating illness, 90-year-old Rachel Matson finds herself confronted by a disturbing mystery — one that begins when a 19th-century pistol that belonged to her husband pops up on Antiques Roadshow. Determined to solved it, she begins the arduous task of teasing the past from the shadows, uncovering a tale bearing a sordid secret — and an even more devastating truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446676120
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2000
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Peter Dickinson is the distinguished author of many novels for young readers and adults. His books for Delacorte include the award-winning novels "Eva," "A Bone from a Dry Sea," "AK," "The Lion Tamer's Daughter and Other Stories," and "Chuck and Danielle,"

Editorial Reviews

His radiant portrait of Rachel does honor to "her long and steadfast campaign to keep hold of her mind," just as he dignifies the other aged or inarticulate characters in his story by lending them the clarity of voice to express the thoughts they feared they'd lost forever. —The New York Times Book Review

Marilyn Stasio

Rachel Matson was a talented photographer and the devoted wife of Jocelyn, a World War II prisoner of war. Now a 90-year-old widow dying of an illness that has paralyzed her, Rachel is determined to hang on to her mental powers. When she discovers that Jocelyn's treasured antique pistol is missing, a long-buried secret comes back to torment her. With the help of her loyal nurse, Dilys, Rachel uses her photographs to come to terms with her past, piecing together a series of events that tore her family apart 39 years ago. Veteran British mystery novelist Dickinson (The Yellow Room Conspiracy, Mysterious, 1994) skillfully fleshes out the characters of Rachel and Dilys and spins an absorbing tale. Recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/98.]. David Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND

Library Journal

The best of Dickinson's elegantly written novels deserve the label classic, arguably representing the ultimate detective story: a real mystery, logically, fairly, and surprisingly resolved, and solidly rooted in character.

Ellery Queen

Ninety-year-old, bedridden Rachel Martin ("the provinces of her body gone for good") lies waiting to die. Her mind, however, is unimpaired. Even more, in fact, it's engaged in a ceaseless struggle to find its way through the dark and twisting corridors of a family labyrinth, an effort that keeps Rachel in turmoil. The battle is joined on the day of an unlooked-for visit from a much loved but wastrel son. Typically, he lies to her, attempts to charm and con her. At issue is his spurious claim to a set of dueling pistols fashioned two centuries ago by a master craftsman and now worth a fortune. Years earlier, Rachel had given the pistols to her husband as a birthday present. Now, inexplicably, one of them is missing. How and why? The answers seem tied (Rachel senses) to a rich variety of human misbehavior, including random duplicities, ugly betrayals, and murder. But Rachel can't move. She can barely speak. Still, paralyzed as she is, she can, through sheer force of personality, conscript people to act for her. One of these is the sweet-natured home-care nurse who values and responds to Rachel's extraordinary qualities. Another is a young woman, a virtual stranger, who is helped by Rachel in ways neither of them can fully understand or explain. The story moves back and forth in time as Rachel's ferocious intelligence sifts and sorts, and finally solves her tormenting puzzle. An intricate mystery, beautifully told, as usual, by one of the genre's leading spellbinders (The Yellow Room Conspiracy, 1994, etc.).

Kirkus Reviews