Three men are found with their throats cut, and all are connected in some way to an ancient City of London livery company, the Silkworkers. Lord Powerscourt has no shortage of suspects or suspicions. The first victim had shadowy links with the Secret Service. The second had wiped fifteen years out of his own past. The third, a man who collected women at church during Christmas Carol services, had been threatened by angry husbands and disinherited sons. All the victims had been opposed to the reorganization of the Silkworkers' finances and, interestingly, Sir Peregrine Fishborne, the head of the Silkworkers, was present just before each victim's death. Lord knows that the key to solving the mystery lies in the strange markings found on the bodies, which no coroners can identify. From the Hardcover edition.
In five short stories and one long novelette, Rufus King introduces Colin Starr, a young physician whose medical knowledge enables him to detect murder where a less able doctor would have signed a certificate of death from natural causes. Because of his shrewd understanding of human psychology as well as his application of scientific knowledge to seemingly unrelated facts, Dr. Starr is a unique detective in the annals of crime. Included in this volume are: The Case of the Three Baleful Brothers The Case of the Prodigal Bridegroom The Case of the Sudden Shot The Case of the Imperious Invalid The Case of the Buttoned Collar The Case of the Lonely Ladies Rufus King (1893-1966) was an American author of Whodunit crime novels. He created four series of detective stories, the most famous being Lieutenant Valcour. Modern critics are rediscovering Rufus King's work. Mike Grost, on Golden Age Detective, features a long writeup of King, stating: "King had a vivid writing style, with colorful characters, events, and images. He was clearly a born writer."
Originally published in 1976 Race and Suicide in South Africa synthesises the two dimensions of suicide: the personal and the social phenomenon. Its approach is Durkheimian in the use of court records, and phenomenological in the examination of actual cases. About 1500 cases of suicide in Durban from 1940-70 are analysed in terms of race, sex, occupation, marital status, economic status, family type and size, residential area, time and method used. What emerges is a revealing picture of suicide in South African ethnic groups. The findings confute the idea of Durkheim and others that behaviour in suicide conforms to certain universal principles and suggest the crucial role of particular social conditions in determining suicide trends, while at the same time challenging the proposition that a high suicide rate is associated with high status. Instead the author found that there were common emotional syndromes among suicides, but there were contributed to by different social factors.
Three weeks after his birth, Johnny America was abandoned by his biological mother, who handed the infant Johnny, to his parental grandmother at the funeral of his father who had passed away. She then vanished into thin air. There is no substitute to a mothers love, not even for the street smart Johnny. He was to face a tough life of poverty, with love and affection being rare commodities. The substitute mothering he received from his grandmother, although loving and godly, was inadequate. It caused long- term damage to his self esteem, his ability to relate to other people, and overall feelings of security and ability to trust others. This emotional turmoil condemned Johnny to the streets of Cape Town and to live as an unpopular Bergie on the inhospitable slopes of Table Mountain, where he was constantly harassed by the clean-up-squad. He adopted his street family, and together they engaged in petty theft, prostitution and alcohol abuse, resulting in Johnny serving time in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison. While serving one of his many prison sentences, Johnnys friend was killed violently in the strawberry fields, where they were employed as convict labour by correctional services. A notorious ex-prison gang member is convicted for the crime for which Johnny is a state witness. Johnny is scared for his life. His quest to find his mother takes him to Durban, together with the love of his life, Marie. His first encounter with his mother is not the reunion he expected. Her dedication to her gangster husband and her unresolved emotional baggage make it difficult for her to give and receive love. He returns to Cape Town with Marie back to the process of opportunistic survival, to increased risks of exposure to H.i.V-aids And TB, to dwelling in the informal settlements, and finally Redemption. Cyril James is a writer of rare calibre. And he tells a terrific story. Lorraine Richards Editor
