Malice Aforethought
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season288 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbOne reader stopped less than halfway through on a first try in the 1970s.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 13 reviews from critics and book blogs, 10 credit the plot and 3 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne blogger calls it the first of its kind and ranks Julian Symons’s The Colour of Murder, not on the shelf, below it.
The case for it
on Dr Bickleigh
“the sort of nightmare physician on whom the cheaper tabloids thrive”
four stars · a book blog on Bickleigh’s charm
“when the philandering murderer is possibly the most sympathetic character in a book”
a book blog on the pace
“gripped and highly entertained, devouring the whole thing in a single sitting”
a book blog on Bickleigh’s mind
“a disturbing glimpse into the mind of a man who is so outrageously self-centred”
a book blog
The case against
on the second half
“I thoroughly enjoyed the first and was thoroughly bored by the second”
three stars · a book blog on the village
“The village was filled with very unappealing characters, including Teddy”
a book blog on Edmund Bickleigh
“Edmund is too one dimensional to be a good basis for psychological study”
a book blog on the length
“it does take Teddy an interminable time to get on with his murder”
Marcia Muller · 1001 Midnights, 1986
