Whoever falls twice is finally dead
Whoever falls twice is finally dead ( Death On Site ) is a crime novel by Janet Neel , which was published in 1989 by Constable & Company Ltd. appeared in the UK .
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Homicide Detective Chief Inspector John McLeish, New Scotland Yard , is on a walking holiday with his 29-year-old girlfriend Francesca Wilson in the Scottish Highlands in early August . The couple's accommodation, a cottage , is in the Coire Dubh area. During a mountain hike together, Francesca witnesses the fall of a mountaineer. At the time of the accident, another person in a yellow jacket could be seen for a moment above the crash site. The wandering couple helps the injured. It's Alan Fraser, who lives on the Culdaig. Fraser is actually an experienced mountaineer as a K2 mountain climber, but he was "hit in the head" by his own account. Rich 63-year-old London contractor Robert Vernon is spending his vacation with his family in a hotel near the aforementioned cottage. He has a 26-year-old daughter Sally Vernon with Dorothy, his second wife. Sally is engaged to 35-year-old manager Nigel Makin. In terms of the absolutely necessary professional prerequisites, Nigel is regarded as a promising successor to the senior boss of the construction company. By contrast, William Vernon, old Vernon's son from his first marriage, reluctantly works as a calculator in his father's company. William would rather leave London and become a farmer.
Robert Vernon was a business friend of Francesca's late father. The entrepreneur has known the young woman from childhood.
Alan Fraser is preparing with his friend Michael Hamilton from Edinburgh on Coire Dubh for a Himalayan expedition to the K6 . In addition to climbing, Alan sleeps with Sally and after his vacation works with Michael on one of Vernon's construction sites as a scaffold builder.
John McLeish comes to the view that Alan Fraser was the target of an assassination attempt on the mountain and wants to warn the scaffolders on the London construction site. When the Chief Inspector enters the construction site, he witnesses Alan Fraser's fatal fall from the scaffolding. The climber had become dizzy from an overdose of antihistamine given in sweetened tea. All suspects from the Scottish mountains, including Michael Hamilton, Nigel Makin and the four Vernons, are present at the London construction site at the time of the crime. Inspector John McLeish takes on the 27-year-old allegedly homosexual mad medical student Michael Hamilton as the first candidate . Only one of the two climbers should join the Himalaya K6 team to Michael's knowledge. Maybe Michael wanted to get the friend out of the way? The next candidate - Sally Vernon - is pregnant and doesn't know by whom. She broke off her engagement to Nigel Makin. Alan Fraser, mostly in love with the mountains, did not want to marry her. Perhaps Sally took poison out of vindictiveness? The third candidate is Nigel Makin. Maybe he wanted to kill the rival? Candidates number four and five are the Vernon couple. Perhaps Alan Fraser was intolerable as a son-in-law?
McLeish finds out that the dead man was involved in major material thefts on Vernon's construction site while he was still alive. The inspector is on his way to see Nigel Makin. The manager is also on the trail of thefts. McLeish finds Nigel, who - critically injured in the head - was knocked down.
William Vernon admits to his stepmother Dorothy that he and Alan Fraser stole the building material and assaults the elderly lady. McLeish arrives, drives in between, and arrests William for the crime against Nigel Makin.
The evidence speaks a clear language. McLeish is convinced that Michael Hamilton attempted murder in the Scottish mountains and finally killed his friend in London.
It looks like Sally and Nigel will become a couple after all.
shape
The author is silent about the specific location of the Scottish holiday resort. Carrbrae is fifteen miles away and the Coire Dubh is not far.
The narrative perspective is always changed once. When William confesses his crimes to the stepmother, the reader is smarter than Inspector McLeish. But sometimes the criminalist is also smarter than the reader.
The detective novel has autobiographical traits. Both Francesca Wilson and the author worked as civil servants in the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The construction is unusual: the criminalist McLeish is almost present for each of the three offenses that occur, and in the case of a murder, he is even an eyewitness. When Alan Fraser falls to his death from the scaffolding in London, all six main suspects from the first Scottish attempted murder are there. There are other anomalies in the construction. Robert Vernon, known to be one of the prime suspects in the murder case, knows the investigator's mistress very well. So Francesca Wilson can persuade the multi-million dollar entrepreneur to divulge his intimate knowledge in the criminal case Alan Fraser.
McLeish's love story with Francesca is presented in a humorous way; partly also due to the appearance of the four younger, musically extremely talented brothers Francesca.
The blurb of the German edition used speaks of women's power. Indeed - Francesca is a successful government official, Dorothy is a feisty manager with decades of experience in her husband's company, and Sally knows how to tackle her career as an engineer.
The overall construction is profoundly complex. After reading it, there is room for reflection. If the two perpetrators had put their hands in their laps, then they would have achieved the goal of their pecuniary desires even without serious criminal offenses. Because Robert Vernon wanted to give Alan Fraser so much money for his Himalayan expedition that it would have been enough for two participants. But Michael Hamilton knew nothing about that. After his material theft, William Vernon learned that his father wanted to give him a million euros.
German editions
Used edition
- Whoever falls twice is finally dead. A Francesca Wilson crime thriller. Translated from the English by Sabine Steinberg. Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993 (1997 edition), ISBN 3-612-25988-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ engl. Constable & Co.
- ↑ Edition used, pp. 17, 14. Zvo
- ↑ see for example output used, p. 298, 11th line from above