The Riddle of Sphinx Island: An Antonia Darcy and Major Payne Mystery 1

by R.T. Raichev

Detective story writer Antonia Darcy and her husband Hugh Payne are asked to travel to Devon in order to prevent a murder on Sphinx Island, but they are far from enthusiastic as they suspect an elaborate joke. And when they hear that one of the house party guests is Romaine Garrison -Gore, another crime writer, they have no doubt that they will walk into a rather tedious variant of the Murder Weekend. After all, it is their tenth wedding anniversary and Major Payne's aunt, Lady Grylls, has been trying to think of a truly original present for them . . . But then they receive a rather sinister letter signed 'The Riddler' and become curious . . . could the devil speak true?

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2013

About the author

R. T. Raichev is a researcher and writer who grew up in Bulgaria and wrote a university dissertation on English crime fiction. He has lived in London since 1989.

Series:
* Country House Crime Mystery

Reviews

[Jaclyn Holland-strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Raichev’s books are either very good or excellent and I’ve read all but one. This book in particular has some great elements to it, such as a variety of fun tropes common to the murder mystery genre, including Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. It does start off a bit slow and the murder doesn’t happen for quite a while, but there needed a bit of set up, so it doesn’t represent a major flaw. I think the classic detective fiction tropes are handled very well indeed. Major Payne is featured a bit more than his wife in this one so his fans will be happy with that (she’s prominent in it as well, just not to the same degree). The way that they deduce the truth shows the fairness of the clues and how smart the couple is. Just the fact that the clues exist and that they’re intelligently handled raises this novel above the usual fare from Raichev’s peers. The ending is surprising, and satisfying. I should’ve been able to guess it, but the red herrings were, as always, ingenious. I would have rated it 4.5 stars, but there's no option for that, so I gave it 5 because I think that's fairer than a 4 in this case.