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ISBN: 1499557302
ISBN13: 9781499557305

Five Roundabouts to Heaven

$8.88List Price: $6.00
ISBN: 1499557302
ISBN13: 9781499557305

Conditions

A brand-new, unused copy in perfect condition.

Conditions

A brand-new, unused copy in perfect condition.

Book Overview

FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY JOHN LE CARR "This novel comprises some of the best work of an extremely gifted and perhaps under-regarded British crime novelist....What gave John Bingham his magic was something we look for in every writer, too often in vain: an absolute command of the internal landscape of his characters, acutely observed by a humane but wonderfully corrosive eye." Nineteen years is a long time. But when Peter Harding and Philip Bartels meet up again in the French countryside of their youth, the history and the dark secrets it holds are still there, tempered only slightly by time. The two men share more than a past friendship. Decades earlier, trapped in a disenchanted marriage with his wife, Beatrice, Philip meets and falls in love with the graceful, charming Lorna Dickson. Overcome by the prospect of a humiliating divorce, Philip makes the decision to poison Beatrice. But when he invites his best friend, Peter, to meet his mistress at lunch one day, he unwittingly sets off a shocking chain of events that will forever change the lives of everyone involved. Now available for the first time in over twenty years, Five Roundabouts to Heaven is one of master writer and storyteller John Bingham's greatest works. With a chilling, expertly calibrated plot and mesmerizing prose, it is the powerful study of how murder can so easily enter the minds of ordinary people. This description may be from another edition of this product.
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
ISBN:
1499557302
ISBN13:
9781499557305
Release Date:
July 2014
Publisher:
Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Length:
128 Pages
Weight:
0.50 lbs.
Dimensions:
0.3″ × 6.0″ × 9.0″
British DetectivesContemporaryFictionLiterature & FictionMysteryMystery, Thriller & SuspenseThrillers

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Customer Reviews

2 customer ratings | 2 reviews
Write a Review

a little gem!

I picked that one in a bargain bin at a supermarket because of Le Carre's endorsement but wasn't expecting much. After about twenty pages, I was hooked and finished the book in a single session. While we are essentially told what has happened in the first chapters and while it is in many ways an archetypal mystery novel, the excellent writing that drives the clean (very little suspension of disbelief required) plot leaves enough open paths to keep the reader speculating about the multiple possible endings. This is an atemporal intrigue, deeply grounded in human psyche. Read it!

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Moody and Sensual Mystery

It's a real shame that this book is out of print. John Bingham was a classic mystery writer from the early 50s in the UK and he belongs in the ranks of the best of breed. Five Roundabouts is his second novel.The book has much of the dark moodiness and imperfect characters that you'd find in a book by someone like Patricia Highsmith. You won't find the stock sympathetic characters here. Roundabout's characters commit adultery, lie to each other, mock their friends, and contemplate murder. The reader looking for someone to cheer for will be rather hard put in this instance.Definitely not typical escapist detective fiction, and all the better for it, IMO.

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