The Last Houseparty

by Peter Dickinson

Book Overview

In this gripping novel by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson, the survivor of a manor-house crime delves into the past to solve a mystery At the elegant English manor known as Snailwood, tourists... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394517954
• ISBN13: 9780394517957
• Release Date: September 1982
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Complex, but worth it

Here's what the back cover says: "In the glittering thirties, all the leaders of art and politics attended the galas of the Countess of Snailwood. And there, one of them committed a dark and savage crime. Now, forty years later, the sole survivor of those opulent days must take up the disturbing mystery again--this time for keeps."A theme of Dickinson's in a number of his mystery novels is looking back at the past, putting together information that you may not have had then, and having the whole picture of what you thought was true change underneath you.This is one of those books. The time goes back and forth from the present (which is the 1980s in the book) to the past (England during WWII). Everything fits together in a complicated but satisfying manner. There is a real sense of a now distant time and place during the WWII passages. Be forewarned: in most mysteries, the creepy stuff happens at the beginning. In this one, you get to that at the end. Overall: good book, well written. I'd say buy it.