The Cloak and Dagger Club is a fair-play, Golden Age-style mystery, which gives readers th clues they need to solve the crime. What reveals surprised you, and which, if any, did you guess correctly? Did you pick up on any pivotal clues along the way? How about red herrings?
I picked up most of the clues and figured out most of the secrets. It was fun though. I loved how it was all laid out and fair.
I enjoyed the mystery and did not guess all of it until the end. Mostly everything was tied up neatly in the end but it felt rushed to me. I wish the author had explained a little more some of the people arrived on the scene just in time. I don’t want to give anything away but that was a little confusing for me.
As I read this book, I realized Horace had discovered everyone’s secrets. I just wondered who would be desperate enough to want these secrets protected by murdering him.. In retrospect, the fact the Countess had no photos present and she knew how to get ink out of material should have raised some concern. However, I was surprised she was the one to plan the murder by administering the eyedrops. When she denied the knifing, again I was surprised that Graham had done this to protect his secret love affair with Jonathan. Clues simply eluded me throughout.
I read for the enjoyment of the characters and the murder but got sidetracked in the relationship between Lucy and Frank (which I didn’t enjoy all that much). I am never good at figuring out the killer so I was a bit surprised.
I picked up most of the clues. And you could tell the story of the maid dying in the train crash had to be a major clue, otherwise what was the point.
What surprised me the most about that era was how prevalent the telephone was. I thought the phone didn’t come into such everyday usage until several years after the time period of this book.
I’ve never been great at following clues, so I’ve given up trying to solve mysteries. Instead I enjoy reading mysteries for their representation of the wide range of mysterious behaviors. I love Agatha Christie but I’m always surprised at the ending.
I have to say I was completely blindsided by the Countess. To me, there was no inclination that she might have murdered the count’s wife and taken over her position. I had so many questions. Why didn’t the count have her arrested, tell the whole world she was a murderess? Yes, their affair would have become public knowledge, but it surely would have been better if he had been living and being drunk.