"Murder Take Three"

Eric Brown began writing when he was fifteen and sold his first short story to Interzone in 1986. He has won the British Science Fiction Award twice for his short stories, and his novel Helix Wars was shortlisted for the 2012 Philip K. Dick award. He has published sixty books, and his latest include the crime novel Murder Take Three, and the short story collection Microcosms, with Tony Ballantyne. His novel Binary System is due out in Autumn. He has also written a dozen books for children and over a hundred and forty short stories. He writes a regular science fiction review column for the Guardian newspaper and lives in Cockburnspath, Scotland.

Brown applied the Page 69 Test to Murder Take Three and reported the following:

From Page 69:

The scriptwriter was silent for a time. “It’s just occurred to me. The film. With the leading lady dead... I’m sorry. You’ll think me crass.”

Langham shook his head. “Not at all. What will happen to the shoot?”

“There’s been a lot of money and time invested so far, and I don’t know whether insurance would cover any losses. My guess is that Dennison will find a stand-in. There are plenty of American actresses in London, or actresses who could fake an accent. And to be honest it isn’t that demanding a role.”

Langham hesitated, then asked, “What do you know about Dennison’s relationship with Suzie?”

“I must admit, I don’t know whether it was just a physical attraction, or if there was anything deeper. There was a twenty year age difference. It can’t have been that easy to relate to someone young enough to be your daughter.”

Ambler indicated a finger-post point to the village of Hambling. “Take the turning and it’s a couple of mile away. Haggerston House is a mile out of the village on the other side.”

Langham took the turning and wound down the window. He glanced at Ambler. “You said you were stationed there during the war.”

“For almost a year.”

“Did you have much to do with Desmond Haggerston?”

“No, not much at all. He was pretty much a recluse. He must have been in his early seventies then, and remote... depressive.” Ambler shrugged. “On the few occasions I did meet him, I got on rather well with him. You know what they say, Donald?”

“What’s that?”

“Misery likes company.”

In Murder Take Three, the fourth of my Langham and Dupré mysteries set in Britain in the 1950s, writer Donald Langham has just started work as a professional private investigator. His first client is American movie star Suzie Reynard, currently shooting a murder mystery film at Marling Hall, an Elizabethan manor house situated in the Norfolk countryside. The film’s director Doug Dennison– Suzie’s lover – has been receiving threats and Suzie is convinced his life is in danger.

On arriving at Marling Hall with his fiancée Maria, Langham finds the film set awash with clashing egos, petty jealousies, ill-advised love affairs and seething resentments. Matters come to a head when a body is discovered in the director’s trailer.

It would appear to be an open-and-shut case when someone confesses to the murder. Donald and Maria are not convinced – but why would someone confess to a crime they haven’t committed? If Langham is to uncover the truth, he must delve into the past and another murder that took place more than twenty years before.

Page 69, near the start of chapter twelve, has Donald Langham driving to Haggerston House with the film’s script-writer, his old friend Terrence Ambler. They’re trying to find one of the suspects, Desmond Haggerston, who seems to have given the police the slip. They suspect that the old man might have fled to Haggerston House, a few miles from where the murder was committed.

On the way, through leafy country lanes, they discuss the fate of the film, and Langham questions Ambler about the dead actor’s relationship with the film’s director, and probes the script-writer about Desmond Haggerston.

I think page 69 is pretty representative of the book as a whole, in that it’s largely dialogue-driven, and shows Langham as a concerned, friendly individual whose gentle questioning gets to the root of the mystery. The page also serves to characterise the people spoken about, as well as the people speaking. Untypically for the book, no one is drinking alcohol!

Visit Eric Brown's website.

My Book, The Movie: Murder Take Three.

--Marshal Zeringue