Yet Another Death in Venice (Simon Bognor Series #13)

by Tim Heald

Overview

Along the canals of Venice, Bognor investigates a mogul’s medieval murder

Flush with cash from the success of his latest insipid blockbuster, aspiring film mogul Irving Silverburger takes to Venice to soak himself in luxury. Instead, he is quickly soaked in blood. Cruising down the canal in a vaporetto, Silverburger is shot with a crossbow, killed by a Harlequin who disappears into the masquerade of Carnival.

Unmasking the disguised assassin falls to Simon Bognor, a British Board of Trade detective whose natural sloth did not prevent him from stumbling backward into knighthood—an honor that fits just as poorly as his ill-tailored clothes. If he ever had a prime, he is long past it now, but Bognor must rally once more to penetrate the mysteries of an ancient city at festival time, when the killers are not the only ones in disguise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480468283
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	04/22/2014
Series:	Simon Bognor Series , #13
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tim Heald (b. 1944) is a journalist and author of mysteries. Born in Dorchester, England, he studied modern history at Oxford before becoming a reporter and columnist for the Sunday Times. He began writing novels in the early 1970s, starting with Unbecoming Habits (1973), which introduced Simon Bognor, a defiantly lazy investigator for the British Board of Trade. Heald followed Bognor through nine more novels, including Murder at Moose Jaw (1981) and Business Unusual (1989) before taking a two-decade break from the series, which returned in 2011 with Death in the Opening Chapter.
Heald has further distinguished himself with official biographies of Prince Philip and Princess Margaret, as well as accounts of sporting heroes like cricket legends Denis Compton and Brian Johnston. He is also an experienced public speaker. Heald’s forthcoming novel, Yet Another Death in Venice (2014), is the latest in the Bognor chronicles. 

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2014
Heald's 13th Bognor novel (after 2011's Poison at the Pueblo) centers on a familiar sleuth working for a shadowy British intelligence agency, fittingly titled the Special Investigations Department of the Board of Trade. During a visit to Venice, Bognor is asked by his friend and local police officer Michael Dibdini to assist his investigations into a baffling crime. While traveling by boat along the Grand Canal, Irving G. Silverburger, a B-movie producer, is fatally shot by someone in a harlequin costume wielding a crossbow. Because the murder took place in the midst of Carnival—when many people dress in a similar fashion—Dibdini has had a hard time getting any traction on the case. In turn, Bognor agrees to help, while focusing his energies on pursuing suspects back in England. There are frequent winks at the reader familiar with the genre, such as this little gem: Bognor "tended to believe, along with P.D. James, that murder was essentially a working-class business, even if it became more interesting in middle-class hands." This mystery will appeal to readers looking for humor in their whodunits, although some will find a surreal detour toward the end superfluous. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A constant pleasure.” —The Daily Telegraph 

“Crime with a P.G. Wodehouse flair.” —Chicago Tribune

“Dazzling and star-spangled [prose].” —Dorothy B. Hughes, author of In a Lonely Place

From the Publisher