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Title/Author

Death Must Go On

Mac Fletcher

Average Review Rating Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)
Book Details

Publisher : Olympia Publishers

Published : 2011

Copyright : Mac Fletcher 2001

ISBN-10 : PB 1-84897-135-4
ISBN-13 : PB 978-1-84897-135-6

Publisher's Write-Up

Life seems to be almost too good to be true in picturesque Frox-Wells - although the healthy nature of the village doesn't suit all its inhabitants.

Embittered by lack of trade in recent years, undertaker Sydney "Snuffy" Bedford conspires with cronies to implement a scheme to fund their early retirement. The local doctor's reluctance to participate in the plan seems to be the only stumbling-block, though circumstances provide an opportunity to 'persuade' him to co-operate.

Along with the doctor's services come those of his newly found acquaintance, Joe, an Italian ex-prisoner of war who refused to go home when peace was declared. While the conspiracy is still at an embryonic stage, the schemers realise they have neither the stomachs nor the necessary degree of malevolence to carry out their original plan.

Snuffy, however, comes up with a mutually acceptable idea, and all appears to be going well despite the intervention of the local bobby. Then Sneyd. an ex-employee of Snuffy's with a penchant for blackmail, intervenes... and insists that, as was originally planned, death must go on.

By this time the local constabulary have, for altogether the wrong reasons, taken an interest in the goings on at Frox-Wells and converge on the band of conspirators to find that at least one of the villagers has died in mysterious circumstances.

Though all is not as it seems.

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Reader Reviews

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Review by Bryn (010901) Rating (9/10)

Review by Bryn
Rating 9/10
Death Must Go On is a darkly humorous piece similar in style to classic British film comedy and representing a form of humour that sadly has become rarer as more obvious sources of jokes increase in popularity.

The classic characters of the English village are all here, the undertaker, the Vicar, the horsey woman with the big house, the bumbling doctor… each brought to life with new quirks and dimensions to participate in a gem of a tale.

Mac Fletcher toys brilliantly with stereotypes and expectations to continually lead the reader astray. Death, or the lack of it, is central to the tale, and with this choice of subject matter, Fletcher is able to blend humour with some interesting questions about old age.

Fletcher captures the glorious summer we always think of as the English past, but in his Shropshire village, all is not well, and the failure of certain unreasonable persons to die off in good time is starting to play havoc with the local economy.

Wonderfully grotesque and witty, this book both echoes a range of classic British film and writing, whilst also striking out in new directions.
Bryn (1st September 2001)

Review Editors Note:
This review was submitted by Bryn, who was good enough to admit being an employee of Hollow Hills Publishing (original publisher of title) so it may be a 'little' biased... but hey, we are grateful for all opinions, even those driven by ambition.

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