Windows To The World

WHAT I TELL YOU THREE TIMES IS FALSE

by


Samuel Holt

aka Donald Westlake


On a small island in the Caribbean a group of actors and a director have been called together to do a pro bono effort intended to raise money for the American Cancer Society. They have been given the use of a large three pronged tower once owned by a drug Baron now in jail. At present it is owned by two  movie producers who have promised to do a certain amount of good will work.The idea is to "find a cure' for cancer and so they have brought together a cast of exemplary detectives. There is Sherlock Holmes played for many years by Clement Hasbrouck who of late  has also been dubbed 'Clement Hasbeen' and he has come with his very nice wife Betsy. Miss Jane Marple is also at hand and of late has been portrayed by Harriet Fitzgerald. Her companion is a very butch looking woman Daphne Wheeler. For a change the part of Charlie Chan is covered by a true oriental, Fred Li.  The most current is TV detective   6'6'' Jack Packard played by the author Sam Holt.. He is a criminologist, college professor, karate black belt and amateur detective with lots of skills and talents. In real life the only thing that Sam shares with Jack is his height and his experience as a lowly traffic cop years ago.

Once on the island a severe tropical storm cuts off all the the inhabitants from the mainland. Naturally in cases such as these dire things happen to the radio as well and thus communications are severed completely.






During the first dinner spirits are high, and more spirits are consumed and some of the consumers are high. This leads  Daphne to dash out of the dining room with Betsy behind to calm her.






In the dark of the night, Daphne is found dead and since there can be no reliance on proper police it is left to the ersatz detectives to try and solve this murder. But it is not very long until Jack French the director is missing. A massive hunt of the three towered castle turns up  nothing. The most obvious fact is that the killer is one of the ten people left on the island.


This is a skillful retelling of the AND THEN THERE WERE NONE type of story or the cut off by a storm story and some clues are obvious and then you talk yourself out of them. Naturally in this case your money is on Jack Packard. He wishes he could fly a plane but he knows he can't. None the less he is the closest thing to a cop there is and the others have faith in him. I think I have faith in him because he is 6'6''. Does it work that way? Too tall to be small?


You can't go wrong with the Felony Mayhem reprints. They are a sure fire pleasure even if YOU are cut off in a storm with creepy things happening around you.