Put On by Cunning
The eleventh Wexford novel published by Hutchinson in 1981
I think relationships are terribly important and one should know who one is. In order to make Wexford a real person, it seems to me essential that he should have a wife and children and grandchildren and forebears, and I can’t imagine writing a novel with a protagonist who isn’t deeply rooted in his ancestry.
The tragic death of Manuel Camargue, Kingsmarkham’s celebrity flautist, is met with a ruling of misadventure. Dinah, his young fiancée, seeks Wexford’s help when Manuel’s estranged daughter, Natalie, then reappears after an absence of nineteen years.
Dinah believes Natalie is not who she claims to be. Knowing there is a large inheritance at stake, Wexford begins to investigate. But then events take a gruesome twist, and now, more than ever, Wexford must establish Natalie’s true identity.
Notes
The title, Put On by Cunning, is taken from a speech by Horatio in Act 5, Scene 2 of Hamlet.
Put On by Cunning was published as Death Notes in the US.
Adapted for TV in 1990.
Contemporary Reads 2
Martin Cruz Smith - Gorky Park
Colin Dexter - The Dead of Jericho
Salman Rushdie - Midnight’s Children
Alasdair Gray - Lanark
Robertson Davies - The Rebel Angels
Thomas Harris - Red Dragon