“It will hold you breathless until you have reached its utterly unpredictable climax.” “Do not look at the end!” “The dramatic, utterly surprising final chapters of The List of Adrian Messenger will haunt you long after you’ve finished this unique novel.” Thus blares the large text plastering the front and back cover of my 1961 Bantam Books edition of The List of Adrian Messenger.
As much as The Maze by Philip MacDonald didn’t do it for me, I’ve been intent to come back to the author. Recognizing that The Maze was more an experiment in conveying a mystery purely through raw court testimony, I was interested in seeing what MacDonald could do in the more traditional form. I’m not sure how The List of Adrian Messenger worked its way into my mind as one I should try, but here I am.
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