The Case of The Dying Foursome

About the Book

The St. George mysteries are tales of contemporary murder presented with a touch of class in the belief that murder in itself is frightening. Here you will not find the graphic depictions of grisly human torture, mutilation, terror, sadism, and the distracting sidebars and tabloid fillers that so often clutter ´modern´ mysteries.

In Chief Inspector Byram St. George, you will meet "a sleuth unlike anyone you´ve ever met" and stories that readers find difficult if not impossible to put down.

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An old man´s murder is labeled a random shooting. Increasingly fearful for their own lives, the victim´s elderly neighbors pressure Scotland Yard to reopen the investigation. Chief Inspector Byram St. George inherits the case and with his loyal colleague, Det. Sgt. Laurence Poole, begins the chase by reviewing what is known.

The victim was a very private man, a widower who had outlived his children. Like many elderly, he followed a set daily schedule that never varied. For more than four decades, that schedule included playing golf every week with three very close friends, intensely loyal chums since their military service during the turbulent closing days of World War II. In fact, the four original golfers named each other as executors of their estates. The victim was the third to die but the only one to be murdered.

Forensic evidence was meager and nonspecific. The murder weapon - a commonplace black market semiautomatic pistol - had not been recovered. Opportunity to commit the crime was unequaled because the killer came and went without raising suspicion. And motive? Aye, that was the rub as everyone questioned only praised the deceased.

St. George and Poole re-interview the people closest to the victim to find that many previously favorable opinions have changed: "Bad form to speak ill of the dead...But hell, he´s been cold for two weeks. That´s long enough. Oh, he wasn´t a jerk all the time. Except when he lost, which was often. Guy hated to lose." Was that why the victim came to blows with an opposing dartsman only days before his death?

They discover that the on-scene constable´s report was revised the morning following the murder. They wonder why, with the four golfers such very close friends, did their families not socialize except twice a year? And when the first two men died, why were their successors in the foursome excluded from becoming executors? Was the dead man a senile packrat who mindlessly accumulated junk, as claimed? Or was he something else...and did his grandson, his only known heir, know what that something was? Furthermore, despite his denials, did the grandson resent the dead man´s disapproval of him and his fledgling acting career? Was the teenager seen running away from the vicinity of the dead man´s home proof that the first lead detective´s hypothesis of a random gang shooting was indeed correct?

Step by step, St. George gathers tantalizing bits and pieces of information that move them closer and closer to a dark secret that has lain dormant for decades. Yet that secret and the definitive evidence to identify the killer remain elusive. In the end, the victim´s final act in life presents the Chief Inspector with the ultimate challenge: solving not one but TWO dying clues....

About the Author

Praise for Unplayable Lie — "Nowhere else in the annals of golfing mystery, not even in the hands of the great Agatha Christie, is an ingeniously woven tale interspersed in a meaningful way with golfing vistas...resulting in a tale of mystery that is good to the last chapter." http://buff-golf.crosswinds.net “There is another fine line which the author pulls off admirably: incorporating scientific detail and plausibly presenting it." http://www.golfbookreviews.com "I...hit the jackpot...Jamesson manages to mix all four elements [golf, detective story, travelogue, and describing technical details in laymen's terms] into a pleasantly beguiling introduction to his new hero's adventures." http://www.holebyhole.com