''The Deadly Joker'' is a 1963

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a re ...

by the Anglo-Irish writer

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...

, under his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Nicholas Blake. It was one of four stand-alone novels he wrote under the name alongside the

Nigel Strangeways Nigel Strangeways is a fictional British private detective created by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. He was one of the prominent detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, appearing in sixteen novels betwee ...

detective novels. It is unusual for the author for being written in a

first person narrative A first-person narrative (also known as a first-person perspective, voice, point of view, etc.) is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from that storyteller's own personal point of view, using first-person grammar suc ...

from the perspective of the protagonist John Waterson.Bargainnier p.149

Synopsis

A man and his younger wife settle in the English countryside, but find the village is teeming with tensions. Things come to a head when one of the inhabitants is killed during a flower show.

References

Bibliography

* Bargainnier, Earl F. ''Twelve Englishmen of Mystery''. Popular Press, 1984. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. * Stanford, Peter. ''C Day-Lewis: A Life''. A&C Black, 2007. 1963 British novels Novels by Cecil Day-Lewis British mystery novels British thriller novels Collins Crime Club books Novels set in England {{1960s-mystery-novel-stub