The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery

Mr Pest: How about Grate Expectations? Assistant: Ah yes, we have that . . . He goes to fetch it and returns to the counter. Mr Pest: . . . That’s G-r-a-t-e Expectations, also by Edmund Wells. Assistant: I see. In that case we don’t have it. We don’t have anything by Edmund Wells, actually – he’s not very popular. Mr Pest: Not Knickerless Nickleby?

‘You’ve given your life to a cause,’ said Aunt Maria. ‘The cause has given nothing back. A life is to be lived. Forget the world. Think for yourself. I’ve lived with regrets, but I don’t want to die with them too.’

She remembers the advertisement for a sunflower cooking oil – ‘A Gentleman’s Cholesterol Is In The Hands Of His Wife’. But then Ousep Chacko is not a man who can be killed by oil. He does not eat much. He smokes a lot, though, which may have thickened his blood, or thinned his arteries, she always forgets which of the two happens. A man’s heart can