Margaret Erskine: Don't Look Behind You

This Ace Gothic was published in 1952; it is a Septimus Finch Gothic Mystery. I didn't realize it was part of a mystery series until I sat down to read it. The cover is a nice contrast of hues, though the woman's face is a bit strangely shadowed.

I read 45 pages and put it down; a murder occurs, but there is nothing Gothic about any of it for that span of writing. The writing is quite good technically; the story just didn't work for me.

I have to say that I do like the name Septimus Finch-- lovely. I didn't care for the main character Freddie Dawes or his lackluster love interest Meg, and not enough happened in the early pages to make it worth reading-- just a possible murder.

My advice is to skip this one; I won't do a full review since I didn't read it all. I might try another one in this Finch series, but I'll choose wisely if possible. From what I can tell Erskine mainly wrote novels for this series.