No Love Lost (1954)
“Take a good look. You can see them. They’re as plain as anything. Now let me get you a hand mirror.’ Rhoda planted the folded newspaper with the photograph in it squarely in front of me, supporting it against my after-lunch coffee cup. She was forthright and innocently excited in every one of her two hundred pounds, and she tore open an old wound as surely as if, with her plump, well-meaning fingers, she had found the cicatrix and ripped it from my flesh.
It was so unexpected. I had had such a ...busy morning and was so full of other people’s troubles that my own life was utterly forgotten. She took me completely off guard and got right through at a stroke, without my being aware.
‘No, thank you,’ I said politely, hoping I had not turned white from the sudden frightening pain, for I knew her so well that my armour slips into place by reflex action, and I knew she would be watching me anxiously to see if my recovery was complete. (Rhoda is the kind of woman who digs up the mint outside her kitchen door two days after she has planted it, to find out if it has started to grow.) ‘I’ve seen my eyes this morning, bloodshot again.MoreLess
It was so unexpected. I had had such a ...busy morning and was so full of other people’s troubles that my own life was utterly forgotten. She took me completely off guard and got right through at a stroke, without my being aware.
‘No, thank you,’ I said politely, hoping I had not turned white from the sudden frightening pain, for I knew her so well that my armour slips into place by reflex action, and I knew she would be watching me anxiously to see if my recovery was complete. (Rhoda is the kind of woman who digs up the mint outside her kitchen door two days after she has planted it, to find out if it has started to grow.) ‘I’ve seen my eyes this morning, bloodshot again.MoreLess
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Edgar G. 2 years ago
Allingham is a first class writer, but she has this particular character, the lady doctor, acting like a frightened child. She should have called the police immediately . I just don't understand tha writer going off the beam like this. She sees the blue paper description of the stolen drug and doesn't call the police, does NOTHING about it and allows this criminal to push her around as if she were a baby in a buggy. She could have insisted that one of the other doctors treat him, She could have told him off very strongly for taking all her time every day and pestering her. There are many things she could have and should have done, except what she did do.I am disappointed for the first time in her books.
Edgar G. 2 years ago
I see again the utter silliness that the author instills into her female heroines. Especially doctors, TRAINED not to show exactly what Allingham's characters DO show. And with the utmost school-girlish naivete. I am becoming a bit disillusioned. There seems to be a "sameness" about her plots and the reactions of her characters. She seems to know little about medical practices although she features many doctors in her books. And her police individuals always seem very forbearing and unenthusiastic about administering the law.Write Review:
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