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Checkmate

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Then you saw something occur that excited your suspicions?” said Lady May.

Mr. Longcluse recounted all he had to tell, and mentioned having made inquiries as to the present abode of the man, Paul Davies, at the police office.

“And this note, I daresay, is the one they promised to send me, telling the result of their inquiries,” he added.

“Pray open it and see,” said Lady May.

He did so. He read it in silence. From his foot to the crown of his head there crept a cold influence as he read. Stream after stream, this aura of fear spread upwards to his brain. Pale Mr. Longcluse shrugged and smiled, and smiled and shrugged, as his dark eye ran down the lines, and with a careless finger he turned the page over. He smiled, as prizefighters smile for the spectators, while every nerve quivered with pain. He looked up, smiling still, and thrust the note into his breast-pocket.

“Well, Mr. Longcluse. . . Read More

Community Reviews

Le Fanu has a gift for portraying malevolent villains whose behaviour, while almost demonically evil, has its source in recognizable psychological traits. Checkmate is no exception, documenting the subjugation of an aristocratic family at the hands of a determined and coercive strategist.
The novel

As usual, Sheridan pulls off a plot twist at the end that I was not expecting. This book is not one of my favourites from his collection of works, but it was good all the same.

The story does start off slow and didn't grab my attention at first. However, the character Longcluse kept me reading, beca

"The match is over, and you may rise now and say Checkmate."

Do not, under any circumstances, read anything about this book that gives away the ending. There is a major plot twist, the likes of which just might possibly be the first of its kind in mystery/crime/detective novels up to this point (1871