Death in a Domino

Roland Pertwee

By guest reviewer Nicholas Litchfield,
editor of the Lowestoft Chronicle

A POWERFUL newspaper magnate’s dictatorial grip and clandestine scandals trigger murder at an elite dinner party in Death in a Domino, an intense post-war crime novel steeped in social intrigue, simmering resentments, and polished façades that conceal deeper desires and betrayals.

First published in 1932 by the London-based publisher William Heinemann as It Means Mischief, and in the US that same year as Death in a Domino, Roland Pertwee’s standalone mystery returns to print after more than ninety years lost to obscurity.

Brighton-born Roland Pertwee, father of the late Dr Who actor Jon Pertwee, was once a struggling painter but found his true calling as a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His psychologically acute scripts and brisk dialogue helped define British stage and screen from the 1920s through the 1950s. Interference, the play he co-wrote with Harold Dearden, ran for six months in London’s West End before opening to favourable Broadway reviews in 1927, paving the way for a prolific career at Warner Brothers and a steady run of popular novels.

In Death in a Domino, Pertwee (pictured left) employs his flair for suspense and emotional insight, crafting characters and settings with a sharp, cinematic touch. Set in 1930s London, the novel introduces Lord Studholme, a ruthless newspaper magnate and morally ambiguous patriarch whose chilling influence shapes everyone around him. 

His daughters, Joan Holland, with her ‘boyish, willow-supple figure’ and gleaming gold hair, and Petal Studholme, a ‘calmer, grander beauty’ with a ‘purposefulness’ of nature, are drawn with subtle contrasts in strength and vulnerability.

Joan’s troubled past romance with Howard Mander, a disreputable and financially struggling man, continues to haunt her. Ever the manipulator, Lord Studholme, acquires Joan’s intimate letters to Mander as a tool for control, boasting, ‘When I want anything, I’ll go to any pains to get it.’

Meanwhile, Petal’s love for Guy Kennion, Lord Studholme’s rough-edged yet loyal secretary, further strains family bonds. Guy’s growing resentment of Lord Studholme’s authoritarian rule leads to a bitter ultimatum from the patriarch himself: ‘My daughter doesn’t marry a secretary,’ a condition that threatens to sever love from power and privilege.

The mounting tension comes to a head when the Studholmes host a glittering yet uneasy dinner party. Among the guests are the imperious Princess Amelia of Corsova, the flamboyant and controversial author Adrian Chiddiatt, Major-General Sir George Piddinghoe, and the aloof Commissioner Holland. What starts as a parlour amusement – a ‘murder game’ in black domino cloaks devised by Chiddiatt – turns to horror when Lord Studholme is found shot dead in the library, stunning his guests and shattering the thin veneer of civility.

Chief Inspector Ramage quickly determines that Studholme was shot twice, discounting suicide and setting a genuine murder mystery in motion. As the dinner party guests become suspects, their façades begin to crumble… Joan reels from shock, Petal strives to steady the family, and Guy Kennion straddles uneasy ground between loyalty and suspicion. Hints of a struggle, cryptic clues, including a brooch, a key, and drag marks in the carpet, layer the case with uncertainty and hint at deeper intrigue beneath the obvious motives.

Pertwee’s skilful weaving of sharp dialogue, atmospheric setting, and psychological acuity elevates the novel beyond a simple whodunit. The relationships – Joan’s secrets and shame, Petal’s longing for autonomy, Guy’s uneasy conscience – intertwine with the circumstances of the crime, transforming the mystery into a drama of power, betrayal and the destructive cost of secrets kept too long. As Ramage’s investigation unfolds, loyalties fracture and the truth grows ever more elusive. The cast’s frailties, ambitions and histories come under scrutiny as each character navigates suspicion, guilt and the desire for self-preservation. Throughout it all, Pertwee maintains an exquisite tension, blending dark comedy, psychological vulnerability and ever-present social critique.

Death in a Domino builds towards a climax that refuses easy answers. Even as the machinery of justice lurches into motion, the nature of innocence and guilt – and who bears responsibility – remains ambiguous, echoing beyond the final page. Elegantly written, psychologically astute, and bracingly modern, Pertwee’s mystery lingers as a study in how secrets shape destinies and how, in the end, not all truths demand to be told.
(Stark House Press, paperback, £11.95)

⬛Nicholas Litchfield is an English-born author and journalist who lives in Western New York. He established the Lowestoft Chronicle, a quarterly online magazine, in 2009. It publishes short stories, flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews and artwork.(lowestoftchronicle.com)