They were eight candidates who arrived in “Humpstead Manor” –otherwise known as “the Hump” – all of whom were part of an elite interview process for a major job in Africa.
But even before the examinations began, one of the assembled seemed to be being singled out for something rather more than a great job. Murder.
Inspector Cam finds that what he thought was a relaxed trip observing how the process worked, finds he is needed to do a lot more than observe….
Deadly Earnest, published in 1952 was the third and final novel that came from the Joan Cockin stable. It’s a strong candidate to be her best.
Joan Cockin, otherwise Edith Joan Burbidge Macintosh, PhD, CBE; brought up in America, educated at Oxford, British diplomat and part of the UK delegation at the first NATO and Council of Europe conferences; married in India – her career cut short, as was the rule for women, by marriage there. Then, a second career as a consumer champion, co-founding the National and the Scottish Consumer Councils, acting as Legal Ombudsman for Scotland, founding the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau, and serving on a Royal Commission. As well as a writer of 3 detective thrillers…