Peter Duluth has just seen his wife off on an acting job when he picks up a hitchhiker. The next thing he knows, he is in a house he doesn’t recognise with a family – and wife – that he doesn’t recognise, being called Gordy Friend, a name he doesn’t recognise. Unfortunately, on top of this, while he doesn’t recognise the name Gordy Friend, he doesn’t have any better names to use as he has completely lost his memory. Maybe he is Gordy Friend…

Consigned to a wheelchair due to injuries sustained… somehow… Peter/Gordy is convinced there is something very wrong about the set up. Why are the family convinced he is Gordy? And is someone else playing a deeper game?

The fifth Peter Duluth novel written by Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler under the Patrick Quentin pseudonym (as opposed to Q Patrick and Jonathan Stagge). I’ve read the first four and apart from Puzzle For Puppets, the other three are first rate mysteries. Puppets is more of a thriller and didn’t really hold any surprises, but it’s still very readable.

This one… well, I have issues with it.

To start off with, I’m not at all sure why it’s a Peter Duluth book, as he spends the majority of the story not knowing who he is, and when he does, it doesn’t impact the narrative at all. Was this a plot that was adapted to fit a successful series? The big shame is that in the preceding book, Peter and Iris made a great investigating couple. Here, Iris is completely missing from the action, bar a few pages at the beginning and end she is missed.

And there really isn’t enough story even for a shortish novel. Peter thinks he’s Gordy, Peter thinks he isn’t Gordy, Peter discovers why people want him to be Gordy, finale. I won’t deny the finale is decent enough but it takes an age to get to it. And after, as I said, three decent mysteries before it, this is a guessing game that… well, if you don’t spot it, you might want to think about handing in your armchair detective card. There aren’t any clues, but structurally, as the end approaches, it’s pretty clear who the prime mover is.

All in all, this was a disappointment. As I said, some great books in this series, but this isn’t one of them. Better try an author with a different name for my next read, just in case. How about that Stagge chap? He sounds good…