Murder in the Gunroom
Murder in the Gunroom is a 1953 novel by H. Beam Piper. It is a contemporary mystery, unlike his typical science fiction work. It is notable for its insistent imagery of antique guns and is considered a more personal work. The particular towns of its setting are fictional but align with the area around his home in suburban Pennsylvania.
Synopsis
Lane Fleming, patriarch of a powdered premix food company, is found dead by an apparently accidental, self-inflicted gunshot in his showroom, where he had displayed many rows of antique guns. His widow, Gladys Fleming, hires private detective and fellow gun hobbyist Jefferson Davis Rand to inventory, appraise, and sell the gun collection. Though on paper just an appraiser, Col. Rand understands tacitly that he is also supposed to investigate the suspicious death, especially as rumors go around that could affect the company's future. He comes to stay at the estate for a few days to do the work, while meeting the family and immediate heirs. There is an initial point of confusion as it seems the sale of the guns has already been prearranged at a price that Col. Rand believes to be much too low relative to the inherent value. Col. Rand meets with the various heirs and prospective buyers, and he asks his assistant Dave Ritter to join him for backup. One collector, Pierre Jarrett, appears to be semi-autobiographical as a science fiction writer with an exceptionally erudite taste in the matter of gun collecting. As Rand continues the inventory, he finds incongruities in the collection, pointing to tampered evidence. Eventually much of the suspicion lands on Arnold Rivers, a gun dealer with a reputation for selling counterfeits. There is a mid-novel climax when Rand discovers Rivers too has been murdered inside his shop, bayoneted by one of his own display guns. Rand looks around, finding evidence that the killer was an acquaintance of Rivers and that the sales records have been burned, before alerting the police. When Rand returns to the house to continue, he takes extra precaution on suspicion that the murderer is close. A surprise shootout ensues on the spiral staircase leading up into the gunroom, in which the assailant is shot dead and Rand survives thanks to a bulletproof vest. The events are a brief news sensation but are quickly overshadowed, and in the dénouement Rand explains his deduction to Mrs. Fleming.
External links
This article "Murder in the Gunroom" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Murder in the Gunroom. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
