THE FOURTH DEADLY SIN by Lawrence Sanders

Finished We 6/17/20

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I have apparently never read. The book was released in 1985.

THE FOURTH DEADLY SIN:

Greed (Latin: avaritia), also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of desire.

PREMISE: (From the back of the book). "A celebrated New York psychiatrist- considered a saint by patients and colleagues is brutally beaten to death. There are no leads, no apparent motives, and six suspects- the doctor's own patients."

Generally I dislike when a writer throws out a 'bunch of suspects' and the reader is left to 'figure it out'. My feeling is that the writer will not allow the reader to know the culprit unless he is a bad writer.

Diane Ellerbee, the wife of the psychiatrist, Simon Ellerbee, is the killer. She is a beautiful woman and could not accept the fact that her husband of many years had fallen in love with a dowdy woman who was one of his patients. And, he wanted a divorce so that he could marry this woman. Diane felt that this would open her up to public ridicule and this would be unthinkable.   

I suppose there was a red flag because his wife is the one who gives the police the list of possible suspects. She would obviously use this list to maximize misdirection. 

Edward X. Delaney is a retired member of the police and he is brought back to oversee the murder investigation because the death of Simon Ellerbee was a murder that must be solved. He was very popular, well-liked, and influential. 

Within fifty pages of the ending, Delaney solves the case, and I thought that maybe this was a red herring, but this turned out to be the truth. I was waiting for a surprise ending, but this was not the case.  

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Lawrence Sanders (1920–1998) was the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty mystery and suspense novels including the Edward X. Delaney, Archy McNally, and Timothy Cone series, as well as the acclaimed Commandment books. The Anderson Tapes received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first novel."