It’s a great idea to set a thriller in the world of high-stake bridge, and my friend Helen Erichsen has pulled it off brilliantly. Her debut novel, Murder by Natural Causes (Muswell Press), is about a young, amoral contract killer named Cilla, who the reader can’t quite help rooting for.
It’s a page-turner from start to finish, whether or not you play bridge; but there are delicious added elements if you do. The setting is London’s famous rubber bridge club TGRs (where the gamblers among us have passed many a crazy hour). Some well-known players make a cameo appearance, such as Zia Mahmoud and Nick Sandqvist. Others are disguised – and Helen has offered a game with her husband Espen Erichsen, a world-class pro, to anyone who can spot them all. If he’s unavailable, I’m sure people would be delighted to partner Helen instead – she has plenty of England caps, and is a former European Mixed Teams champion. On this deal, Cilla would have been proud of her creator’s subterfuge (see diagram).
West led the ◆10. Helen knew a club finesse would probably lose to East (who had opened), and a heart switch would spell defeat. So she resorted to deception. She won with dummy’s ◆A , then insouciantly cashed the ♣A and played a low club. East, assuming Helen had no more clubs and was trying to ruff out the ♣K for a heart or diamond discard, ducked. Helen won with the ♣J, cashed the ♠A, crossed to dummy with a trump and played the ♣Q. When East covered, she ruffed, played a third trump to dummy and discarded a heart on the ♣10.
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