https://classicmystery.blog/2019/07/21/death-of-an-author-by-john-rhode/Who would kill an author? Goodness knows, as every author that I’ve
ever met (which is quite a few, #humblebrag) is absolutely lovely. Nigel
Ebbfleet, the author in question here, is a similarly nice bloke. After
years of writing, he has finally written that elusive successful book,
Unborn To-morrow, a book that means he can retire and live off the
royalties, despite that unnatural hyphen. He arranges with his agent to
finish his current book and then retire to Lawn Cottage in Wryminster to
live out his days.
After Ebbfleet is killed by an explosion while chopping wood (yes,
you read that correctly), Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn finds himself
with very few suspects. The only person who would benefit financially
was nowhere near Wryminster when the explosion – and a previous attempt
at Ebbfleet’s life – occurred. With no evidence and no motive, can Jimmy
– with a little help from Dr Priestley – possibly find the murderer?
'The Modern Death' offers both a critique of the materialistic superficiality of modern life and a spiritually-oriented ideological alternative to it in the form of Social Transcendentalism, which was first introduced into the author's poetry with the collection 'Spiritual Intimations'(1982), but here achieves a metaphysical depth of insight that was one of the factors in his subsequently abandoning poetry for philosophy in order to concentrate unequivocally on his theorizing. Be that as it may, this collection of free verse has a right to be regarded as metaphysical poetry, even though John O'Loughlin's concept of metaphysics was to undergo a radical overhaul in the years since the composition of these poems.