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E.R. Punshon
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Six Were Present: A Bobby Owen Mystery Kindle Edition

by E.R. Punshon (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 64 ratings
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“You’re the murder man, aren’t you?” Mrs. James demanded.



“Well, that’s not exactly how I describe myself,” Bobby answered.



Bobby Owen and his wife Olive are on holiday, enjoying a motor tour of England, when they visit Bobby’s old ancestral home and his cousin Myra. An eerie air hangs over the household, where Teddy Peel, a psychic medium of dubious repute, has become a fixture. Myra’s husband himself is a specialist in African folklore, the owner of a genuine witch doctor’s bag. What’s inside the bag, and how that connects to the promise of riches, whispered threats and very real murder, forms another absorbing puzzler for Bobby.



Six Were Present (1956) is the thirty-fifth and final novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, here presented with a new introduction and additional notes. This new edition also features the script of the rare radio play Death on the Up-Lift (1941), starring Bobby Owen, here published for the first time.



“What is distinction? … in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.”--Dorothy L. Sayers

Previous page
  1. Book 35 of 35
    The Bobby Owen Mysteries
  2. Print length
    263 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Dean Street Press
  6. Publication date
    January 2, 2017
  7. File size
    984 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

E.R. Punshon was born in London in 1872. At the age of fourteen he started life in an office. His employers soon informed him that he would never make a really satisfactory clerk, and he, agreeing, spent the next few years wandering about Canada and the United States, endeavouring without great success to earn a living in any occupation that offered. Returning home by way of working a passage on a cattle boat, he began to write. He contributed to many magazines and periodicals, wrote plays, and published nearly fifty novels, among which his detective stories proved the most popular and enduring. He died in 1956.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N49KC7K
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dean Street Press; 1st edition (January 2, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 2, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 984 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 64 ratings

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E.R. Punshon

E.R. Punshon

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
64 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Patto
5.0 out of 5 stars Witchcraft complicates the case...
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is the last Bobby Owen mystery, and perhaps his most exotic. The murder victim, Val Outers, lived for years in Africa, where he became deeply interested in native beliefs. Outers was entrusted by a native shaman with a medicine bag that he promised never to open. He is murdered in a séance in the presence of six people none of whom could have done the deed. Since Bobby is a cousin of the Outers family, he is allowed to stay around while the Chief Constable Nixon tries to solve the case. Nixon is not sorry to have the advice of a high-ranking Scotland Yard official.

All sorts of passions are smoldering. Outers' wife and daughter seem to blame him for the ritual killing in Africa of the two Outers sons. Two young men are aggressively competing for the heart of Rosamund Outers. Rosamund is angry with Bobby for serving justice before family. The neighbor, Mrs. James is mad at the world because she lost leg in the war-- and because her son is deformed. Teddy Peel, the "sensitive" who directed the séance, is fearful and resentful that the police might try to pin the crime on him, just because he's sleazy.

Punshon lets us in on Bobby's self-effacing, increasingly puzzled, lightly witty thought stream, which is engaging. His character sketches are gems of lively writing. The way with words that won the admiration of Dorothy Sayers in Punchon's early mysteries is still full strength in his last.

I guessed the killer fairly easily, but the quirky charm of Punshon's narrative kept me riveted to the dramatic end.
2 people found this helpful
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alane farmer
4.0 out of 5 stars The final Bobby Owen
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017
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This was a strange mystery. It centered around African black magic. This was not the best choice for a mystery. I was quite disappointed. I have generally enjoyed this entire series of books. I will miss them
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SusanHAH
4.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric relations (1956 : Punshon)
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2023
Scotland Yard's Bobby Owen and his cousin Myra had been playmates in childhood, enjoying games together on the grounds of their family's Constant House, dating from the Victorian period, and around the ruins of Constant Freres, the fine Georgian mansion that had been their family's seat in its heyday. Those ruins still stand, dramatic and dangerous, especially the nearly intact Folly Tower, conceived by an ancestor who appreciated a view.

Now Myra Outers, after spending most of her adult life in Africa with her husband, a minor Commonwealth official, is back at Constant House with her husband and teenage daughter. Tragically the couple's young twin sons had died in Africa, and the husband may have been partly to blame. An excessive concern for the welfare of the local population, or "natives," had stalled his career, and his obsession with their beliefs and religious rites may have influenced the boys to spy on a sacred ceremony that was taboo to strangers. The manner of their death was never known, though their bones had been found.

Myra has invited Bobby and his wife Olive for a visit, but does she feel a need for his presence as a cousin, or as a policeman? The whole family, still grieving and somewhat alienated from each other, has fallen under the influence of a psychic medium, obviously (to Bobby) a charlatan, In addition, the husband cherishes an evil-smelling and possibly dangerous souvenir of Africa: the medicine bag that had belonged to a long dead witch-doctor.

Bobby senses serious trouble in the Outers household, but feels powerless to help. He and Olive have barely made their escape from Constant House when he is called back by the local police, though as a family member rather than in his official capacity. Mr. Outers is dead, stabbed with a knife during a seance in the Tower. It seems impossible, but there's no doubt that it happened.

Ordinarily I don't seek out mysteries involving supernatural, or pseudo-supernatural, elements, but in this case Bobby's commonsensical, matter-of-fact exchanges with others and his own internal dialogues on logical and moral questions help to keep things in perspective. This was the final installment of the 35 book Bobby Owen series, and, fittingly, it touches on issues crucial to the future of humanity. Bobby's young second cousin Rosamunde is a formidable character, stronger than either parent.
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Really great Series! Always look forward to the next instalment.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
Really great Series! Always look forward to the next instalment.
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Mr. A.J. PENDLEBURY
4.0 out of 5 stars After this ...no more were ever present .
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
I found this very difficult to review--there is a novel and a complete radio play script . I am a real fan of Punshon's work and have read most of his books . To be honest ,I did find his this ,his last novel , to be below the very high standard of earlier works . I didn't feel that he created the strong atmosphere --such a strong element of works like " Diabolical Candelabra " --nor did he have such a sense of location . There were still some strong issues and he clearly had not left behind his left wing leanings . ! I would only be able to give 3 stars for this.

However ,the radio script I found to be fascinating . It made very good sense as a short story and had a very realistic feel to it . In addition there is a tremendous introduction to this book --a lot of new biographical information about Punshon's last few years as well as fascinating letters to Dorothy L Sayers--bravo to Curt Evans for this. These extras really lift this to the 4 star bracket .
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Longsuffering
4.0 out of 5 stars Finished.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2017
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A very excellent series, I had read the earliest books and was greatly pleased to find the rest. I heartily recommend these, buy the lot and read them as and when. What I most certainly do not recommend is spending any time at all on the endless end tiresome prefaces written by some tiresome chap called Craig Evans,who seems to be of the opinion that he is more important than the authors whose work he infests,and in fact writes the longest dullest spoilers in the world. He obviously does not get the point of detective stories.
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Steven A Gresty
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2017
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Not one of the best of Punshon's works, but any of his works are at least 4 stars.
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Ann Michelle Norris
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2016
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As all your books great
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