William Marble is a spendthrift banker living in suburban London with his wife and children. Heโs hard up for money, as his wife spends indiscriminately, he has a growing interest in whiskey, and rent will soon be due. But one night, a visitor calls: James Medland, Williamโs nephew from Australia, is visiting to inform them of a death in the family. Medland is very wealthy, and very alone here at the other end of the worldโand Marble, desperate for cash, quickly decides that he must do the unthinkable to get his hands on Medlandโs bulging wallet.
Payment Deferred is an unusual crime novel in the sense that the murder happens at the outset, and thereโs no mystery as to who did it or why. Rather, taking cues from โThe Telltale Heartโ, the novel focuses on the state of mind of a guilty criminal. Marbleโs increasingly elaborate attempts to keep his crime secret from both his family and the authorities become a study of the damage that guilt can do to a personโs psyche. Marble soon finds himself wealthy beyond necessity, but his fixation on his money problems is quickly replaced by an all-consuming obsession over this much, much darker problem.
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William Marble is a spendthrift banker living in suburban London with his wife and children. Heโs hard up for money, as his wife spends indiscriminately, he has a growing interest in whiskey, and rent will soon be due. But one night, a visitor calls: James Medland, Williamโs nephew from Australia...