Selección Terror: ¡Peor que asesinar…!

About this issue

¡Peor que Asesinar...! by Ada Coretti is a Spanish-language psychological thriller published as issue 227 of the Selección Terror series in 1977. The narrative opens at the Maylor family estate on a stormy night, where physician Dr. Walter Howard diagnoses the Countess Maylor as insane and recommends immediate psychiatric institutionalization. The count resists, concerned for his mentally disabled daughter Geraldine. That evening, the countess—having apparently overheard the diagnosis—attacks her husband with a ceremonial scimitar in the weapons room, severing both his hands before fleeing into the storm and leaping to her death from a cliff. Several months later, Dr. Howard receives an invitation to the count's engagement party with the wealthy but morally questionable Juliet Resmer, whom Howard had previously courted before discovering her infidelity. Troubled by this match given the count's violent temperament and new disability, Howard resolves to decline. His identical twin brother Maxim, a London-based private detective, unexpectedly arrives and volunteers to attend the celebration instead, suggesting investigative interest in the affair.