Background romance adds extra interest to investigation
The 2016 Hodder edition of the novel, first published in 1932
Lord Peter Wimsey’s character comes to life in Have
His Carcase, the seventh novel by Dorothy L Sayers to feature her gentleman
sleuth.
Instead of appearing as just an amiable aristocrat
indulging himself with his detecting hobby, tolerated by Scotland Yard because
of his status in society, he shows himself to be energetic and determined during
this novel, which was first published in 1932, because he is trying to help the woman he
loves.
Mystery novelist Harriet Vane is on a solitary walking
tour along the south west coast of England when she discovers a dead body on
the beach.
She has stopped for refreshment and a brief doze in
the afternoon sun. But instead of just enjoying a peaceful picnic and then resuming
her journey, she wakes up to find a corpse nearby. A man, who has had his
throat slashed from ear to ear, lies spreadeagled on the rocks below her.
Harriet tries to gather evidence at the scene before
the incoming tide sweeps the body out to sea. Then she finds she has to walk several
miles before she can find a telephone to report her discovery to the police.
As a woman who has recently been acquitted of murder,
a case featured in Strong Poison, a previous Wimsey novel, Harriet finds it
unpleasant to come under suspicion and be the subject of police scrutiny again.
Ian Carmichael as Wimsey in a 1970s TV adaptation
But she does not have to wait long before Wimsey joins
her at the seaside and involves himself in the investigation, having been
tipped off by a journalist about Harriet’s predicament.
The amateur detective duo discover that it is a complicated
case to solve and it involves them, and Bunter, Wimsey’s manservant, in painstaking
work to try to break the alibis of their main suspects.
They also have to crack a secret code used by the
murderer to communicate with his victim beforehand. This was the only part of
the novel that I found less than riveting, as the codebreaking lasted for
several pages that weren’t very interesting to read.
However, Wimsey’s character acquires more depth in
this novel, and the ‘will they, won’t they?’ sub plot of their romance also
adds interest to the story.
The couple part as friends at the end of the book, but
Harriet has still not accepted Wimsey’s proposal of marriage, providing a major
incentive for fans to keep reading!
No Oxford degree for author but she found a good setting for a crime novel
The murder at the heart of this mystery occurs on the River Cherwell, still popular with students today
Death on the Cherwell, a classic Golden Age detective story by Mavis Doriel Hay published in 1935, is set in a fictitious women’s college in Oxford. The novel appeared during the same year as Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers, which was also set in a women’s college in Oxford. Both settings were loosely based on the colleges the authors had attended themselves.
Mavis writes at the beginning of the first chapter: ‘Undergraduates, especially those in their first year, are not, of course, quite sane or quite adult.’ The students featured in this novel come across as very young indeed, more like the girls in boarding school stories than intelligent students. Nevertheless, they make good amateur sleuths, who are as entertaining as they are industrious.
A group of first year girls, who have formed a secret society that meets on the roof of the Persephone College boathouse, come across the dead body of the college bursar lying in her canoe. She is later discovered to have drowned in the river but it is a mystery how her body ended up back in her own boat.
The police are called in but to begin with they assume it is a student prank that has got out of hand. However, the group of young ladies who found the body immediately suspect foul play and take the investigation into their own hands.
Led by Sally Watson, whose older sister, Beryl, appeared in Murder Underground, the first crime novel by Mavis Doriel Hay, the undergraduates uncover the tangled secrets that led to the bursar’s death and follow up clues that point in the direction of a fellow student.
The British Library Crime Classics edition of Death on the Cherwell
Mavis Doriel Hay, who was born on either 12 or 13 February 1894, 130 years ago, in Potters Bar in Middlesex, attended St Hilda’s College in Oxford between 1913 and 1916. She published three mystery novels within just three years in the 1930s, Murder Underground, Death on the Cherwell, and the Santa Klaus Murder.
After Murder Underground was published, Dorothy L Sayers wrote a review in the Sunday Times saying: ‘This detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating, and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail.’
That exasperating literary man, Basil Pongleton makes an appearance in the author’s second novel, Death on the Cherwell, when he and his wife, Beryl, are visiting Beryl’s sister, Sally, in Oxford. But Sally doesn’t need any help from him to uncover the truth about the bursar’s death and her sleuthing efforts even earn her the respect of the investigating officer in the case, Detective Inspector Braydon.
Like Dorothy L Sayers, Mavis attended Oxford when women were allowed into the university to study, but were not allowed to graduate, and so she left the university empty handed. But because she was interested in the industries and handicrafts of rural Britain, she was later sponsored by the Agricultural Economics Research Institute of Oxford University to collaborate with another writer, Helen Fitzrandolph, on a series of works surveying rural industries
She went on to marry Helen Fitzrandolph’s brother, Archibald Menzies Fitzrandolph, in 1929. Sadly, he was killed in a flying accident during World War II.
Mavis, who was also interested in quilting, went on to publish several books on crafts during her life. She died in 1979 at the age of 85.
Nearly 90 years after it was first published, Death on the Cherwell was republished by British Library Crime Classics. In his introduction to the novel in 2014, crime writer Stephen Booth regrets that Mavis Doriel Hay had such a short literary career and published just three detective novels. He says it is ‘even sadder’ that she was almost forgotten by crime fiction readers for so many years after her death and he was delighted that the British Library editions of her books were finally remedying that oversight.
I am sure lovers of classic crime novels will be glad to have the opportunity to get to know this author and will be fascinated by her portrayal of life inside a women’s college in Oxford, in the days when female students weren’t even considered worthy of being awarded degrees by the university they attended.
Buy Death on the Cherwell from or
(River Cherwell pic by Steve Daniels via Wikimedia Commons)
The cover of the 2015 edition published by HarperCollins
Six years before Agatha Christie’s famous novel,
Murder on the Orient Express, was published, the Queen of Crime wrote another
Hercule Poirot mystery where a murder is committed on a train.
Unfortunately for the killer, Hercule Poirot happens
to be on the train at the time, travelling from England to the French Riviera
on the famous ‘train bleu.’
The Mystery of the Blue Train, which was published in
1928, is reputed to have been Christie’s least favourite story. Nevertheless,
the book received a positive reaction from the Times Literary Supplement at the
time, who stated that ‘the reader would ‘not be disappointed.’ The distinguished Belgian detective uses
psychological reasoning to dispute the guilt of the original suspect arrested
by the police and, in the words of the review, ‘lands his fish to the surprise
of everyone.’
The murder victim is Ruth Kettering, an unhappily
married American heiress, who is travelling to France to meet her lover. On the
train, she meets Katherine Grey, who for the last ten years has been a companion
to an old lady living in the village of St Mary Mead. The old lady had just died
and left her a substantial inheritance and Katherine is enjoying her first chance
to travel abroad.
The two women have a conversation over lunch and Ruth
invites Katherine back to her compartment, where she confides in her that she
has misgivings about what she is about to do and doesn’t feel happy about
having deceived her own father about her trip.
Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, as famously portrayed by David Suchet
Katherine does not see Ruth again and that evening finds
herself seated opposite Hercule Poirot for dinner. The next morning, Katherine
discovers that Ruth has been found dead in her compartment, having been
strangled during the night.
It transpires that a famous ruby, ‘Heart of Fire,’
that has recently been given to Ruth by her wealthy father, is now missing.
Later, Poirot is persuaded by Ruth’s father to take on the case and find his
daughter’s murderer for him. The little Belgian detective doubts that the French
police have arrested the right person and, helped by Katherine, uncovers the
truth.
The Mystery of the Blue Train was priced at seven
shillings and sixpence when it first went on sale in the UK.
The novel contained the first ever mention of the
fictional village of St Mary Mead, which was to be the home of another of Agatha
Christie’s detective, Miss Marple.
Agatha Christie is reputed to have found writing the
book an ordeal, as the story did not come easily to her. At that time, she was staying
in the Canary Islands while recovering from the death of her mother, her
husband’s infidelity, and her own mental breakdown. In her autobiography, she stated
that she had always hated the novel.
I particularly enjoyed the parts of the story set in
the south of France and found the plot to be ingenious. If, like me, you are a
Christie fan, you will find it well worth reading.
Victim sets a New Year deadline for his own murder
The Clock Strikes Twelve is the seventh Miss Silver mystery
James Paradine, a wealthy businessman, announces at a family dinner on New Year’s Eve that valuable blueprints have been stolen from his study and he will give the culprit until midnight to come to him and confess.
It will come as no surprise to seasoned readers of the classic crime novel that early the next morning Paradine is found dead in the grounds of his home.
In The Clock Strikes 12, the seventh mystery by Patricia Wentworth to feature her prim governess-turned-private detective, Miss Silver, there are plenty of suspects for the reader to consider. The late James Paradine had a grown-up family, some of who are married, and many of them are actively involved in his business.
The characters and different situations of the family and staff living in the house are well described by the author, making them seem real to the reader, something that was unusual for a Golden Age classic crime novel.
There is also a strong subplot about the thwarted relationship between Phyllida, the beautiful adopted daughter of Paradine’s sister, and Elliot, a talented young designer working for Paradine who is crucial to the success of the family firm. The couple were married briefly, but have been apart for nearly a year for reasons that are slowly and cleverly revealed by the author.
Miss Silver is called in by a member of the family to try to help solve the murder and she is allowed by the police to work alongside their investigating officers. She has to unravel an elaborate tangle of alibis, motives, and clues to get to the truth.
Patricia Wentworth was fond of quoting poetry
Placidly sitting knitting in the background, Miss Silver emerges as a more distinct personality in this novel, which was first published in 1945, than she perhaps did in the earlier stories about her investigations.
The novelist Patricia Wentworth, who was born in 1877 in British India, wrote 32 novels in the classic whodunnit style featuring her character Maud Silver, a retired governess and teacher who has set up as a professional private investigator in London.
Fond of quoting from the poetry of Lord Tennyson, Miss Silver often works closely with Scotland Yard. She sees and hears everything and has a brilliant mind. From her observations, she cleverly works out what has happened in each of her cases and is able to explain how to expose the murderer.
IThe Clock Strikes 12 is a clever, well plotted mystery, perfect for reading in the days after Christmas while relaxing in front of the fire.
A murky tale of murder among the Morris men and pig
farmers
The Vintage edition of Death Comes at Christmas
We get a glimpse of Mrs Bradley’s gentler side when
she goes to spend Christmas with her nephew, Carey, who is a pig farmer, in
this sixth novel about the eccentric psychoanalyst and sleuth.
Taking with her a boar’s head as a present for her
host, she settles down to enjoy the festive season in Oxfordshire in the company
of Carey, who seems genuinely fond of his distinguished aunt, her grand-nephew,
Denis, and Carey’s friend, Hugh.
Cackling, and wearing some of her luridly-coloured
cardigans, Mrs Bradley dines on, not surprisingly, lots of pork, and she entertains
her fellow guests with anecdotes about murderers and unusual psychological
cases she has encountered.
But then one of Carey’s neighbours, a local solicitor,
is found dead near the river on Christmas Day and although he is thought to have
suffered a heart attack, Mrs Bradley is not convinced that his death was the result
of natural causes.
Later, a neighbouring pig farmer is also found dead, seemingly having been killed by one of his owns boars. Suspecting murder again,
Mrs Bradley fearlessly tries to uncover the truth about the death, despite facing
physical threats herself.
Although the first death occurs at Christmas, it takes
the lady detective until Easter to unravel the complex case, but I would still recommend
this novel as a good read for the festive season.
Death Comes at Christmas is enlivened by descriptions
of some of the local characters. Carey’s housekeeper, Mrs Ditch, who he summons
to his presence by yodeling, her Morris Dancing husband and son, and her daughter,
Linda, who is frequently criticised by local people for ‘trollopsen’ about the
area, all add to the bizarre humour.
Mrs Bradley and Denis discover that Carey’s house has secret
passages and a ghost, and the reader gets the chance to learn a lot about Morris
dancing, pig farming and heraldry during the novel, which was originally
published under the title Dead Men’s Morris in 1936.
Gladys Mitchell wrote 66 Mrs Bradley novels
Gladys
Mitchell wrote 66 novels featuring her amateur sleuth, Mrs Beatrice Adela
Lestrange Bradley, as well as some mystery novels under the name, Malcolm
Torrie, and historical adventure novels under the name, Stephen Hockaby.
A teacher
by profession, Gladys wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and
over the years she built a large and loyal following for her eccentric, but
brilliant, detective, Mrs Bradley.
Gladys was
an early member of the Detection Club along with Agatha Christie, G K Chesterton,
and Dorothy L Sayers, but she frequently enjoyed satirising or reversing the
traditional patterns of the genre.
She was
interested in architecture, ancient buildings, folklore and British customs, subjects
that were often explored in her novels and short stories. She also studied the
works of Sigmund Freud and developed an interest in witchcraft.
In 1961, Gladys retired from teaching but she continued to write detective novels and received
the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. The last Mrs Bradley
mystery was published in 1984, the year after her death.
Mystery novel tells readers more about Albert Campion
The Vintage edition of Flowers for the Judge
Campion is pushed to his limits when he tries to solve
the puzzling disappearance of a director of a London publishing house, in Flowers for the Judge, the seventh novel by Margery Allingham to feature her adventurous series detective.
The mysterious Campion is called in to help when an
old friend, Paul Brande, a nephew of the founder of the Barnabus publishing
company, is reported as missing by his wife, Gina. Paul has been absent from
home for three days, but as he and his wife led almost separate lives, no one
has found it at all remarkable up till then.
Campion is introduced to the other members of the
family involved in the publishing firm at a Sunday afternoon tea party at Gina’s
flat. During the tea party, another cousin, Mike, goes to the office to fetch a
file for the firm’s managing director from the strong room.
The next day, Paul Brande’s body is discovered lying in
full view in the strong room by staff at the Barnabus publishing company. The
police decide Mike must have seen the body when he went there on the Sunday
afternoon but chose to say nothing about it. They also discover from other
people that he was secretly in love with Gina, who is an attractive young American
woman. They arrest him and accuse him of murdering Paul.
A large part of the book shows the police establishing
a case against Mike and putting him on trial for murder, almost making it a
legal mystery.
In this 1936 novel, Margery describes the nosegay traditionally
carried into court by the judge. It is made up of fresh, scented flowers for
the judge to sniff to mitigate the unpleasant smells and unhygienic air of the
courtroom. It is the nosegay that gives the book its title.
Peter Davison as the bespectacled Campion in the BBC adaptation of Flowers for the Judge
Campion is made aware of the disappearance of a
previous director of the firm, 20 years before, who seemed to vanish into thin
air while walking along a street in London.
He is also told about the manuscript of a previously
unpublished play written by Restoration dramatist William Congreve, which is
owned by the firm. This was kept in the safe in the strong room and was about
to be put on display at an event by Paul Brande.
As the trial gets under way, Campion, and his
manservant, reformed criminal Magersfontein Lugg, have to work day and night to solve the
murder before Mike is sentenced and hanged. At one point, Campion’s own life is
threatened and he finds he must draw on all his resources and Lugg’s underworld
contacts to help him solve the case.
Many readers have said they liked seeing the
development of Albert Campion’s character by Margery Allingham during this
story, who the reader has previously been told little about by the author. I
found it to be a pacy whodunit that I enjoyed reading.
Flowers for the Judge was adapted for the BBC with Peter
Davison as Campion and Brian Glover as Lugg and it was shown on television in two,
hour-long episodes in 1990.
An intriguing mystery told with humour and well-drawn
characters
The British Library edition of Farjeon's Thirteen Guests
Thirteen Guests is a traditional country house
mystery, the type of story popular during the Golden Age of detective fiction in
the 1920s and 1930s.
The Queens of Crime, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L
Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham, are still famous for their Golden
Age novels and their books remain in print. However, many other good writers of
the detective novel from this period have now been forgotten.
One crime writer the novelist Dorothy L Sayers
particularly admired from the Golden Age was J Jefferson Farjeon, who she
praised for his ‘creepy skill.’
She may have read Thirteen Guests, when it was first published
in 1936, but few copies of the original book had remained in existence for the
modern reader to enjoy until 2015, when, happily, the novel was rescued and
republished by the British Library.
The story begins at a railway station where a young
man, John Foss, falls from a train when leaving it and injures his foot.
He is recued by an attractive widow, Nadine Leveridge,
who is on her way to a country house party. She takes the young man with her in
the car that has been sent to pick her up by her host, Lord Aveling, to try to
get medical help for him.
When they arrive at her destination, Bragley Court,
the hospitable Lord Aveling welcomes Foss and offers him the chance to stay for
the weekend while he recovers.
Lord Aveling is hosting a weekend house party for 12
people and therefore Foss is his 13th guest.
But because they arrive before two of the other
guests, Mr and Mrs Chater, it is Mr Chater who is the last to enter the house
and who becomes, technically, the 13th guest.
J Jefferson Farjeon worked for the Amalgamated Press before becoming a freelance writer
Foss is not superstitious and he has been reassured by a
fellow guest that the bad luck will come to the 13th guest who enters the
house.
During the weekend a serious of bizarre things happen.
A painting is damaged, a dog is killed, a stranger’s body is found in a quarry
on Lord Aveling’s land and then one of the guests is found dead.
Foss observes all the comings and goings during the
weekend and overhears snatches of people’s conversations as he lies, sometimes
forgotten, recuperating on a settee in a side room. He is visited from time to
time by Nadine and together they try to work out what is going on in the house,
as the relationship between them blossoms.
Farjeon does not write cardboard characters and therefore
the guests, who are also the suspects, are all interesting and depicted well.
In one scene, an artist, and a journalist, who are sharing a bedroom, give as
good as they get in an entertaining conversation with the investigating detective,
Inspector Kendall, who is by no means cast as a plodding policeman.
We learn that the Detective Inspector moves from place
to place when a district needs ‘gingering up.’ When he is introduced, he is
having some amusing exchanges with his new subordinates as they make their way
to Bragley Court to investigate.
The weekend guests include an MP, an actress, a cricketer,
and a writer of mystery novels. They all have their own secrets and
peculiarities, which Detective Inspector Kendall uncovers as he tries to get to
the truth about what has happened.
Farjeon was a crime and mystery novelist, playwright,
and screen writer. Born in 1883, he worked for ten years for Amalgamated Press
in London before going freelance. He went on to become the author of more than
60 crime and mystery novels, short story collections and plays.
He was named
after his maternal grandfather, Joseph Jefferson, who was an American actor.
His father, Benjamin Farjeon, was a successful novelist, one of his brothers
was a composer, another a drama critic and director, and his sister, Eleanor
Farjeon, wrote poems, including the words for the hymn, Morning Has Broken.
Although the plot of Thirteen Guests is far from
straight forward, Farjeon plays fair with the reader and a credible solution to
the mystery is unveiled at the end.
I enjoyed Thirteen Guests and would recommend it to
other fans of country house mysteries.
So far, not all of Farjeon’s many novels have
been republished, but I hope more of this author’s forgotten work will be rescued
and made available for contemporary crime fiction fans to relish.
