Suspects—Nine (1939) by E.R. Punshon

Last month, I compiled a little best-of list, "The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Reprints from Dean Street Press," which shined a spotlight on, in my opinion, the best Dean Street Press reprints discussed on this blog and, what has been discussed, comprises only a small fraction of their total output – having reprinted hundreds of vintage mysteries over the past decade. So they went over and above to fill that gawping hole the Rue Morgue Press left behind, but the flood of reprints and additional translations has made it difficult to keep track of everything. I decided to take a break from Christopher Bush and Brian Flynn to return to the first majora Golden Age mystery writer to be resurrected by Dean Street Press, "kindly Mr. Punshon."

E.R. Punshon's Suspects—Nine (1939) is his twelfth detective novel starring Bobby Owen who during this period, in this series, holds the rank of detective-sergeant and "wistfully looking for promotion." Similar to Bush's Ludovic Travers, Punshon allowed Bobby Owen to evolve over time from a young constable (Information Received, 1933) to a Commander of Scotland Yard (Six Were Present, 1956). Just like Flynn, Punshon tried his hands at different styles of detective fiction from magical criminal fantasies (Diabolic Candelabra, 1942) to more sordid, down to earth crimes (The Conqueror Inn, 1943). Suspects—Nine brings a bit of both to the table as Owen is now engaged to the proprietress of "Olive, Hats," Olive Farrar, who Punshon introduced as a love interest in Dictator's Way (1938). Giving a series detective-character a love interest was somewhat of a revolutionary idea when Dorothy L. Sayers made Lord Peter Wimsey fall in love with Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930) and married them in Busman's Honeymoon (1937). Margery Allingham (Sweet Danger, 1933) and Ngaio Marsh (Artists in Crime, 1938) followed suit.

So marrying off your inveterate bachelor detective is commonly associated with the Queens of Crime and Punshon seems to have written Suspects—Nine as an homage to their witty, character-driven "manners mystery" – full of social and political satire. The kind of sophisticated, well characterized mystery novel Moray Dalton could have written. 

Suspects-Nine sees Bobby Owen comically getting dragged into a petty case of a misappropriated hat when Olive Farrar's chic West End shop is caught in the middle of a feud in London's high society. Lady Alice Belchamber, "formidable and well-known explorer and traveller," who had "bullied and browbeaten her way through the most remote districts of the darkest continents." There were stories of Lady Alice that "she once had cowed with her riding whip a tribe of armed and furious reputed cannibals," while in her flat hung "a formidable knife with which she admitted having slain the Arab, who, armed with it, had penetrated her tent somewhere in the wilds of the near East." Lady Alice hates Flora Tamar who "enjoyed the deserved reputation of being one of the most beautiful women in London." Flora Tamar is married to Michael Tamar, chairman and managing director of the important Internal Combustion Engine Co., but nonetheless is known to sink her hooks in every pair of trousers that comes near her. They saw Flora Tamar pinched Lady Alice's best boy years ago and the "vindictive old bean" has never forgiven her.

The problem begins when Lady Alice learns "Olive, Hats" had designed and created a hat for Flora Tamar to wear at the forthcoming Royal garden party at Buckingham Palace. Lady Alice convinced the sales woman, Vicky, to show her the hat, tried it on and liked it ("...I said it wasn't for sale, and she shouted that every hat in a hat shop was for sale..."). She simply walked out and mailed them a cheque for £26 5s ("Consolidating the position, that's called"). Olive fully expects to lose Flora as a client and Bobby offers to act as a mediator, but Lady Alice naturally refuses and Flora expects a free new hat. Bobby came away from both meetings with an easy feeling of impending catastrophe and dark, unknown forces moving behind the petty incident of the misappropriated hat.

Bobby had been told Lady Alice somehow seems to keep tabs on Flora Tamar and he learns how when spotting a sleazy private detective, named William Martin, in the entrance hall of Lady Alice's apartment building. Martin has an unsavory, violent reputation who had "narrowly escaped arrest in connection with the case of a woman found strangled and dead in an empty house," but an alibi, though the police believed it false, saved his neck – currently works for one of London's slightly less disreputable private inquiry agencies. Bobby judges Lady Alice to be a formidable enemy and reflects "that Flora Tamar might do well to be upon her guard." But not all is well at the Tamar household as he finds out when accidentally crashing a house party and notices the undercurrent of hostility. But there's more. Michael Tamar takes Bobby aside and confides in him he has received an extortion note, of sorts, saying "there's plotting against you." If he wants to know more, he has to leave a hundred one pound notes in a tin under a stone on Weeton Hill. And that's the place where not long after a body is discovered.

The victim is identified as Munday, butler to Michael and Flora Tamar, who had been shot in the face several times and a knife wound that was inflicted about half an hour after death! A detail that lends "to the murder a strange element of the wholly inexplicable." Bobby has to comb through to the nine titular suspects to find the person who had motive and opportunity to shoot and stab a dead butler on that hillside.

First and obviously, he has to consider Munday's employers, the Tamars and two of Flora's suspected lovers, Holland Kent and Julius "Judy" Patterson. Secondly, Michael Tamar's nephew and heir in lieu of children, Roger Renfield. Thirdly, the vengeful Lady Alice along with her potentially dangerous private investigator and her lovely niece, Ernestine “Ernie” Maddox. She has been involved with Judy who lives by his wits ("cards and all that") and a regular the Cut and Come Again. A London nightclub that has figured in more than one Bobby Owen novel. Finally, there's the possibility of an unknown person, or simply "X," which would bring the whole investigation back where it begun. Bobby tackles the problem through good, solid police work ("it's just plodding, sir") and the so-called "mainly conversation" approach with one of the chapters even being titled "More Conversation," but complexity of the plot and detailed characterization never makes it a drag to read. And the many intricacies and possibilities never muddy or clutter the story.

In that regard, Suspects—Nine is a reminder of what I initially admired so much about Punshon's detective fiction. A skill to erect and navigate complicated, maze-like plots and manipulate, intertwined plot-strands like a master puppeteer. Suspects—Nine is a good example how effortlessly Punshon moved around a plot with many different moving parts and large, clearly defined cast of characters running mostly on emotions without getting all tangled up in a mess. Only thing you can really say against Suspects—Nine is that Punshon has done it even better in other novels (There's a Reason for Everything, 1945), but nothing that should take away from this excellent, Golden Age mystery.

I disagree with Nick Fuller's review in which he states that "the means Bobby Owen uses to reach that solution – police routine rather than psychological introspection – is disappointing in a book with so many detailed characters and tortuous emotions." Bobby Owen notes towards the end that, somehow, the murder of the apparently inconspicuous, unimportant Munday sprang from this "welter of passion, intrigue and claim, of counter claim and counter passion, intrigue and counter intrigue." A lot of what happens in this story is driven by all kinds of emotions, seldom rationally, which is why the murder appeared to be so incomprehensible. So figuring out the solution with calm, commonsense thinking and good, old-fashioned police routine worked better than as when Bobby had given away his best Hercule Poirot imitation. It felt really satisfying when from Bobby's memorandum (fact list) the truth emerged "so long and so strangely overlooked." A solution revealing Suspects—Nine not only as very well executed, vintage whodunit with a clever take on the general lack of alibis among the suspects, but showing it was also somewhat of masterclass in diverting suspicion. A great, long overdue return to this series and comes highly recommended to everyone who enjoys these sophisticated, character-driven 1930s mystery novels.