The Night of the 12th-13th (1931) by S.A. Steeman

Stanislas-André Steeman was a French-speaking Belgian illustrator, journalist and mystery novelist whom Xavier Lechard lionized as "one of the greatest mystery writers of all times." Steeman was an important, seminal figure of the early French Golden Age detective story whose work is "very representative" of French detective fiction of the 1930s that emphasizes originality, inventiveness and occasionally subverting the rules – while upholding the tenants of "rigour, fair play and cleverness" of his Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Only two of his celebrated novels were translated into English in the thirties and have never been reprinted since their original publication. So secondhand copies of the English translations tend to be as scarce as they're expensive with a copy of Six hommes morts (Six Dead Men, 1930/31) recently going on sale for $1250 plus shipping. Not all of his work is hopelessly out of reach.

Fortunately, the French-speaking Steeman had sense enough to be Belgian and therefore practically all of his mystery novels have appeared in Dutch/Flemish translations. Most of them published during the 1930s and '40s. And while copies turn up about as often as the English translations, the Dutch/Flemish editions seem to be much more reasonably priced, if they turn up. So immediately pounced on the Dutch/Flemish translations of Steeman's La nuit du 12 au 13 (The Night of the 12th-13th, 1931) when one finally headed my direction. I'd say it was influential on the French detective story of the thirties, like those published by John Pugmire's Locked Room International, but more on that in a moment. 

The Night of the 12th-13th is the second title in the Wenceslas "Wens" Vorobeitchik series and begins with setting up two separate, but obviously intertwined, plot-threads concerning a husband and wife.

Floriane Aboody is on her way to Confucius, "a shop of Chinese and Japanese goods and antiques," where she has an appointment with Van Hou Yen, but a shop assistant, Jean Heldinge, tells her he's currently absent – as is his partner, Ling Chu. However, the latter appears a few moments later to inform Floriane that Van Hou Yen will visit her home that evening. Which he does. The secretive meeting ends with Van Hou Yen handing a small parcel tied with a golden cord over to Floriane. Meanwhile, her husband, Herbert Aboody, has troubles of his own. Herbert Aboody is a co-director of an import-and export company, H. Aboody, J.B. Lawrence & Co, who has been receiving threatening letters over the past few weeks. The most recent letter informing the co-direction, "if you persevere and leave matters as they are, you will die on the night of the 12th and the 13th." Aboody's secretary, Stève Alcan, recommends him to consult a detective. This brings Wenceslas Vorobeitchik into the investigation who's not impressed with the case ("can you find something more banal than threatening letters") and critically underestimated the severity of the case. And not without consequences!

Wens proposes to spent the night of the 12th and the 13th together with Aboody in his (locked) office at the import-and export company, which he considers to be a secure location with a police detective patrolling the grounds outside. But what he fears mostly is that "this night will pass terribly calmly." Famous last words as the police detective outside hears the unmistakable sound of gunshots. Aboody was dead with a bullet in his head, while Wens had been critically injured as he was struck in the chest and leg with his body blocking the already locked office door. So that effectively takes Wens out of the case and story, which leaves the case in the hands of three other detectives. Namely the juge d'instruction, or examining magistrate, M. Plante, Inspector Aimé Malaise and Inspector Walter. Xavier Lechard did say Steeman both deeply respected the rule while "never afraid to subvert them" or "gently poking fun at them." The Night of the 12th-13th is a good example as it did not play out as an ordinary, 1930s detective novel!

There's an odd little thing about the locked room situation and I don't know if it was edited out of the translation or done on purpose, but the shooting of Aboody and Wens is never once acknowledged, treated or discussed as an impossible crime – which unnecessarily detracts from a cleverly-constructed and plotted (locked room) mystery. If it was done on purpose, it perhaps betrayed on undeserved lack of confidence in the strength of the plot and fearing to give away too much, too soon. If the translation is a condensed version, I feel slightly cheated out of my locked room fix.

Either way, you can clearly see Steeman's influence on other traditionally-minded French mystery writers of the period from even a possibly abridged translation of The Night of the 12th-13th. Noël Vindry, in particular, appears to have modeled his novels somewhat on Steeman and The Night of the 12th-13th. Vindry's series-detective is shot and wounded under impossible circumstances in La maison qui tu (The House That Kills, 1932) and the double shooting recalls the locked room problem from Le bête hurlante (The Howling Beast, 1934), while the case-for-three-detectives approach resembles Michel Herbert and Eugène Wyl's La maison interdite (The Forbidden House, 1932). The distinctly, pulp-style trappings of the plot also begs a comparison with Alexis Gensoul and Charles Grenier's La mort vient de nulle part (Death Out of Nowhere, 1945) and Marcel Lanteaume's La 13e balle (The Thirteenth Bullet, 1948), but The Night of the 12th-13th comes with a thick dollop of yellow peril. You can probably place some blame on that element for the drought in reprints over the decades.

But, purely on its merits as a detective story, it definitely deserves to be reprinted as it more than delivered on its premise. And what looked like a routine investigation following the spectacular shooting inside the locked office. An investigation in which the increasingly frustrated detectives become entangled in a web of romantic relationships, embezzlement, faked alibis, missing suspects, sinister Chinese and a noticeably growing conspiracy of silence surrounding the mysterious events on the night of the 12th and the 13th. Steeman pulls everything tightly together in the last chapters with a satisfying and for the time original explanation to the whole perplexing case. I anticipated the correct solution, but not because of any of my own cleverness or delusions of being on par as an armchair detective with Mycroft Holmes. The solution has, thematically, something in common with a few other (locked room) mystery novels from this period (SPOILER/ROT13: Jnygre F. Znfgrezna'f Gur Jebat Yrggre naq Nyna Gubznf' Gur Qrngu bs Ynherapr Ivavat juvpu nyy unir cybgf fhoiregvat gur ebyrf bs gur qrgrpgvir va n qrgrpgvir fgbel qverpgyl yvaxrq gb gur ybpxrq ebbz-gevpx).

So it didn't take me too long to notice the pattern and it gave me a pretty good idea what really happened in the apparently unconnected prologue, but you can hardly hold that against an otherwise good, solid and at the time innovative detective story. I would like to read a fresh translation to see if anything was cut out of this Dutch/Flemish edition and think a LRI reprint would complement their other French Golden Age translations. But due to the locked room angle going unacknowledged, it might make more sense to reprint The Night of the 12th-13th together with Six Dead Men as a twofer volume. Just a completely unbiased, impartial recommendation from an independent and trustworthy party. :D