Tour de Force (1955) by Christianna Brand

The last two, three years of the reprint renaissance have been especially kind to the legacy of Christianna Brand as Green for Danger (1944), Suddenly at His Residence (1946), Death of Jezebel (1948) and London Particular (1952) appeared back in print – reissued in the British Library Crime Classics series. Death of Jezebel came in as an incredibly close second in the 2022 Reprint of the Year Award, before going on to unseat Green for Danger as Brand's definitive novel and currently trying to topple John Dickson Carr's The Three Coffins (1935) as the Golden Age locked room mystery. I noted in "The Hit List: Top 10 Beneficiaries of the Reprint Renaissance" it would be a genuine, posthumous accomplishment if Death of Jezebel dethrones The Three Coffins. In addition to several rarely reprinted or previously unpublished short stories and a short serialized novel, Shadowed Sunlight (1945), reprinted for the first time in Bodies from the Library 4 (2021).

So not only is Brand finally getting the proper reprints her work deserves, but her frustratingly small body of work has been actually been expanding. There's enough in cold storage, so to speak, to continue this trend for a few more years. Such as the unpublished novella "The Dead Hold Fast" featuring Inspector Charlesworth, the mouthwatering Inspector Cockrill impossible crime novel The Chinese Puzzle and an unfinished manuscript titled Cat Among the Pigeons. And, of course, the reprints!

The latest offering from the British Library in Brand reprints is the modestly titled, absolute fan favorite Tour de Force (1955). I planned to reread Death of Jezebel and London Particular first or try one of her often overlooked Inspector Chucky novels, but got my arm twisted to give Tour de Force an immediate reevaluation. The book got nominated for the "New Locked Room Library," but didn't remember it being an impossible crime novel and voted no without a comment. Only no-vote cast for Tour de Force. So was strongarmed into a dimly-lit room, planted on a chair and asked to urgently explain my conduct – brass knucks and clubs were pulled out as encouragement. No, I didn't see any of their faces. I promised to reread Tour de Force to see if my previous held opinions needed editing. Well...

Tour de Force finds Detective Inspector Cockrill, the Terror of Kent, on a conducted tour of Italy, but has come to regret it and eyes the company with his fellow British tourists with "ever-increasing gloom." Cockrill becomes entangled with seven of them at a hotel on the island of San Juan el Pirata in a tricky murder case involving a tangle of apparently incontestable alibis.

A group of holidaymakers comprising of a successful novelist, Louvaine "Louli" Barker. An ex-pianist, Leo Rodd, who lost his right arm and career in a bicycle accident. Helen Rodd is his "patient, considerate, silently sympathetic, relentlessly kind" wife. Vanda Lane is a young woman who keeps herself to herself, but has fallen in love with the ugly, angry looking one-armed man ("after all the years of existing upon vicarious romanticism"). Miss Trapp is another lonely woman ("rich and lonely") who has caught the roving eye of the tour guide, Fernando Gomez. Last, but not least, Mr. Cecil, of Christophe et Cie, who previously appeared in the Inspector Charlesworth novel Death in High Heels (1941). That case is briefly mentioned in passing ("years ago, in Christophe's, one of the girls, you can't think how horrid").

Cockrill wisely decides to bury himself in "deep in the latest adventure of his favourite Detective Inspector Carstairs" ("...engaged upon The Case of the Leaping Blonde"), but then Vanda Lane is found stabbed to death in her hotel room. And her body almost ceremonially laid out on the bed. This unexpected murder presents two the holidaying Cockrill with a pair of pressing problems.

 

 

Firstly, everyone with a hint of a motive possesses a practically watertight alibi as Cockrill had them under observation, nobody could have sneaked away long enough to commit murder and it not being noticed, which comes with a detailed map of the beachfront scene – showing where everyone was on the beach and terrace. I can't remember a map being used (in a Western mystery) to illustrate an alibi problem rather than a locked room puzzle or simply giving a clearer picture of the story's setting. Secondly, the police force of San Juan el Pirata is not, exactly, a modern one who are mainly occupied with smuggling coffee, tobacco, hashish and taking bribes from other smugglers. They have no time for a long, drawn out investigation or unsolved murder to scare away the tourists and they settle on anyone who fits in order to have "the whole thing wiped over and forgotten." Cockrill is even briefly imprisoned as a suspect and returns to the hotel to tell the six suspects he "was not going back to that dungeon to save the neck of any murderer" and going to find the murderer. Not ignoring the fact that it was his own testimony that handed out alibis to everyone.

Tour de Force becomes a showpiece of Brand's talent and specialty, the multiple false-solutions. Death of Jezebel famously overwhelms the reader with a dizzying number of false-solutions, but, perhaps better put to use in London Particular in which a closely-knit family create dummy cases implicating themselves to protect each other. Suddenly at His Residence, on the other hand, has a family creating dummy cases as ammunition to be used against each other. Tour de Force mixes things up starting with Cockrill showing how some could have escaped his attention or line of sight, before accusations begin to fly and false-solutions start coming out of the ranks of the suspects.

This continues building up, and knocking down again, of false-solutions is truly impressive and the highlight of the book. More impressive than the actual solution. A very clever, immaculately clued solution and remembering broad outline of the final twist made me enjoy it slightly more the second time around. I pointed out before that the truly greats of the genre have great reread value as not only do you get to admire their skills in laying out a plot, planting clues and dropping red herrings, but their boldness in pointing out the truth and simultaneously pushing you in the wrong direction is what separates the masters from the rest. That certainly was on full display in Tour de Force and loved (SPOILER/ROT13) Pbpxevyy'f pbzzrag nobhg bar bs gur punenpgref pregnvayl orvat bhg nf n cbgragvny fhfcrpg, which technically correct. A blatant, highly suspicious observation that's too obvious as both a clue or red herring. Love it when mystery writers lie through their teeth without uttering a single untrue word.

So no complaints there, however, I think this is going to be point where most of you'll start shouting at me. Angrily. The actual solution coming right after the final, twisty false-solution is both clever and immaculately clued, but nothing more, or less, than a plot-technical achievement. I think most (seasoned) readers will either pick up enough clues and hints or instinctively guess (see ROT13 comment) from which direction to expect the solution to come. And to give that expectation an unexpected form is, once again, a plot-technical achievement. Such an achievement would have been enough to elevate the work of a lesser writer to a five-star mystery novel, but Brand has written legitimate masterpieces. Tour de Force is simply not one of them.

Neither is it any way, shape or form an impossible crime nor is it an example of the impossible alibi. I explained before in the past that a manufactured alibi can only be considered an impossible problem under one very simple, but uncompromising, condition: the alibi solely relies on the murderer appearing to have been physically incapable of having carried out the crime. For example, the murderer is bound to a wheelchair and the victim is discovered in a place inaccessible to wheelchairs or someone is suspected of having broken somebody's neck after breaking both his arms. I exaggerate to clarify to show the impossible alibi is easily identified by the apparent impossibility of the murderer's physical circumstances to have killed the victim. So alibis depending on witnesses, documentation or tinkering with clocks are out as witnesses can be misled, mistaken or outright lie and documents can be faked or misinterpreted – similar objections for alibis depending on clocks and time stamps. More importantly, they're not needed for an impossible alibi. A gray area is admittedly murderer's who appear to have been in a different country or continent. I'll probably dedicate a post to the subject.

I didn't want to end this review by nitpicking small details, but people were being wrong on the internet and I couldn't let that stand (probably at the cost of a couple of broken fingers). Tour de Force is still an excellent, late-period Golden Age mystery and a plot-technical marvel in how it uses to the multiple false-solutions to rip through half a dozen alibis – dunking and flexing on Christopher Bush and Brian Flynn. However, the brand-name Brand's name demands something more than a technically-sound plot and knocking down alibis. So the book, for me, paled in comparison to the likes of Green for Danger, Death of Jezebel and London Particular. But feel free to disagree!