tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55161890264771787772024-03-18T21:42:20.011+01:00Beneath the Stains of TimeTomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger1529125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-45515266216415914482024-03-15T15:00:00.044+01:002024-03-15T15:00:00.134+01:00Murder in the Family (1936) by James Ronald<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Last
month, I reviewed James Ronald's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/six-were-to-die-1932-by-james-ronald.html"><i>Six
Were to Die</i></a> (1932) and a handful of his shorter works
collected in <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/stories-of-crime-detection-vol-1-dr.html"><i>Stories
of Crime & Detection, vol. 1: The Dr. Britling Stories</i></a>
(2023), which is the first in a reportedly 14 volume reprint project
by <a href="https://moonstonepress.co.uk/">Moonstone Press</a> –
aiming to reprint all of Ronald's crime fiction over the next few
years. The first volume is a sampling of Ronald's earliest, tentative
steps as a writer of crime stories and pulp mysteries. So quality
tended to vary between stories, but what difference a few years
makes!</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5gX05Q9Dk1VQe-oKzrsmOxUxXw7_BfkBj-DRIC_DuwfmxHEj0nJ2hVB0Rt9wKvv8-QMO2dmNPALFsoc-MxvRHXG7FNPdFnvrV32q8-KHiCx29yVn588QUyj6boGpXe74xMEYKwmLKqqW2tcyPs4ik4mLNk920XOuHkQ08vVIsNo63ESn-V47_-u4Qe8/s505/Murder_in_the_Family_JR_MSP_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="329" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5gX05Q9Dk1VQe-oKzrsmOxUxXw7_BfkBj-DRIC_DuwfmxHEj0nJ2hVB0Rt9wKvv8-QMO2dmNPALFsoc-MxvRHXG7FNPdFnvrV32q8-KHiCx29yVn588QUyj6boGpXe74xMEYKwmLKqqW2tcyPs4ik4mLNk920XOuHkQ08vVIsNo63ESn-V47_-u4Qe8/w260-h400/Murder_in_the_Family_JR_MSP_I_.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Stories
of Crime & Detection, vol. 2: Murder in the Family</i> (2023)
collects a novel, a novelette and a short story. I'm going to save
the two shorter works for another time and concentrate on the titular
novel.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Murder
in the Family</i> (1936), alternatively published as <i>The Murder in
Gay Ladies</i> and <i>Trial Without Jury</i>, is a novel of crime
rather than detection, but there's nothing pulpy about this deeply
human, sometimes downright uneasy crime novel. This book is not what
I expected from the man who wrote the Dr. Britling series and have
never agreed with Jim so much when he wrote this about <i>Murder in
the Family</i>, "<a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2019/04/25/murder-in-the-family-a-k-a-the-murder-in-gay-ladies/"><i>something
that's so far from the sort of thing I'd expect to like that I
honestly don't know what to make of it</i></a>." Not only because
it's a character-driven crime novel, but, in a way, it can be read as
a criticism of treating murder as a parlor game. Not my poison, yet I
loved it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Stephen
Osborne, a man in his fifties, worked for the firm of Samuel Padbury
& Son for more than two decades, "<i>twenty-four years of
clerical drudgery</i>," but a small sacrifice in order to support a
large, loving and everyday family – a family he started with Edith
in the small, charming village of Gay Ladies. They have a handful of
children, Dorothy, Ann, Michael, Marjory and Peter, who range from
twelve years to twenty-three. This loving household is rounded out by
the house help, Hannah Gale, who's dog loyal to the family and
sporadic stays from the children's Uncle Simon Osborne. A "<i>graceless
reprobate</i>" whose only legitimate source of income was
occasionally churning out "<i>a thriller for the publishers of
twopenny bloods</i>," but there was always a bed waiting for him at
Gay Ladies when he needed to get away from his creditors. So with
five children to feed, cloth, educate and helping out Uncle Simon
every now and then, they had never been able to save money. And when,
one day, Stephen is let go from his job with no prospect of finding a
position elsewhere. Just like that, Stephen's dreams of a better life
for his children are shattered.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There
is, however, one option still open to Stephen, but not one he
relishes. Stephen has a rich half-sister, Miss Octavia Osborne, who
cut him off without a penny when he married Edith against her wishes
("<i>that's why he's been slaving his heart out on an office
stool</i>..."). Uncle Simon explains to his niece Ann that with her
Aunt Octavia "<i>quarrels may slumber, but they never die</i>,"
predicting she'll turn down her father ("<i>her veins flow with
vinegar</i>"). The family is not exactly looking forward to a
week-long visit from "<i>acid-tongued, sniffy-nosed old
megalomaniac</i>" as she's only happy when she can fault in the
children, criticize how the house is run and generally having a
beastly temper. When she arrives in Gay Ladies, Octavia makes short
work of establishing herself as top 10 material for most murderable
victim in a detective story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just
as predicted, Octavia not only considers it her duty to withhold her
assistance, but, gleefully, announces she has taken steps of drafting
a new will – which cuts out her brother and his children
completely. So tempers begin to flare and think a lot of readers will
get some satisfaction from this unvarnished confrontation, but
Octavia simply brushes it off and informs them she'll be leaving
immediately. But while waiting in the sitting room, someone sneaks up
behind her and tries to strangle her, causing a fatal heart attack.
Ann was in the room reading Shakespeare, but says she didn't hear or
see anyone enter the room.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiiWhlXP-TyT3Ajn9VmejHHvTLqpRBYX4IKioK2pZgCjmKhd0Lfi7NMHaKBh-speWK3CdykvLC855GRjM_b99SIOIrzP9wbjU8pMRKmX5dZ8abvFgm7lZN3o1IzkbHAdXduFKl4rEUr51qgzDDfKdbKkEf8_5fZqOwn75nwN5mqKdkhvUXcJf_0JNYV4/s489/Murder_in_the_Family_JR_MSP_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiiWhlXP-TyT3Ajn9VmejHHvTLqpRBYX4IKioK2pZgCjmKhd0Lfi7NMHaKBh-speWK3CdykvLC855GRjM_b99SIOIrzP9wbjU8pMRKmX5dZ8abvFgm7lZN3o1IzkbHAdXduFKl4rEUr51qgzDDfKdbKkEf8_5fZqOwn75nwN5mqKdkhvUXcJf_0JNYV4/w265-h400/Murder_in_the_Family_JR_MSP_II_.jpg" width="265" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Conventional
enough for something written in 1936 and the following police
investigation does not immediately dispel the illusion of a typical,
Golden Age village mystery, but the police soon retreat into the
background of the story. Simply for the reason that they can make a
good case against every member of the family, even its youngest
members ("<i>a child could have done it</i>"), but they can't put
them all on trial. So the focus of the story shifts to showing the
often brutal fall out the family has to endure of being implicated in
the murder of a close relative in their own home. Firstly, there's
the press descending on Gay Ladies and having to read about
themselves in the papers complete with descriptions of each family
members and "<i>veiled hints that no outsider could have been
responsible</i>" ("...<i>cunningly enough to avoid an action for
libel</i>"). Secondly, the heart breaking way in which the family
is cast aside by their own community or at best treated as a morbid
curiosity. There's a gaping crowd at their garden gate, their
letterbox is over flowing with hate mail and their ghoulish neighbor,
Miss Whipple, talked her way into the house to sit in the murder
chair – delighted that she now had a story to tell. The eldest
daughter, Dorothy, was about to be engaged, but the parents of the
boy immediately packed him off to France when the news broke. And the
two youngest find that they have no friends left at school.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
blows to this sympathetic family keep coming, one after another,
which only appear to stop to take a breather, but never veering into
over the top dramatics. On the contrary. <i>Murder in the Family</i>
is uncomfortably homely with on the one hand a once loving and caring
household put through hell, while the outside world sees their
situation as nothing more than a good story that sells newspapers or
give people something to speculate over at the pub. This stark
difference becomes painfully clear at the end when you see just how
much they're willing to sacrifice in order to protect each other.
After all, someone knotted that scarf around Octavia's neck. But who?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
feared Ronald had written himself in a corner here, because how can
you possibly deliver a murderer who's not coming across a letdown or
cop-out? Do you actually pick someone from the household, because
whether they're allowed to get away with it, or not, it would be
dark, unrewarding end either way. The preceding events made that
abundantly clear. But picking an outsider would be a cheap cop-out to
go for a happy ending. So became increasingly more skeptical towards
the end as there appeared to be no way for the story to deliver a
worthy ending that was not going to feel like a letdown, one way or
another. My first response to the murderer finally being pulled out
in the open was thinly veiled disappointment. Only to be then told
the motive for the murder! What it implied as to what happened after
the murder. Someway, somehow, Ronald's pulled it off in the end and
created, what's essentially, an anti-detective story which even a
proponent of murder-as-a-parlor-game can enjoy. You can call me a
radical, if you want, but I believe the only place for murder in a
civilized world is in fiction. So I'm not going to apologize for
being a ghoul who enjoys a good game of whodunit crammed with locked
rooms and dying messages, but appreciated the point that was being
made. More importantly, how it was made. If I'm ever redoing my list
of 101 all-time favorite crime-and detective novels, <i>Murder in the
Family</i> has secured a spot on it! So never let it be said I only
care about the nuts-and-bolts type of detective story. Anyway, highly
recommended!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;"><b>A
note for the curious:</b></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> you know what I haven't done in a
while? Share one of my half-baked, incorrect armchair solutions I
concocted and entertained while reading. On the day of the murder,
Peter gets into a fight with the village bully, Ernie Piper, but get
pulled apart by Marjory. She returns in kind everything Ernie throws
at them ("<i>Ernie hated games that two could play</i>") and
beats a hasty retreat, while vowing revenge. Octavia died of shock
from suddenly having a scarf pulled across her throat without any
force. Not strangulation. Which is why the police couldn't discount
the two youngest as the deed required no strength whatsoever. So
began to wonder if Ernie could have been sulking around the house,
looking for an opportunity to settle his score, noticed Dorothy's
scarf and Octavia in the sitting room with his back towards him. Why
not scare the hell out of the old bat and place the blame with the
Osborne children? Ernie is the post office messenger boy and could
approach the house without arousing curiosity. For example, from the
all-seeing of Miss Whipple's telescope. Of course, the intention was
to frighten, not to kill, but Ernie is a cowardly bully who would
initially keep his mouth shut, but, over a long enough time, would
probably give himself away. It would not have been best solution, but
it would have made for an interesting enough ending. After all they
went through together, the police stroll back into their home to
casually announce the whole matter has been resolved complete with a
confession. A terrible tragedy and all that. No hard feelings or harm
done and take their leave. A solution that likely would have deflated
the entire story, but a possibility I seriously considered.
Fortunately, Ronald came up with a much better conclusion.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-62639176647374979392024-03-12T12:00:00.096+01:002024-03-12T12:00:00.129+01:00Locked and Loaded, Part 4: A Selection of Short Impossible Crime and Locked Room Mystery Stories<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span lang="en-US">I
always try to somewhat vary the type of detective novels and short
stories discussed on this blog. For example, I recently reviewed
James Ronald's pulp-style impossible crime novel </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/six-were-to-die-1932-by-james-ronald.html"><span lang="en-US"><i>Six
Were to Die</i></span></a><span lang="en-US">
(1932) followed by a character-driven whodunit by Nicholas Blake (</span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-dreadful-hollow-1953-by-nicholas.html"><span lang="en-US"><i>The
Dreadful Hollow</i></span></a><span lang="en-US">,
1953), two Japanese </span><span lang="en-US"><i>manga</i></span><span lang="en-US">
mysteries (Motohiro Katou's </span><span lang="en-US"><i>Q.E.D.</i></span><span lang="en-US">
</span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/03/slings-and-arrows-qed-vol-35-36-by.html">vol.
35-36</a><span lang="en-US">)
and J.S. Savage's retro-GAD </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-mystery-of-treefall-manor-2023-by.html"><span lang="en-US"><i>The
Mystery of Treefall Manor</i></span></a><span lang="en-US">
(2023) – which I think is varied crosscut of our corner of the
genre. There's, of course, a difference between trying and
succeeding. A firmly established tradition on this blog is that the
locked room mystery is omnipresent and impossible to escape. Whether
discussing Golden Age mysteries, their modern-day descendants or the
detective stories currently getting ferried across multiple language
barriers. The locked room is always present.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5HQrVYMKRZeYYbWWLh5Utrf2TDiAzzO1Z1xEwe4SG3HCiDfgHsqlG1Tq616nAqSKSyTUgccnWMxS7vml8WDNrW9UGqpCTEznvDeotqdtNGhF8JC9Y1i2rY3rb2i0-FoDIZOL1FYbF1SHw70nKcptv7UnIbS8xH41OSn3I2KAB_FeaUclZuik91ivCgM/s458/Clues_for_Dr_Coffee_LGB_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="317" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5HQrVYMKRZeYYbWWLh5Utrf2TDiAzzO1Z1xEwe4SG3HCiDfgHsqlG1Tq616nAqSKSyTUgccnWMxS7vml8WDNrW9UGqpCTEznvDeotqdtNGhF8JC9Y1i2rY3rb2i0-FoDIZOL1FYbF1SHw70nKcptv7UnIbS8xH41OSn3I2KAB_FeaUclZuik91ivCgM/w276-h400/Clues_for_Dr_Coffee_LGB_I_.jpg" width="276" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">So,
despite my attempts to keep everything somewhat varied, the blog
regularly goes through periods where every other review is tagged
with the "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Locked%20Room%20Mysteries">locked
room mysteries</a>" toe-tag. I'm simply <strike>obsessed</strike>
fascinated with the damn things. This blog is currently going through
one of those periods, but this time, I've <strike>an excuse</strike>
a pretty good reason to <strike>fanboy all over them</strike> make a
rigorous study of them.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Last
year, I put together "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">The
Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century:
A Brief Historic Overview of the First Twenty (Some) Years</a>." I
very soon realized I should have waited until 2025 as two more years
would have given a much clearer picture of the current developments.
So the plan is to eventually do a follow-up focusing solely on the
ten-year period 2015-25, which is why I have been building a small
pile of contemporary, retro-GAD mysteries. Not all of them are of the
impossible variety, but most are and intend on decimating that pile
in the two, three months ahead – interspersed with some golden
oldies. So that's what you can expect in the coming weeks and months,
but first need to get some odds and ends out of the way.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
previously compiled three posts under the title "Locked and
Loaded," part <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/12/locked-and-loaded-selection-of-short.html"><b>1</b></a>,
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/04/locked-and-loaded-part-2-selection-of.html"><b>2</b></a>
and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/01/locked-and-loaded-part-3-selection-of.html"><b>3</b></a>,
which reviews uncollected short stories. This time, I had a handful
of uncollected stories from the past 60 years (1963-2023) that I
needed to get out of the way.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://mikegrost.com/blochman.htm#Blochman">Lawrence
G. Blochman</a>'s "Murder Behind Schedule," originally published
in <i>Clues for Dr. Coffee</i> (1963) and reprinted as "Young Wife"
in the November 17, 1963, publication of <i>This Week</i>. A very
short, but legitimate, impossible crime story somehow not mentioned
in Robert Adey's <i>Locked Room Murders</i> (1991) nor Brian Skupin's
<i>Locked Room Murders: Supplement</i> (2019). This is the perfect
filler material for locked room-themed anthology as it's short,
simple and not devoid of interest. Dr. Daniel Webster Coffee, chief
pathologist at Pasteur Hospital, is trying to work on <i>New Methods
of Post-mortem Diagnosis of Drowning</i> when Lieutenant Max Ritter
whisks him away to the scene of a very curious crime ("...<i>like a
case for that Dr. Gideon Fell you made me read about last summer</i>").
Michael Waverly is a patron of the arts and a hard businessman,
"<i>people either worshiped him or hated his guts</i>," who
collected enemies left and right. Even at home. Waverly's marriage is
on the rocks as his wife is having an affair with the second
violinist of the Waverly String Quartet and someone tried to kill him
only a week ago. Ritter received a frantic call from Waverly, "<i>he's
after me again</i>," followed by a groan, loud banging noises and
then utter silence. So what, exactly, happened and how did the
murderer manage to escape from a locked room?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Like
I said this is a very short, good and cleverly constructed detective
story with an interesting and even realistic take on the classic
trope of a murder inside a locked room. A locked room situation that
would not be out of place in an episode of <i>CSI</i>. Despite being,
what can called a realistic impossibility, Mike Grost points out on
his website that the story "<a href="https://mikegrost.com/blochman.htm#CoffeeShort"><i>contains
a gracious homage to John Dickson Carr</i></a>" and "<i>Carr in
turn was a fan of Blochman</i>" praising "<i>his stories in
print</i>" – which got <i>Clues for Dr. Coffee</i> moved nearer
the top of the pile. This short story and praise from Carr is enough
to warrant further investigation.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrk2aOCNcAGZt-OH174YRnXDdz3yMRCUgbk2NvsANR2SNGDWydtG4TQS0rCOujvYlde2pBRJlqx385jrLO493PXj1tPqLk7aoUJzyEyb6TpbU2CUvwLSQQ8nHfSn-ijQbyvqQsc92PZeuM4GIGDA02jdcZ5Pva39w0IdLCjLAoz9zarMWgXWDE0KZNjdA/s496/Who_Done_It_AL_IA_LL_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="331" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrk2aOCNcAGZt-OH174YRnXDdz3yMRCUgbk2NvsANR2SNGDWydtG4TQS0rCOujvYlde2pBRJlqx385jrLO493PXj1tPqLk7aoUJzyEyb6TpbU2CUvwLSQQ8nHfSn-ijQbyvqQsc92PZeuM4GIGDA02jdcZ5Pva39w0IdLCjLAoz9zarMWgXWDE0KZNjdA/w268-h400/Who_Done_It_AL_IA_LL_I_.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Edward%20D.%20Hoch">Edward
D. Hoch</a>'s wrote "The Locked Room Cipher" for a game-themed
anthology, <i>Who Done It?</i> (1980), which hid the identity of the
authors behind a code. So the story is not particularly well-known
either as a work from Hoch's hand or as a locked room mystery.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Locked Room Cipher" stars the one-shot detective and newspaper
columnist, Ross Calendar, who's invited by Terry Box to attend a high
profile reunion. Terry Box had once worked in Washington, "<i>doing
something with codes and computers</i>," but nowadays owns and runs "<i>the hottest new disco restaurant since Studio 54</i>," Sequin
City – a place with some peculiar features. Beside giving its
patrons the feeling they're in Hollywood or Las Vegas, every room and
corner is under the watchful eye of closed-circuit TV cameras. The
mirrored panels are actually one-way glass allowing viewers from
above to watch the action below without being seen ("...<i>something
more suitable to a bank or gambling casino than a New York disco</i>").
Now there's a reunion with three of Box's former colleagues from
Washington who all worked with computers, ciphers or both. During the
reunion, Box and Calendar witnesses one of them getting shot and
killed on live CCTV inside the private dinning room with the door
securely bolted from the inside. When they break down the door, the
murderer has vanished and the only clue is a computer print-out of a
cipher found in the victim's pocket.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just
as to be expected from Hoch, "The Locked Room Cipher" is a
competently put together detective story, but the most difficult one
to crack. The murderer is easily spotted and the method to create the
illusion of an unseen shooter vanishing from a bolted room under
camera surveillance is easy to anticipate. However, the passage of
time turned it into a historically noteworthy "modern" impossible
crime story. Sure, the technology used in the story is hopelessly
outdated today, crude and clunky, but that crudeness gives it a charm
of its own. More importantly, it's technological crudeness is what
allowed Hoch to put a new spin on an old trick. In 1980, "The
Locked Room Cipher" must have impressed as a promising example of
what can be done with the classical locked room in a high-tech
environment.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
wonder if detective fans of the future will look back on a story like "The Unlocked Locked Room Murder" (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gosho Aoyama">Gosho
Aoyama</a>'s <i>Case Closed</i>, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/12/new-murders-for-old-case-closed-vol-79.html">vol.
79</a>) as crude and clunky, but quaint and pleasantly old-fashioned?
After all, by that time they should be experiencing (which replaced
reading) detective stories in which murderers create unbreakable
alibis with AI-operated, holographic doubles or creating locked rooms
with nanomaterials that can form a sealed door. Anyway...</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgijmq4sAokiU1DB25uZ7UvH4-rjKFcrWH_zPHYhmt3PVlEMQRPZGdKeBdPUX_29yKXISiEbFct2rPV4wMJftUtHQg0Q7vy6UBrJIC8Nufepwp3nNDElhIWAqfA45f5RJenTUHogpS2HGnVIzOWubMFeYPYpeni52Gm1W8QD_rtq2xesif2qWgANbPEKxY/s507/The_Painter_Who_Loved_the_Truth_AvD_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="336" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgijmq4sAokiU1DB25uZ7UvH4-rjKFcrWH_zPHYhmt3PVlEMQRPZGdKeBdPUX_29yKXISiEbFct2rPV4wMJftUtHQg0Q7vy6UBrJIC8Nufepwp3nNDElhIWAqfA45f5RJenTUHogpS2HGnVIzOWubMFeYPYpeni52Gm1W8QD_rtq2xesif2qWgANbPEKxY/w265-h400/The_Painter_Who_Loved_the_Truth_AvD_I_.jpg" width="265" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/M.P.O. Books">M.P.O.
Books</a>' "De schilder die de waarheid liefhad" ("The Painter
Who Loved the Truth," 2019), published as by "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Anne van Doorn">Anne
van Doorn</a>," shamelessly lingered on the big pile for years. And
pretty much one of the main reasons for doing this compilation post.
If you're not familiar with previous reviews, Books is the only Dutch
crime-and mystery writer, past or present, who has written (good)
impossible crime fiction in a significant quantity. From the early <i>De
blikvanger</i> (<i>The Eye-Catcher</i>, 2010) and the excellent <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-raven-and-criminal.html"><i>Een
afgesloten huis</i></a> (<i>A Sealed House</i>, 2013) to <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-man-who-relieved-his-conscience.html"><i>De
man die zijn geweten ontlastte</i></a> (<i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Man Who Relieved His Conscience</span></i>, 2019) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-delft-blue-mystery-2023-by-anne-van.html"><i>Het
Delfts blauw mysterie</i></a> (<i>The Delft Blue Mystery</i>, 2023)
under the Van Doorn name. And more than half a dozen short stories.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Painter Who Loved the Truth" could have just as easily been titled "The People Who Played Dominoes," because the story is plotted
around the domino-effect as "<i>crime sometimes takes the form of a
game of dominoes, which are placed half a stone apart and upright</i>"
("<i>if the first one falls, they all fall</i>"). That proved to
be the case when an outgoing minister, Herman van Grootheest, is
shockingly shot to death in his vacation home on Texel, "<i>the
first assassination of a prominent politician since Pim Fortuyn</i>,"
but the police soon have a prime suspect, Joost Leijendekker – a
house painter who was in possession of the murder weapon. And that's
not the only damning evidence the police uncovers. During a
reconstruction on the island, Leijendekker manages to escape and his
flight ends on the doorstep of the two private investigators of
Research & Discover, Robbie Corbijn and Lowina de Jong.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Leijendekker
pleads he's innocent and Corbijn wants to help "<i>the most wanted
man in the Netherlands</i>," but the painter is not exactly making
it easy by insisting the gun was in his possession at the time of the
murder. Not only in his possession, but safely under lock and key!
Nobody except him knows the code to the safe. The trick to explain
this impossibility is a neat one. However, this story is even better
in its cause-and-effect structure as Corbijn and De Jong have to pick
apart a series seemingly unconnected incidents that proved to be
domino stones toppling one after another, which created the
circumstances allowing for the murder to happen. It's a pleasing
effect.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Tom
Mead is a prominent member of today's locked room revivalists who
signed his name to three novels, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/09/death-and-conjuror-2022-by-tom-mead.html"><i>Death
and the Conjuror</i></a> (2022), <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-murder-wheel-2023-by-tom-mead.html"><i>The
Murder Wheel</i></a> (2023) and the upcoming <i>Cabaret Macabre</i>
(2024), and a growing list of <a href="https://tommeadauthor.com/short-fiction/">short
stories</a> – which I wish were easily available. Preferably in one
place like a proper short story collection. One easily accessible
short story from Mead you can read right now is "<a href="https://strandmag.com/solve-the-mystery-of-jack-maggs-jaw-for-a-chance-to-win-an-incredible-locked-room-prize-pack/">Jack
Magg's Jaw</a>" (2022).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BkPG72WiLHeCc_ltVQIJf1Acmm3vIc7oBrk5xB3CfdcDCIb6zcqUgqTK1Xe1qzbJoBsQCaY4WItnDZ1S4d2N0O52CjvtBvJ8dv6UnJIMznONTi3HWmEEcELOqUzApqb_b138dKvH0ZNH4cue1HFlyt-1yxPtkY3MFOdvYM6OU7RYwHKClg5eGRRcGns/s519/Jack_Maggs_Jaw_TM_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="357" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BkPG72WiLHeCc_ltVQIJf1Acmm3vIc7oBrk5xB3CfdcDCIb6zcqUgqTK1Xe1qzbJoBsQCaY4WItnDZ1S4d2N0O52CjvtBvJ8dv6UnJIMznONTi3HWmEEcELOqUzApqb_b138dKvH0ZNH4cue1HFlyt-1yxPtkY3MFOdvYM6OU7RYwHKClg5eGRRcGns/w275-h400/Jack_Maggs_Jaw_TM_I_.jpg" width="275" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">"Jack
Magg's Jaw" was published on <i>The Strand Magazine</i> website on
September 30, 2022, as part of a competition to win a Locked Room
Prize pack comprising of a hardcover copy of Mead's <i>Death and the
Conjuror</i>, Otto Penzler's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/11/golden-age-locked-room-mysteries-2022.html"><i>Golden
Age Locked Room Mysteries</i></a> (2022) and tickets for an escape
room. All you had to do is solve the problem of the titular jaw and a
small matter of a seemingly impossible murder. Joseph Spector, a
retired magician and amateur detective, travels to the dark, rambling
country house of Cliver Stoker to attend a slightly macabre weekend
party. Stoker has his own private black museum ("<i>behold... my
museum of murder</i>") and his most prized possession is the
jawbone of a notoriously brutal highwayman, Jack Magg, who was
executed in 1740. Every guest at the house party wants it. Stoker
tells them they'll get to bid on it the following day, but, until
then, it's locked away behind a steel door protected with a time lock
that's "<i>utterly impenetrable</i>." When the morning comes and
time lock runs out, the door opens to reveal a body inside what
should have been a completely inaccessible vault. A very short, but
good and fun little impossible crime story in which Mead's love for
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton Rawson">Clayton
Rawson</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Jonathan Creek"><i>Jonathan
Creek</i></a> bleeds through.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After
last year's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/11/monkey-see-monkey-murder-2023-by-james.html"><i>Monkey
See, Monkey Murder</i></a> (2023), <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/James Scott Byrnside">James
Scott Byrnside</a> is currently working on a collection of short
stories featuring his two Chicago gumshoes from the Roaring Twenties,
Rowan Manory and Walter Williams. On the last day of 2023, Byrnside
posted the first short story from that future collection, "The
Silent Steps of Murder," on his blog as a New Year's present.
Thanks! Very much appreciated and enjoyed!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Silent Steps of Murder" begins with Rowan Manory and Walter
Williams out and about on New Year's Eve, "<i>Chicago was ready to
bid farewell to 1927</i>," when they hear someone yelling murder. A
young beat cop, Quinn, who immediately recognizes Chicago's famous
detective and tells Manory he heard a loud crash, or noise, coming
from one of the apartment buildings on his beat. When he goes to
investigate, Quinn finds the body of the woman who lives there with a
gunshot wound to the chest and stab wounds to the face. The state of
the room suggests a robbery gone wrong or, perhaps, arranged to
appear like a botched burglary that ended with a brutal murder. Just
one problem. The murderer has to be still in the building, because
the only footprints in the snow outside belong to Quinn. Manory
assures Williams that Quinn is not the murderer, but, if not Quinn,
who else could have left the place without leaving footprints?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There's
a challenge to the reader, "<i>Rowan has already solved the case.
Have you? Here are some questions you should be able to answer</i>,"
but it took me until after that point until things began clicking
into place. Even then, I considered another variation that was
actually mentioned in the comments. However, the solution deserves a
blue ribbon. A bold move turning the story from an impossible crime
story into a grand-style whodunit. This is exactly what I <strike>hoped</strike>
envisioned would emerge from the Golden Age renaissance of the past
decade. Go read it now and I look forward to complete collection
which appears to have an overarching storyline.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
this rambling has gone on long enough. Next up is a (non-impossible)
gem (I hope) from the 1930s.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-62738140654493692642024-03-08T15:00:00.045+01:002024-03-08T15:00:00.130+01:00The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023) by J.S. Savage<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Recently,
I reviewed two novels from the current crop of locked room
revivalists, Gigi Pandian's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/under-lock-skeleton-key-2022-by-gigi.html"><i>Under
Lock & Skeleton Key</i></a> (2022) and J.L. Blackhurst's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/three-card-murder-2023-by-jl-blackhurst.html"><i>Three
Card Murder</i></a> (2023), which both made me realize I should have
waited with "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">The
Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century</a>"
until 2025 – things began to take a more definite shape right after
it was posted. <i>Under Lock & Skeleton Key</i> and <i>Three Card
Murder</i> also continued the tradition of having a very mixed
reactions to this new generation of locked room magicians. I either
love them on first sight or leave me hoping the series improves in
future installments, which in case of the latter tends to produce not
the most enthusiastic reviews. And those are not among the popular
reviews on this blog.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrAEVeRillIQXRAyi5lOu9b07EQfkVXzWnqQyc_B7p-4I4uyd80vXEG9YbtHM83uNjYIjdRObphAAopwm-NDHh4bI3vN3oPEBy-OIvVDse7TmKwjhznGTd8k3-rIoPj8naH_WGH0kTQITA8nLzvdqXXR6azoprKN9S2u8smb8Elzk7hFcMY6MAV4rZk0/s595/The_Mystery_of_Treefall_Manor_JSS_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="396" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrAEVeRillIQXRAyi5lOu9b07EQfkVXzWnqQyc_B7p-4I4uyd80vXEG9YbtHM83uNjYIjdRObphAAopwm-NDHh4bI3vN3oPEBy-OIvVDse7TmKwjhznGTd8k3-rIoPj8naH_WGH0kTQITA8nLzvdqXXR6azoprKN9S2u8smb8Elzk7hFcMY6MAV4rZk0/w266-h400/The_Mystery_of_Treefall_Manor_JSS_I_.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">So
let me put those at ease who saw the title of this blog-post and
feared another one of my lukewarm "hot takes," because today's
subject is the genuine article!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">J.S.
Savage is a London-based mystery writer "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/44795094.J_S_SAVAGE"><i>who
specializes in impossible crimes</i></a>"<i> </i>and launched historical
Inspector Graves series last year with <i>The Mystery of Treefall
Manor</i> (2023). For someone who has been prophesying a second
Golden Age for years now, I feel not entirely up-to-date of what's
currently being produced towards that end. Savage and <i>The Mystery
of Treefall Manor</i> are among the many authors and novels slipping
pass me unnoticed. Fortunately, the GP of the mystery sphere, Steve
the Puzzle Doctor, remedied that oversight with an enticing review
("<a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/12/23/the-mystery-of-treefall-manor-2023-by-j-s-savage/"><i>this
is an outstanding book</i></a>") and making it a contender for his "Grand Puzzly" award in "<a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/12/31/review-of-the-year-2023/">Review
of the Year – 2023</a>." I also added Dolores Gordon-Smith's <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2022/01/03/the-chapel-in-the-woods-2021-by-dolores-gordon-smith/"><i>The
Chapel in the Woods</i></a> (2021) and Victoria Dowd's <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/11/26/murder-most-cold-2023-by-victoria-dowd/"><i>Murder
Most Cold</i></a> (2023) on the strength of Doc's reviews. After all,
D.L. Marshall's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/07/anthrax-island-2021-by-dl-marshall.html"><i>Anthrax
Island</i></a> (2021) was a real winner! So lets dissect this newest
arrival to the locked room revival.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The
Mystery of Treefall Manor</i> takes place in October, 1926, at the
titular manor of the widowed Alexander Grimbourne in Swinbridge,
Rockinghamshire, which is soon to hosting the wedding party of
daughter, Ruth – who's going to be married to their young neighbor,
Lord Frederick "Freddie" Taylor. A joyous occasion, to be sure,
but not all is well at Treefall Manor. Alexander Grimbourne is the
typical, storybook patriarch who's "<i>quite the historian when it
comes to the family roots</i>" and their achievements ("<i>my
ancestors supplied the wood that was used to build the ships that saw
off the Spanish Armada</i>"). However, "<i>the Grimbourne
heritage is not made of wood as some people think</i>," but "<i>the
Grimbourne men themselves, the men who cut the deals, undercut the
competition, it is the name Grimbourne itself</i>." So it was a
disappointment to Grimbourne when his only son, John, was born with a
withered leg and developed a love for "<i>writing dreary, awful
poetry</i>." And their relation was never good. While he loves his
daughter, Grimbourne believes she doesn't know what's best for her.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Is
this why her engagement to Lord Freddie came out of nowhere or why
the wedding is so hastily rushed through? Or why Grimbourne took it
upon himself to invite two old friends of the bride and groom? What's
on going between him and his private secretary, George Campbell? And
who took the antique dagger from the library? This culminated with
Grimbourne casually announcing he's going to change his will the next
day with predictable results.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Alexander
Grimbourne is found murdered in his study, "<i>from his chest
protruded the handle of the missing dagger</i>," clutching a dying
message plucked from the bookcase, but the door and barred windows
are securely locked from the inside – confronting the local police
with an impossible crime. So they immediately dispatch their top guy,
Detective Inspector Graves, to the scene of the crime together with a
recent addition to their ranks, Detective Constable James Carver. A
young, eager and promising policeman who's still somewhat rough
around the edges.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So,
as you can probably gather by now, Savage hits on some of the most
familiar notes and themes of the Golden Age detective story, but
appearing like a Golden Age-style mystery is not always a guarantee
it works like one. Often lacking good plots, fair play or simply not
getting the difference between a "closed circle" and "locked
room" mystery. I think we have all burned ourselves, once or twice,
on such cases of false advertisements, but, as said before, Savage
and <i>The Mystery of Treefall Manor</i> is the genuine article. A
tight, cleverly-plotted and fairly clued locked room mystery that
pleasantly kept me puzzling along with Graves and Carter. And, for
the most part, the story felt as if it could have been published
nearly a century ago. However, Savage is not merely a Han van
Meegeren of detective fiction who created a nigh perfect copy of a
Golden Age mystery. Savage used the same techniques as the masters
from the past, but went to work fresh, new paints of his own.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Firstly,
<i>The Mystery of Treefall Manor</i> takes place in the 1926, but is
plotted like a locked room mystery from 1936. A trope of the
pre-1930s detective story is that the crime scene often resembled a
busy, crowded thoroughfare – littered with monogrammed
handkerchiefs, cigarette buds and train tickets. Just to muddy the
waters by casting suspicion on as many of the characters as possible.
Graves and Carver find some litter in the locked study, but they're
not red herrings. They're full-fledged clues! The detective story in
1926 was not quite there yet. Secondly, Savage avoided a pitfall some
of these debuting retro-GAD novels fall into by trying to setup the
whole series and fleshing out the characters in the first novel,
which always comes at the expense of the plot (e.g. Pandian's <i>Under
Lock & Skeleton Key</i>). Savage gave more depth to his two
series-characters than most of their past counterparts got in their
entire run, but it was done with a very light, subtle touch as Graves
and Carver got to know each other a little bit over the course of
their first joined-investigation. I particularly liked why Graves
never acknowledges a particular question or keeping the solution to
the locked room to himself to give Carver an opportunity to cut his
teeth on a really tricky problem ("<i>this looks to be a meaty sort
of case to get his teeth stick in to</i>").</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I'm
left with practically nothing to complain or nitpick about except for
two, very minor details. Carver eventually figures out how the locked
room-trick was done, which is a good and absolutely solvable, Graves
asks him to name the murderer. Because "<i>only one person could
have committed the crime in that way</i>." Aside from opportunity,
the method fitted another character even better than the actual
murderer and combined with the implied content of the love letter I
entertained another possibility for the solution. Funnily enough, as
the ending showed, even that wrong solution was not all that far off
the mark. And that ending also showed a modern hand was at work. Not
necessarily a bad thing, but it broke the illusion a little. If
you're going to do it, you should do it right at the end.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So,
nitpicking aside, Savage and <i>The Mystery of Treefall Manor</i> is
indeed an outstanding detective novel with a plot and characters
shining as bright as its Golden Age ancestors. More importantly, it's
a welcome and promising addition to the rapidly growing list of
locked room revivalists and retro-GAD authors. I'm eagerly looking
forward to the second Graves and Carver locked room mystery, <i>Sun,
Sea and Murder</i> (2024), which going by the title should be out
around summertime. </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-6965240875198850402024-03-05T13:00:00.000+01:002024-03-05T13:00:00.132+01:00Slings and Arrows: Q.E.D. vol. 35-36 by Motohiro Katou<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
first of two stories from Motohiro Katou's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Q.E.D."><i>Q.E.D.</i></a>
vol. 35, "Two Suspects," is a surprisingly uncomplicated,
straightforward case of burglary gone wrong when the owner of a
moving company, Yoshimitsu Ryozo, discovers a burglar in the
manager's office – working on the safety deposit box. So the
burglar takes a crowbar to the owner's skull and leaves him seriously
wounded. Yoshimitsu Ryozo is either unable, or unwilling, to identify
his attacker, because due to his own past "<i>often hired those
with criminal backgrounds</i>." Only viable suspects are two of his
staff members, Saburo Mikawa and Kurose Yasumasa, who have several
counts of theft and assault on their record.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTDopy4p_DtL6f_nwiHqR5BK__9dmQ-vZ90hm9Hzv5T7NidCC88c7xrkSwn9Keg3JJziURtdc4X1E7MMowARKeY-DDDTMuzRRSfSRiCygQdm4ZkOIvyw5-5jY_EepkEZCOtMhWEfK5ao379_FkRyeD_c9jsvdukFuEwxlHiyOQ0GGbA9Efm2JgmRJodQ/s447/QED_vol_35_MK_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="301" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTDopy4p_DtL6f_nwiHqR5BK__9dmQ-vZ90hm9Hzv5T7NidCC88c7xrkSwn9Keg3JJziURtdc4X1E7MMowARKeY-DDDTMuzRRSfSRiCygQdm4ZkOIvyw5-5jY_EepkEZCOtMhWEfK5ao379_FkRyeD_c9jsvdukFuEwxlHiyOQ0GGbA9Efm2JgmRJodQ/w269-h400/QED_vol_35_MK_I_.jpg" width="269" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
a simple, but tricky, case handled by Inspector Mizuhara's
subordinate, Asama Kiyori, who's very keen to impress his superior.
Naturally, Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara come along to drop by
something for Detective Sasazuka and Kiyori is surprised when he asks
Touma's opinion on the burglary ("<i>why are you asking that stuff
to a kid?</i>"). Sasazuka explains Touma is "<i>a genius who is
respected by Inspector Mizuhare</i>" ("<i>so... the inspector has
some like that?</i>"). Kiyori asks Kana Mizuhara to rope in Touma
to help him solve the case. After all, if the subordinate bungles an
investigation, it reflects poorly on his superior, i.e. her father.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While
there are only two suspects, they both have a financial motive and
their alibis "<i>only supported by someone very close to them</i>."
Just having two, or three, suspects can make things a lot more
difficult and complicated than an entire swarm of suspects, which
these <i>manga</i> detective series regularly demonstrate. Touma is
not easily fooled and points out that the one difference between the
suspects is "<i>your impression of good or bad with regards to
their circumstances</i>." Logically untangles that neat, knotted
little problem. A very minor, but solid, story that curiously leaves
one small plot-thread unresolved.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
second story, "Christmas Present," sounds out-of-season, but the
December holiday is only a small, unobtrusive decoration to a fun
parody of the theatrical mystery – even poking fun at the <i>shin
honkaku</i>-style locked room puzzles. This story centers on two of
Sakisaka High School clubs. Firstly, the Drama Club whose president
is a brilliant, promising young actor, Shiroi Kentarou, but despite
his acting skills ("...<i>almost at par with the professionals</i>")
is the reason why the club is bleeding members ("...<i>he's clumsy
as hell</i>"). Always making some thoughtless mistake leading to
one members, after another, giving up on the club and now they're
given an ultimatum: get new members after the Christmas show or get
disbanded! The notorious Detective Club comes to the rescue, but
their president, Enari "Queen" Himeko has one condition. It has
to be a mystery play. Not that they have script ready, but Detective
Club has that covered as well, which means turing to Sou Touma and
Kana Mizuhara for help. Touma is tasked with penning a script on the
spot. Which he does.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So,
of course, the collaboration between the two clubs is not exactly
going smoothly and even is threatened to be canceled all together,
but, for me, the highlight is the trick Touma's dreamed up for the
mystery play, <i>Murder at the Pentagon House</i>. The play is about
a murder committed in a small, pentagon-shaped house with the door
and windows locked from the inside. Sure, the locked room-trick is
completely tongue-in-cheek ("<i>W-wow, such a trick exists?! No
wonder it's called Pentagon House</i>"), but nonetheless quite
clever and original. More importantly, the trick can be easily used
in an actual comedy mystery play. A fun, cheeky send-up of the
theatrical mystery and <i>shin honkaku</i> impossible crime tales.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Kurogane
Villa Murder Case" is the first of two stories from <i>Q.E.D.</i>
vol. 36 and brings Sou Touma to the Kyoto to meet with Jinnai
Ryozaburou.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOirCYQJGcw4XbETXLw5ixTYtHKeif6DtuxMoYZkphuvOaQxYJoSszRTIkEcPW8Ti1WdG_ENRrKfzUglO6ZQCBtgJjctGuFo8QGA6jkx5Kyladc96cybqNJjQDtA5GNz-wzl6kbc_MOxqJG0R70MWCnmwxXFSjpag_G8v8nYAraXOCv6A0rablqKhB8dk/s468/QED_vol_36_MK_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="315" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOirCYQJGcw4XbETXLw5ixTYtHKeif6DtuxMoYZkphuvOaQxYJoSszRTIkEcPW8Ti1WdG_ENRrKfzUglO6ZQCBtgJjctGuFo8QGA6jkx5Kyladc96cybqNJjQDtA5GNz-wzl6kbc_MOxqJG0R70MWCnmwxXFSjpag_G8v8nYAraXOCv6A0rablqKhB8dk/w269-h400/QED_vol_36_MK_II_.jpg" width="269" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Jinnai
Ryozaburou is a lecturer at K University whose mentor, Yanosuke
Kurogane, hanged himself at his home five days previously and nobody
knows why. Professor Kurogane lectured on theoretical physics for
thirty years and renowned as a great researcher, but had treated a
promising assistant professor badly. Namely trying to take credit.
Karasuma Renji is viewed by the police as a person of interest in
their ongoing investigation, but he's "<i>impossible to handle</i>" and tries to make himself look suspect ("<i>this detective is an
idiot</i>"). A second murder happens when all of Professor
Kurogane's friends and associates gathered at his home to mourn him.
One of his potential successors is hit with an arrow while walking
down an outside, roofed corridor that poses something of a problem,
because long corridors like that were used for archery competitions
during the Edo period – where the trick lies in distance combined
with the low ceiling. A target at the end of the corridor with a low
ceiling overhead limits the angles in which an arrow can be loosened.
So the murder is an impossible one as "<i>it'd require the power of
a rifle</i>" and "<i>the aim was even a bit off</i>..." On top
of that, Karasuma Renji alluded before the murder to Zeno's Arrow
Paradox.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Touma
gives a clue to the solution to Kana, "<i>the key to solve this
case is why did the culprit choose an arrow as the weapon</i>," but
the arrow-trick should have been offered as a false-solution – a
trick that sounds nice enough in theory. But would simply not work in
practice. No matter how skilled the archer who shoots the arrow. Even
if it can be done as described, there's no way it can be accurately
aimed to hit a fatal spot. And, no, I don't think (<a href="https://rot13.com/"><b>ROT13</b></a>)
<i>n funqbj frra sebz n guveq-sybbe ebbsgbc, cbxvat bhg sebz gur
pbirerq oevqtr nqwnprag gb pbeevqbe, vf rknpg rabhtu gb uvg gur
ivpgvz evtug va gur arpx</i>. A pity as I like archery-themed
detective stories of which there are only a scant few. On the other
hand, the solution to the murder-disguised-as-suicide of Professor
Kurogane had a much simpler, elegant solution. That murder is a
quasi-impossible crime with the question being how the killer managed
to enter and leave the house without being seen or leaving footprints
in the snow outside the study. A mixed bag of a story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
second and last story from this volume, "Q & A," is one of
those unorthodox, character-oriented puzzles drawing on Touma's time
as an MIT student in the United States.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Glass
Rosfeller is an American banker who helped Touma securing research
grants, when he was still studying abroad (see previous reviews), but
Rosfeller intends to retire and wishes to hand over the business to
one of his four children, Ian, Walter, Freya and Wood. So has an
unusual favor to ask from Touma. Rosfeller wants him to select the
most suitable one to succeed him and in order to do so has them
gathered in a luxurious villa, on an island, in the middle of Aegean
Sea. Touma brings along Kana and his younger sister, Yuu Touma. Only
other people present on the island is the caretaker and his son. This
all appears to be conventional enough and most readers will probably
expect someone to be murdered, likely under seemingly impossible
circumstances, but what happens is a series of minor and more serious
incidents. There's a blackout. The gas and warm water gets turned
off. The son of the caretaker is injured and finally an explosion.
This short, strange series of events is retold several times from the
perspective of everyone present on the island. Every time one of
these incidents happened, they were all scattered around the villa or
the island. A story with a really, really razor-thin plot, but Katou
deserves credit for how he handled it and making it feel more
substantial than it actually is. So not entirely without interest,
but a minor and unmemorable entry in the series.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Obviously,
vol. 36 is on a whole weaker than vol. 35 with "Christmas Present"
being the standout of the two collections and the first story, "Two
Suspects," standing as a solid, no-frills detective tale. "Kurogane
Villa Murder Case" is not a bad story, but the arrow-trick is hard
to credit and "Q & A" is one of those stories I've completely
forgotten when getting to the next two volumes. Still an enjoyable
read overall. You can probably expect the next <i>Q.E.D.</i> review
by the end of the month. </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-30895051073892695242024-03-01T12:00:00.045+01:002024-03-01T12:00:00.133+01:00The Dreadful Hollow (1953) by Nicholas Blake<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
December, I revisited the seasonally appropriate <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/thou-shell-of-death-1936-by-nicholas.html"><i>Thou
Shell of Death</i></a> (1936) by "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Nicholas%20Blake">Nicholas
Blake</a>," penname of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, which turned
out to be unexpected surprise as it's so much better than I
remembered from my first read – a genuine Golden Age classic. I
honestly had forgotten that Blake's skills as a mystery novelist were
on par with <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christianna%20Brand">Christianna
Brand</a>, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Dickson%20Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Agatha%20Christie">Agatha
Christie</a>. So started to move some of the remaining, unread
Blake's nearer the top of the big pile.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3dFx-LJKBSbknZz2eflxylao-4T9ZkB-81sluYOcuyQY-56aSP2v6rvW8e6h6O_1JHb9LaKDheI5RddrzGz5Kml5MbUcYGitMyuywpxUlcVzW6WH-vdTtRBuX7olfIqL8IYsZg1wuLCnS_tq5cYhlEnYMKe5tOgHxVWbFsTOo9s7tsPPwvaOLD1d1I/s467/The_Dreadful_Hollow_NB_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="319" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3dFx-LJKBSbknZz2eflxylao-4T9ZkB-81sluYOcuyQY-56aSP2v6rvW8e6h6O_1JHb9LaKDheI5RddrzGz5Kml5MbUcYGitMyuywpxUlcVzW6WH-vdTtRBuX7olfIqL8IYsZg1wuLCnS_tq5cYhlEnYMKe5tOgHxVWbFsTOo9s7tsPPwvaOLD1d1I/w274-h400/The_Dreadful_Hollow_NB_I_.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nick
Fuller, of <a href="https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/">The Grandest
Game in the World</a>, graded that handful of titles in the <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/thou-shell-of-death-1936-by-nicholas.html?showComment=1702169304369#c8272100448336477337">comments</a>
and decided to go with <i>The Dreadful Hollow</i> (1953). A novel
Nick described as "<i>a good, well-constructed village poison pen
mystery</i>."</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The
Dreadful Hollow</i> is the tenth novel to feature Blake's series
detective, Nigel Strangeways, who's hired by a well-known financier
to investigate a flurry of anonymous letters of the poisonous kind.
Sir Archibald Blick opened machine-tool factory in Moreford, an old
market town, which draws its workforce from the nearby village of
Prior's Umborne, but "<i>envy, malice and uncharitableness were at
work</i>" in the village – someone is sending "<i>short but not
sweet</i>" letters. The vicar Mark Raynham receives one saying "<i><b>get
up in that pulpit, holy Joe, and tell them your wife was a whore</b></i>."
Daniel Durdle, son of the postmistress and religious zealot, is told "<i><b>you hypocrite, I know about the strong liquors you swill
privily</b></i>." John Smart, foreman of the new factory, committed
suicide after a letter arrived promising "<i><b>I'll tell Blick
about 1940</b></i>." Sir Archibald wants Strangeways to go down to
Prior's Umborne to discover the source of the poison pen letters.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Strangeways
descending on Prior's Umborne to root out the malicious letter writer
is a joy to read as the gentleman detective from London makes quite
an impression on the villagers ("<i>I saw some children imitating
your walk just now. There's fame for you</i>"). And he's a
pleasantly active, energetic detective. During this first part,
Strangeways meets many of the principle players of what's slowly
unfolding at the village. Charles Blick is the youngest of Sir
Archibald's two sons and was installed by his father as manager of
the factory, which keeps him busy most of the time. Stanford Blick,
eldest of the two sons, "<i>bit of a genius in his way, but a born
dabbler</i>." Miss Celandine Chantmerle, "<i>idolized in the
village</i>," is bound to a wheelchair and is cared for by her
younger, highly strung sister, Rosebay ("<i>the father was a
botanist</i>"). Celandine knows everything worth knowing about the
village and used to be engaged to Charles, but recently, Charles and
Rosebay have been seeing a lot of each other. There are the
aforementioned vicar and the Durdles. And then the poison pen case
takes a sinister turn.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Celandine
receives a package with a pair of doctored binoculars ("...<i>this
Grand Guignol device</i>") with a note, "<i><b>read this now,
Bright Eyes, if you can</b></i>," which could have easily blinded
her or worse – if the screw releasing the spring-trap hadn't been
so stiff to move. Things don't stop there. Sir Archibald, "<i>an
apostle of eugenics</i>," received an anonymous letter that Charles
is involved with the undesirable Rosebay and comes down on Prior's
Umborne to clean up the whole damn village. This ends with him being
found dead at the bottom of a quarry the following day. Police
quickly rule out an accident or suicide.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The
Dreadful Hollow</i> is indeed a good, well-constructed village
mystery from the twilight years of the Golden Age and stands out for
two reasons. The plot basically consists of three separate, but
interconnected, cases sharing the same cast of characters. Blake
nicely strings the poison pen letters, the deadly binoculars and the
murder of Sir Archibald into an overarching, well clued and coherent
narrative with a great conclusion. A conclusion coming as a direct
consequence of those three cases and the actions of the people deeply
involved in them on the small community of Prior's Umborne. So a very
well done, slow build to a dramatic conclusion. The 1950s was a
period when the genre was transitioning away from the plot-driven
approach of detection and deduction to focus on character and
psychology, which some tried to combine at the time and often with
mixed results. Last year, I reviewed several novels by <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/E.G. Cousins">E.G.
Cousins</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Nigel FitzGerald">Nigel
FitzGerald</a> who attempts were well intended and clunky at best.
And, usually, it was the plot that had to give more than it received.
Blake, on the other hand, beautifully harmonized the traditional,
fair play approach with then emerging psychological crime novel. That
alone makes <i>The Dreadful Hollow</i> worthy of note as it shows
what perhaps could have been.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
it's therefore a shame none of the three cases poses a genuine
challenge to either the reader or Strangeways, but it was nice Blake
allowed Strangeways to keep pace with the reader's armchair
deductions for most of the story. And one aspect of the solution is a
little dubious.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nitpicking
aside, the only true flaw of <i>The Dreadful Hollow</i> is one that
it shares with so many other so-called mid-tier titles from top-tier
mystery writers. Namely being overshadowed by their authors
better-known, more celebrated works. For example, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/04/suddenly-at-his-residence-1946-by.html"><i>Suddenly
at His Residence</i></a> (1946) is a superb Golden Age detective
novel, but, as some have pointed out, it's not even <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christianna Brand">Christianna
Brand</a>'s fourth or fifth best mystery. Same can be said of <i>The
Dreadful Hollow</i>. It's unquestionable a good village mystery,
inspired in places, but Blake has penned even better, much tighter
plotted detective stories. So while not the classic that's <i>Thou
Shell of Death</i>, <i>The Dreadful Hollow</i> still comes
recommended for what it's. Simply a very well done village mystery.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-10456881545148916292024-02-26T15:00:00.039+01:002024-02-26T15:00:00.127+01:00Six Were to Die (1932) by James Ronald<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Last
time, I reviewed the three novelettes and bonus short story from
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/stories-of-crime-detection-vol-1-dr.html"><i>Stories
of Crime & Detection, vol. 1: The Dr. Britling Stories</i></a>
(2023), which is the first of twenty-some planned volumes by
<a href="https://moonstonepress.co.uk/">Moonstone Press</a> and Chris
Verner – aiming to collect all of <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/tag/james-ronald/">James
Ronald</a>'s detective fiction by 2025. The first installment in this
series of reprints introduces the regrettably short-lived characters
of Dr. Daniel Britling and his twin sister, Miss Eunice Britling, who
only appeared in three novelettes and a single novel. That pulp-style
locked room novel is also included in this first volume.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn1235cC7hajOCcvBD0U2APPY2tTBjCHNd2GG8Q7nHNpgot7HxBWel89w31opcvhtnP9Vi-5mSIwHShyrNmO_CwZRzbXuSEyrPWQDe7aCDg1DmGxiFuVeUxeemKRKM7LChk2E4cgAZE_l_sbs3KeZTWKSP8D6TwUrtwqXD4u2y3ns8iBvcy0mbCz5XlAM/s526/Six_Were_to_Die_JR_MSP_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="336" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn1235cC7hajOCcvBD0U2APPY2tTBjCHNd2GG8Q7nHNpgot7HxBWel89w31opcvhtnP9Vi-5mSIwHShyrNmO_CwZRzbXuSEyrPWQDe7aCDg1DmGxiFuVeUxeemKRKM7LChk2E4cgAZE_l_sbs3KeZTWKSP8D6TwUrtwqXD4u2y3ns8iBvcy0mbCz5XlAM/w255-h400/Six_Were_to_Die_JR_MSP_I_.jpg" width="255" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Ronald's
<i>Six Were to Die</i> (1932), marking the final appearance of Dr.
Daniel Britling, was originally published as a Hodder &
Stoughton's Yellow Jacket Original, reprinted in 1941 by Mystery
House as <i>6 Were to Die</i> by "Kirk Wales" and a Cherry Tree
digest edition in 1947. Verner used the version that was serialized
in various newspapers around the world under the penname "Peter
Gale" ("...<i>minor punctuation and text differences between
these and other versions</i>"). Just to give you an idea that the
publication history of pulp writers like James Ronald or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Russell%20Fearn">John
Russell Fearn</a> are detective stories unto themselves.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Six
Were to Die</i> deceivingly begins with blissful scene of domesticity
at the little flat in Orchard Street, which Miss Britling shared with
her brother. Dr. Britling annoyed his sister by staying in bed late,
delaying their breakfast and "<i>adding insult to injury</i>" by
singing and splashing around in the bath. If I didn't know beforehand
what the story is roughly about, I would have assumed from the first
few pages it was going to be one of those lighthearted mysteries from
the murder-can-be-fun school of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Kelley Roos">Kelley
Roos</a> and <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930958/Lockridge, Frances and Richard">the
Lockridges</a>, but the arrival of a parcel pulls it right back to
the pulps. The package comes with a letter warning for the police
surgeon, "<i>this morning one Jubal Straust will call upon you and
request your aid on behalf of himself and five associates</i>," but
advises Dr. Britling not "<i>to be drawn into an affair which is
none of your concern</i>" or risk a swift, sudden and untimely
death – package included a poisonous death trap as a demonstration
("...<i>you will receive no warning with the next deadly message</i>").
Something that has the completely opposite effect on Dr. Britling ("<i>I
don't like to be threatened. I regard it as a challenge</i>"). Dr.
Britling explains to Straust he's willing to listen to him not in
spite of the anonymous threat, but because of it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Jubal
Straust is a prominent financier, "<i>one of the crookedest members
of the London Stock Exchange</i>," who twelve years ago was one of
the six partners in the Eldorado Investment Trust. There were, of
course, financial shenanigans afoot that eventually caught up with
them. So they scapegoated their partner and friend, Arthur Marckheim,
who was sent to prison for ten years ("<i>Besides, what is
friendship? Its commercial value is nil</i>"). After the trial
concluded, they all went their separate ways, considerably richer,
but now Marckheim has returned to remind them that the penalty for
their double-cross is death. And knowing their former partner, they
take the threat very seriously. So the five partners, Gideon Levison,
Mark Annerley, Hubert Quail, Jubal Straust and has old father Israel
Straust, buried themselves away in Grey Towers near Leighton Buzzard.
Home of the old Straust. The sixth person on Markheim list of people
to kill is his ex-wife, Cora, who's the current Mrs. Annerley.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Grey
Towers is very well protected as the ten foot high fence around the
estate has an integrated burglar alarm and the grounds outside are
constantly patrolled by armed men, "<i>all ex-policemen or
ex-pugilists</i>," who are armed – blowing a whistle turns on the
rooftop search lights. What could go wrong? Jubal Straust is fatally
poisoned while driving Dr. Britling to Grey Towers. A simple, but
clever, poisoning trick demonstrating the murderer's creativity and
resourcefulness. Particularly when it comes to playing on the
victim's personalities, weaknesses or simply habits to help them
along to an early grave. One by one, the men are poisoned under
seemingly impossible circumstances or get shot in locked rooms or
speeding cars.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAitVoq9-iIPX6wMZEyZQZN1K6u587qs7VVbgTL7gIsQhNLyhyphenhyphenRf8OiQTNfcsks8mHt6q9NZ3yvOCCWUqAY8f2aXDTeq8F-wd6UDrcUv4-ALTznLuhqq1bvTtd9gIGOwtSX8WaYZfMQF8aOPtG6R1AyVOtJmhW4b_TsxGJ3c9OuJfL7oSljtH7Zdgzvs/s494/Six_Were_to_Die_JR_MSP_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="345" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAitVoq9-iIPX6wMZEyZQZN1K6u587qs7VVbgTL7gIsQhNLyhyphenhyphenRf8OiQTNfcsks8mHt6q9NZ3yvOCCWUqAY8f2aXDTeq8F-wd6UDrcUv4-ALTznLuhqq1bvTtd9gIGOwtSX8WaYZfMQF8aOPtG6R1AyVOtJmhW4b_TsxGJ3c9OuJfL7oSljtH7Zdgzvs/w279-h400/Six_Were_to_Die_JR_MSP_III_.jpg" width="279" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Six
Were to Die</i> has more impossible situations than Robert Adey
listed in <i>Locked Room Murders</i> (1991). For example, a warning
from Marckheim is found inside a sealed package of playing cards or
the overarching impossibility of how Marckheim can enter or move
around the house without being detected. Some are better and more
convincing than others, of course, but all the tricks are firmly
rooted in the tradition of the pulps. I think the best of these
pulp-style locked room-tricks is the poisoning of Hubert Quail,
because the method to introduce the poison is ludicrous. A trick you
might actually have heard about and wondered if anyone actually used
in a detective story. Well, yes. Ronald tried not unsuccessfully to
make it sound somewhat plausible and turning it into a locked room
problem certainly helped towards that end. Another quasi-impossible
situation I enjoyed is how one of the characters gets thrown out of
the house and manages to sneak back in without getting caught or even
spotted by the guards. It's cartoonishly clever. Something you can
imagine Bugs Bunny doing to get into the house.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">When
it comes to the impossible crimes, <i>Six Were to Die</i> gives you,
more or less, what can be expected from a pulp-style locked room
mystery with a group of people under siege and dying under
inexplicable circumstances – comparable to Brian Flynn's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/11/invisible-death-1929-by-brian-flynn.html"><i>Invisible
Death</i></a> (1929) and Fearn's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/12/clockwork-vengeance.html"><i>Account
Settled</i></a> (1949). Not always credible, as far as method goes,
but always bubbling over with wildly imaginative, downright crazy
ideas or tricks. Where it differentiates itself from other pulp
stories like it is simply plot management. There's never more than a
chapter between one of the impossible crimes taking place and it's
solution, which made for a far tidier and tighter plot and story than
had they accumulated until a lengthy explanation was needed. Not to
mention adding to the overall mystery how a murderer can have the run
of the place without getting caught or seen. It also cleared the way
for the ending when it was time to abandoned any pretense of being a
detective story and barreled full throttle into pulpville, which is
where the story managed to loose me.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
the previous review, I noted that pulp writers like Ronald and Fearn
wrote for a less demanding audience than the Golden Age aficionados
who are discovering them today. Now I don't think anyone expects the
rigor of a Golden Age mystery from a pulp novel nor will the
outlandish nature of the locked room-tricks be a stumbling block for
many, but after such a well written, nicely balanced and above all
entertaining mystery I expected something slightly better from the
conclusion. Something more inspired fitting everything that preceded
it. And how the murderer had the run of the place is ridiculous.
Something that's always tricky to pull of convincingly, but didn't
buy it here at all. But it comes with the territory of the pulps. For
every good, wildly imaginative or original idea, they do half a dozen
things that makes most GAD fans want to pull out their hair at the
roots.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sorry
to have to conclude this on a somewhat sour note, but I really did
enjoy <i>Six Were to Die</i> right up until the last handful of
chapters. Until then, <i>Six Were to Die</i> is an incredibly
entertaining pulp mystery dispatching its cast of characters, left
and right, under seemingly impossible circumstances and the ominous
presence of the killer constantly looming over them – eating away
at their nerves. It deserved a better ending. Just like Dr. Britling
deserved a longer run as a series-character, because, once again, he
shined as a leading character. Even his twin sister has a strong,
off-page presence when she begins to exchange letters with her
brother. So much more could have been done with them. However, I also
realize the three Dr. Britling novelettes and this novel merely
represents some of Ronald's earliest, tentative steps as a writer of
pulp mysteries. <i>Six Were to Die</i> is perhaps not a rival to the
plots of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Dickson Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Rhode">John
Rhode</a>, but possesses all the promise, ingenuity and freshness to
eventually deliver on that promise. So eagerly look forward to the
coming reprints of <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2019/04/25/murder-in-the-family-a-k-a-the-murder-in-gay-ladies/"><i>Murder
in the Family</i></a> (1936), <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2013/09/ffb-they-cant-hang-me-james-ronald.html"><i>They
Can't Hang Me</i></a> (1938) and the "Michael Crombie" novel <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2019/06/ffb-sealed-room-murder-michael-crombie.html"><i>The
Sealed Room Murder</i></a> (1934).</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-42684960056561893832024-02-23T10:00:00.067+01:002024-02-23T10:00:00.146+01:00Stories of Crime & Detection, vol. 1: The Dr. Britling Stories (2023) by James Ronald<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span><a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931443/Ronald,%20James">James
Ronald</a> was a Scottish-born writer of detective stories,
pulp-style mysteries and thrillers, but, despite receiving high
praise for his "<i>ingenuity, freshness, and sharp sense of
humour</i>," Ronald passed into obscurity upon his death in 1972 –
going out-of-print practically immediately. So nearly all of his work
became scarce, often expensive collector items and, if they were not
completely forgotten, mentioned every now or then in passing (see "<a href="https://mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html">99
Novels for a Locked Room Library</a>"). That slowly began to change
in the 2010s with the rise of the Golden Age mystery blogs.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sQ86mz6dil89Oq9PpsJKYiXP8ifp3XRHybA_rPuWfoX46gtapexF32Uq0zj7znUO0m_8n8N-kngYAk5cgpTO2Nzsq_eNf9V9HZe3twwkAAG3tPrEFtdvUon_pAPe9Uw29D7JaUNGId5mQmoHDMxPPpCBqR3vsqk9m5nCQbwHzzr6ev0668keJs8tf6Y/s482/Stories_of_Crime_Detection_vol_I_Britling_JR_I_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sQ86mz6dil89Oq9PpsJKYiXP8ifp3XRHybA_rPuWfoX46gtapexF32Uq0zj7znUO0m_8n8N-kngYAk5cgpTO2Nzsq_eNf9V9HZe3twwkAAG3tPrEFtdvUon_pAPe9Uw29D7JaUNGId5mQmoHDMxPPpCBqR3vsqk9m5nCQbwHzzr6ev0668keJs8tf6Y/w269-h400/Stories_of_Crime_Detection_vol_I_Britling_JR_I_.jpg" width="269" /></a></span>The
first to bring up James Ronald was John Norris, of <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/">Pretty
Sinister Books</a>, who reviewed <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2013/09/ffb-they-cant-hang-me-james-ronald.html"><i>They
Can't Hang Me</i></a> (1938) in 2013 and <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2019/05/ffb-death-croons-blues-james-ronald.html"><i>Death
Croons the Blues</i></a> (1934), <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2019/06/ffb-sealed-room-murder-michael-crombie.html"><i>The
Sealed Room Murder</i></a> (1934; as by "Michael Crombie") and
<a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2019/11/ffb-boo-hoo-not-so-scary-houses-of.html"><i>The
House of Horror</i></a> (1935; as by "Michael Crombie") in 2019.
Jim Noy, of <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/">The Invisible
Event</a>, began adding to the intrigue in 2018 with four and
five-star reviews of <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2018/07/12/411/"><i>Six
Were to Die</i></a> (1932), <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2019/04/25/murder-in-the-family-a-k-a-the-murder-in-gay-ladies/"><i>Murder
in the Family</i></a> (1936) and <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2020/07/23/this-way-out-james-ronald/"><i>This
Way Out</i></a> (1939). So included Ronald's work in "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/07/curiosity-is-killing-cat-detective.html">Curiosity
is Killing the Cat: Detective Novels That Need to Be Reprinted</a>" on the strength of those reviews, but John turned up in the comments
with some bad news. Moonstone Press tried and nearly succeeded in
securing the rights to five of Ronald's novels, but family members
put a stop to it ("...<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/07/curiosity-is-killing-cat-detective.html?showComment=1658808150393#c3839892340361139762"><i>they
do not have fond memories of the man and they would prefer if he were
not back in print</i></a>"). It looked as if Ronald was doomed to
obscurity for the foreseeable future and only sheer serendipity would
get me a copy of <i>Six Were to Die</i>, <i>The Sealed Room Murder</i>
or <i>They Can't Hang Me</i>.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Somehow,
someway, <a href="https://moonstonepress.co.uk/">Moonstone Press</a>
managed to resolve the dispute and secured the rights to not only
five of those elusive, long out-of-print novels, but Ronald's entire
body of works – covering everything from his early short stories to
those ultra rare locked room mystery novels. A 14-volume <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2023/12/05/the-green-ghost-murder-james-ronald/#comment-51364">reprint
project</a> scheduled to be published over the next two years!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span><i>Stories
of Crime & Detection, vol. 1: The Dr. Britling Stories</i> (2023)
was published last December and collected three pulp fiction
novelettes, a short story and one of Ronald's elusive impossible
crime novels. I also recommend you read the introduction by Chris
Verner, son of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gerald%20Verner">Gerald
Verner</a>, who gives both background details about the author as
well as the Herculean task in tracking down, piecing together and
restoring all those stories ("<i>a treasure hunt for lost tales</i>").
Many of which were published under a retinue of pseudonyms in
newspaper serials or obscure pulp magazines. Not to mention that a
lot of his work exited in multiple, slightly differing versions from
one publication to another. It reminded me of the exhaustive,
decades-long archaeological detective work <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Philip%20Harbottle">Philip
Harbottle</a> had to undertake to disentangle <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Russell%20Fearn">John
Russell Fearn</a>'s labyrinthine publication history and tangle of
pennames in order to get his work back in print. See, for example,
Harbottle's 2017 guest-post "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-detective-fiction-of-john-russell_30.html">The
Detective Fiction of John Russell Fearn</a>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>I'm
going to tackle this collection in two parts. First up are the three
novelettes and short story. <i>Six Were to Die</i> is going to be
discussed separately in the next post.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>These
three novelettes introduce a regrettably short-lived
series-character, Dr. Daniel Britling. A short, slim and meticulously
dressed police surgeon with a Vandyke beard and a pearl-gray fedora
on his large head, "<i>nothing of his association with crime or the
police was suggested by his appearance</i>," but Dr. Britling does
more than merely examining bodies – playing "<i>an active part in
unravelling more than one mystery</i>." Dr. Britling is a student
of crime and acting as a quasi-official amateur detective a favorite
pastime ("<i>criminology was his hobby</i>..."). Scotland Yard
had to admit that whenever Dr. Britling "<i>put his enterprising
finger into the pie of criminal detection, he almost invariably
pulled out the plum that the detective in charge had groped for in
vain</i>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>"The
Green Ghost Murder," originally published in the April, 1931, issue
of <i>Hush Magazine</i> introduces Dr. Britling and his twin sister,
Eunice, who rented a furnished cottage in Carstow where Dr. Britling
is recuperating from a bout with pneumonia. Eunice knows her
brother's weakness for any kind of mystery and, as she expected, her
brother becomes very interested in the news that the Green Ghost of
Heaton Forest, "<i>famous in local legend</i>," has returned from
nearly a century of slumber ("...<i>to protest against the houses
which now stand where its forest, dark and impenetrable, once
stood?</i>"). However, the problem of the mounting sightings of the
luminous green ghost is not the primary problem of the story, which
is easy to see through, but that makes it all the more baffling when
the green ghost apparently stabs Carstow's leading bookmaker to death
inside his garden. A murder that was witnessed by the victim's cook!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>A
great, promising and even clever setup as knowing who plays the ghost
makes the murder seem even more baffling, but, as remarked elsewhere, "The Green Ghost Murder" is pure pulp fiction written against a
hard deadline – polishing never took place. More importantly, they
were written for a less demanding audience than the Golden Age
aficionados that pour over these stories today. And the ending shows
it as the story takes a sharp turn into pulpville! So not much here
in terms of a proper detective story, but the two elderly Britling
twins shine as characters in this story. For example, Dr. Britling
has to deal with a nosy newspaper reporter who's desperate for an
interview, but gets a hard no from the police surgeon, "<i>if I
allowed you to tell your readers how much cleverer than the police I
am, do you suppose the police would ever allow me to 'nose' about the
scene of a murder again?</i>" ("<i>they'd simply point to the
body, allow me to make my examination, then lead me gently but firmly
to the door</i>"). What a waste, the Britlings only made a handful
of appearances.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>"Too
Many Motives" predates the first story in this series, originally
published in the April, 1930, issue of <i>20-Story Magazine</i>, but
Chris Verner suspects "The Green Ghost Murder" must have had "<i>a
preceding publication somewhere, or the story sat on the shelf</i>." The publication histories of these pulp, or pulp adjacent, writers
are practically detective stories by themselves. Anyway, the story
begins with a birthday dinner in honor of an enormously wealthy
financier, Mark Savile, who "<i>was despised even by
fellow-financiers</i>" ("<i>thousands of small investors lost
their savings in the crash of his bubble company</i>"). Savile's
grim sense of humor tempted him to invite four men with a motive to
kill him and spends the evening needling them, until one of them
assaults him, but did he, or one of the other three, came back to
finish the job? Dr. Britling is called upon to make sense of a murder
with too many motives, but Ronald borrowed the solution from a
Sherlock Holmes. A particular kind of solution I loath as much as
others dislike Conan Doyle's "Birlstone Gambit." That being said,
Ronald appears to be the first to have employed this particular
variation on that now shopworn idea and some credit should go his way
for not making it a locked room mystery. Only serious problem the
story has is that the murderer's plan makes no sense, psychologically
or simply long term (<b>HUGE SPOILER/<a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a>:</b>
<i>Fnivyr jnf “n pbjneq ng urneg,” ohg fubg uvzfrys va gur urnq
naq znqr gur tha qvfnccrne hc gur puvzarl va beqre gb pnfg rgreany
fhfcvpvba ba gubfr sbhe vaabprag zra... Jul abg fvzcyl gnxr cbvfba
juvyr gurl jrer qvavat naq svtugvat, orpnhfr gung tha vf tbvat gb or
sbhaq fbbare be yngre. Naq gung jbhyq ehva gur ybat grez nvzf bs gur
cyna</i>. So not a personal favorite.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Fortunately,
the next two stories are much better. "Find the Lady" was
originally published in the May, 1931, issue of <i>Hush Magazine</i>
and is the best of the three novelettes. Dr. Britling is asked by
Lord Clavering to track down his niece, Lady Frances Dorian, who
disappeared without a trace from the Royal Lancaster Hotel – where
she had been living for some months. One day, she packed her
belonging, settled the bill and went away. Yet, nobody saw her leave
the hotel. The aunt of Lord Clavering and Lady Frances, Lady Agatha
Dorian, is screaming blue murder, but refuses to call in Scotland
Yard. Lord Clavering asks Dr. Britling to nose around the hotel and
he's only to eager to oblige ("<i>I love to dabble in these things,
but I have no wish to profit by my hobby</i>"). So the police
surgeon and hobby-horse detective begins to nose around the hotel and
questions everyone from the manager and doorman to the chambermaid
and switchboard operator, which comes with a stronger spot of clueing
than the previous two stories. Not the most intricate or complicated
detective stories written in 1930s, but not too bad on whole and
loved Dr. Britling acting as a spirited, buzzing amateur sleuth. Note
that "Find the Lady" also has some Sherlockian echoes ("The
Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," 1911), but that's all they
are. Just echoes. Ronald wrote a different story around the idea of a
Lady Frances vanishing from a hotel.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>"Blind
Man's Bluff," originally printed in the October 5, 1929,
publication of the <i>Daily Mail</i> and is Ronald's first published
short story. It's not a detective or pulp-style mystery, but a
simple, very well done crime story. Martin Longworth is a blind man
who learned over the decades to rely on his other senses and his
sharp hearing noticed a few familiar characteristics about the new
owner of the local tobacco shop. But where has he heard them before?
And in what connection? Ronald only has about 10 pages to tell the
story, but Martin Longworth feels as fleshed out and convincing as
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Baynard Kendrick">Baynard
Kendrick</a>'s blind detective, Captain Duncan Maclain. So not bad
for a first stab at the crime-and detective story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Going
into this collection, I expected "The Green Ghost Murder" and "Too Many Motives" to emerge as my unsurprising favorites. After
all, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes or Nostradamus to know
whether, or not, something is to my liking. And those two novelettes
appeared to fit the bill. But no. "Find the Lady" and "Blind
Man's Bluff" proved to be the two unexpected standouts. Still a
very mixed bag of tricks with the characters of Dr. Daniel Britling,
Eunice Britling and Martin Longworth carrying the plots. So these
four shorter works have not entirely convinced me of Ronald's
reported genius as a mystery writer and crafty plotter, but the
novel-length <i>Six Were to Die</i> is next on the list. Don't touch
that dial and stay tuned.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-11172455171918121102024-02-19T12:00:00.071+01:002024-02-19T12:00:00.130+01:00The Meiji Guillotine Murders (1979) by Futaro Yamada<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Late
last year, I put together a list of ten "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-hit-list-top-10-non-english.html">Non-English
Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated</a>" from Europe, Asia
and the Americas, but, as noted in the introduction, the list could
be entirely filled with the Japanese titles Ho-Ling Wong has
discussed on his <a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/">blog</a>
– enough to put together a top 100. One of those
intriguing-sounding detective novels Ho-Ling has discussed over the
years is <a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/12/heads-you-lose.html"><i>Meiji
dantodai</i></a> (<i>The Meiji Guillotine Murders</i>, 1979) by
"<a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Yamada%20Fuutarou%20%7C%20山田風太郎">Futaro
Yamada</a>" (penname of Seiya Yamada). A collection of short,
connected historical mystery stories or rather an episodic novel with
the epilogue turning it into a complete narrative ("...<i>never
seen it done as good as here</i>") praised by Ho-Ling as a
masterpiece and one of the best mysteries he has ever read. So a
translation seemed next to impossible when he <a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/12/heads-you-lose.html">reviewed</a>
the book in 2013. Fortunately, <a href="https://pushkinpress.com/">Pushkin
Vertigo</a> <a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/12/heads-you-lose.html?showComment=1702114578816#c5456934919455224528">asked</a>
Ho-Ling for a list of (<i>shin</i>) <i>honkaku</i> recommendations
for possible future translations and one of the suggestions was <i>The
Meiji Guillotine Murders</i>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNwBBi8OVQTsbsUFuUi3P32_KeeSuaTX1S2LtTjjvaN51JaWtKPdZQOZQThWoJtvhvT85sbunFe3RMzGapXy4jrUZxIAwKzC_mbV3sweCHhvPg3FSheBz7epygEr8VIW6ouv-HNWUsG8LZU7E0eVVIq9eCAI4O_K3bgEkP4riAuTV_mq7BeFHFDtFn1Ps/s509/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNwBBi8OVQTsbsUFuUi3P32_KeeSuaTX1S2LtTjjvaN51JaWtKPdZQOZQThWoJtvhvT85sbunFe3RMzGapXy4jrUZxIAwKzC_mbV3sweCHhvPg3FSheBz7epygEr8VIW6ouv-HNWUsG8LZU7E0eVVIq9eCAI4O_K3bgEkP4riAuTV_mq7BeFHFDtFn1Ps/w261-h400/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_I_.jpg" width="261" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Futaro
Yamada was a writer best remembered in his native country for his
historical fiction and ninja stories. Reportedly discovered by
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Edogawa%20Rampo">Edogawa
Rampo</a>, Yamada first short story, "Daruma-tōge
no jiken" ("The Incident on Dharma Pass," 1947), bagged an
award from <i>Hôseki</i> magazine. That short story was not Yamada's
last dalliance with the detective story.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The
Meiji Guillotine Murders</i> is set in 1869 Tokyo, "<i>although it
had been renamed Tokyo, it was still, to be sure, the old capital of
Edo</i>," which is the first year of the Meiji Restoration that
ended the reign of the shogunate and restored imperial rule –
opening the country to the rest of the world. Until then, the country
had been under the military dictatorship of the Tokugawa shogunate
for two and a half centuries that enforced a policy of national
isolation (*). A state of affairs rudely interrupted by the arrival
of Commodore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships," in 1853, who forced a
treaty on Japan opening it up to international trade and diplomacy.
Naturally, these rapid changes were not welcomed by everyone,
destabilized the sitting power and exploded in a full-blown rebellion
known as the Boshin Civil War of 1868-69. The outcome of this civil
war restored imperial rule in the young Emperor Meiji and the new
government began a process of rapid Westernization, which causes even
more social upheavals, political turmoil and, what can be generously
termed, growing pains of the Meiji Restoration.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
short story collection-cum-novel takes place during the first year of
that brave new era for Japan, but the government had their hands
full. Not only had the country to rapidly catch up with the West, but
they had to contend with political assassins, rebels and
deeply-rooted corruption. So they reinstated the Imperial Prosecuting
Office, "<i>a revival of a Heian-period administration</i>,"
created "<i>to investigate and root out official corruption</i>."
There the three protagonists of <i>The Meiji Guillotine Murders</i>
enter the picture.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Chief
Inspector <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaji_Toshiyoshi">Toshiyoshi
Kawaji</a> is a real historical figure who was tasked with setting up
and recruiting men for the new Japanese police force, which in the
beginning comprised of several thousand men "<i>charged with
maintaining public order in the capital</i>." Chief Inspector
Keishirō Kazuki is his
colleague and friendly rival ("<i>in the best sense of the term,
let's be rivals</i>") who imported a guillotine from France,
because "<i>the old method of beheading by sword is on the way
out</i>," but "<i>that French beheading block</i>" is not all
he brought back from Europe – returning with a golden-haired woman,
Esmeralda Sanson. She's the ninth generation of the Sanson family of
Parisian executioners and something of a spiritual medium. Every case
ends with Esmeralda going into a trance and have the ghost of the
victim explain everything happened. Always opening with the lines, "<i>for the first time since arriving in the land of the dead... I
can see the land of the living without hindrance</i>." How's that
for a setup?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCDopANqUx5AN38hPXOyiMFqgiplnS6tTrbLIM-xSDbjGwiRzSkDrSKPD3Tv0Wgp378ysT1fS8ruP267eqzCCcdHJUS0Sdy-lNHYL2GnzBiarhG-qzcAxzKQAfaA64j2b2JL91Mqug4JsNjEs3S6D6d6zTtAVzjMbn8spwF98WEwFNyCtrp8k2dLEyFlk/s508/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="363" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCDopANqUx5AN38hPXOyiMFqgiplnS6tTrbLIM-xSDbjGwiRzSkDrSKPD3Tv0Wgp378ysT1fS8ruP267eqzCCcdHJUS0Sdy-lNHYL2GnzBiarhG-qzcAxzKQAfaA64j2b2JL91Mqug4JsNjEs3S6D6d6zTtAVzjMbn8spwF98WEwFNyCtrp8k2dLEyFlk/w286-h400/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_II_.jpg" width="286" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Before
delving into the story, it's important to keep in mind <i>The Meiji
Guillotine Murders</i> is very different from most Japanese mysteries
translated up until now. Particularly if you're only familiar what
has been translated over the past 5-10 years. And, knowing some of my
regular readers, the book requires some patience to get through.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">First
of all, <i>The Meiji Guillotine Murders</i> is, as noted before, an
episodic novel structured like a short story collection. However, the
book begins with two stories, "The Chief Inspectorate of the
Imperial Prosecuting Office" and "Esmeraldo the Miko," merely
laying the groundwork. They introduce the reader to the three main
characters, sketching a picture of 1869 Tokyo and the French
contraption getting erected on the execution ground at the
Kodenma-chō jail. And getting
tested on a couple of unfortunate criminals. After the introduction,
the two Chief Inspectors of the Imperial Prosecuting Office get to
investigate a handful of cases in five long-ish short stories divided
in a setup (roughly 30 pages) and the discovery of the crime with its
conclusion being covered in the remaining twenty-some pages. There's
a wealth of detail, both historically and to the overarching story,
in those preambles to murder. So discussing them in depth is
impossible and will only look at the detective elements of those
story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Kaidan
tsukiji hotel kan" ("The Strange Incident at the Tsukiji Hotel")
centers on the potential consequences of an unlawful execution
coalescing around the titular hotel with a bell tower atop of its
roof. A case culminating in a man being found at the bottom of the
tower stairs, "<i>abdomen clearly cut open and his innards spilling
out</i>," but the suspects who discovered the body had vowed never
to kill again. Only other suspect possessed a rock solid alibi. The
trick is ingeniously grotesque and agree with Ho-Ling it's something
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Soji Shimada">Soji
Shimada</a> could have dreamed up, but this story predated his first
novel by several years. "America yori ai wo komete" ("From
America with Love") has an original take on the no-footprints
scenario: two rickshaws end up in the freezingly cold river drowning
its sole occupant. Curiously enough, there are wheel tracks of the
rickshaws in the snows, but "<i>there are no footprints from the
person pulling it"</i> between them. I envisioned a very different
solution to the impossibility, but a good and fun story also
involving political assassinations, corruption and a haunted
cemetery. "Eitaibashi no kubitsuribito" ("The Hanged Man at the
Eitai Bridge") reads like a historical reimagining of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Freeman Wills Crofts">Freeman
Wills Crofts</a> and his alibi-breaking, in which the victim is found
hanging from the Eitai Bridge over the Sumida River and the murderer
turns out to have a peach of an alibi. The solution is very clever
with the period setting doubling as a smokescreen to the correct
answer. A great example of the historical mystery in how the setting
is used to build up the plot. "Engankyou ashikiri ezu" ("Eyes
and Legs") and "Onore no kubi wo daku shitai" ("The Corpse
That Cradled Its Own Head") do what so many Japanese detective
stories enjoy doing, playing around with body parts. The former
introduced a pair of binoculars to the capital and immediately a
murder is observed through it ("<i>they were cutting her flesh with
a dagger and sawing right through the bone"</i>), while the former
toys around with severed heads of executed prisoners.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrjrtA2jAcN0MFtDucAVMeapCNNE-4MwDcw8Qp2vOph2XKVOoGplFDN_CesFhtoPFpES3MCuzPb_mVVhZMbbxqcPFEI49E7Cu6ET6Mg-fVc_tl78bW0NhgmalIGLZs6onPw9vEOOfXtCVCwVfrP8L0gwzmIckAKuY9GtC831WCCTC1TVwKJJExxlsvzw/s515/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="356" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrjrtA2jAcN0MFtDucAVMeapCNNE-4MwDcw8Qp2vOph2XKVOoGplFDN_CesFhtoPFpES3MCuzPb_mVVhZMbbxqcPFEI49E7Cu6ET6Mg-fVc_tl78bW0NhgmalIGLZs6onPw9vEOOfXtCVCwVfrP8L0gwzmIckAKuY9GtC831WCCTC1TVwKJJExxlsvzw/w276-h400/The_Meiji_Guillotine_Murders_FY_III_.jpg" width="276" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">A
hazy kind of vagueness began clouding the endings to those last two
cases and made me wonder how, exactly, Yamada was planning to pull
everything together in a tight, coherent narrative – which worried
me for a second. It proved to be unnecessary as the last story, or
chapter, "Seigi no seifu wa arieru ka" ("Can There Be a Just
Government?") provided a conclusion that delivered on all fronts. I
had some ideas in what direction the story could be headed and
harbored certain suspicions against someone, but didn't imagine
anything like this. A grand historical double play on (<a href="https://rot13.com/"><b>ROT13</b></a>)
<i>gur yrnfg yvxryl fhfcrpg gebcr</i>. More importantly, Yamada wrote
and plotted a historical detective novel with crimes and motives that
feel indigenous to that specific time and place in history.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I'm
very picky when it comes to historical mysteries and impossible crime
stories, because both obliges the author to do something with it.
Preferably something good. I don't want a historical mystery where
the setting only functions as period dressing or backdrop for the
story and character. Nor do I want locked room mysteries with
uninspired, routine solutions or tricks that belong back in the 19th
century. So love historical impossible crime novels like John Dickson
Carr's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/11/an-invasive-species.html"><i>Captain
Cut-Throat</i></a> (1955), Robert van Gulik's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/06/murder-on-paradise-island.html"><i>The
Red Pavilion</i></a> (1961), Paul Doherty's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-ghost-of-oedipus.html"><i>A
Murder in Thebes</i></a> (1998) and more recently James Scott
Byrnside's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-strange-case-of-barrington-hills.html"><i>The
Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire</i></a> (2020) and Jim
Noy's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-red-death-murders-2022-by-jim-noy.html"><i>The
Red Death Murders</i></a> (2022). You can add <i>The Meiji Guillotine
Murders</i> to the list.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The
Meiji Guillotine Murders</i> is engrossing, richly detailed gem of a
historical mystery novel that stands out due to it being structured
like a collection of shorter stories, which allows it to deliver a
stunner of an ending. Highly recommended. Just keep in mind <i>The
Meiji Guillotine Murders</i> is very different from what most of you
have come to expect from Japanese writers like <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Seishi Yokomizo">Seishi
Yokomizo</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Yukito Ayatsuji">Yukito
Ayatsuji</a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">*:
Only exception to the strict policy of isolationism was the Dutch
enclave of Dejima, which was their umbilical cord to the outside
world. It's also the setting of the excellent Judge Ooka historical
mystery novella "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2012/02/murder-in-any-language.html">Een
lampion voor een blinde</a>" ("A Lantern for the Blind," 1973)
by Dutch poet Bertus Aafjes. The ultimate "isolated island"
mystery that deserves to be translated and should be bundled together
with an English translation of Seicho Matsumoto's novella "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2013/09/putting-pieces-together.html">Amusuterudamu-unga
satsuyin jiken</a>" ("The Amsterdam Canal Murder Case," 1969).
A Dutch and Japanese writer writing detective stories that take place
in each others countries is a great hook to hawk a pair of novellas.</span></span></p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-76254262466528488322024-02-15T15:00:00.067+01:002024-02-15T15:00:00.342+01:00Murder Behind Closed Doors (1980) by Phillips Lore<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Terrence
Lore Smith was an American crime-and mystery writer probably best
remembered today, if he's remembered at all, for his bestselling
novel <i>The Thief Who Came to Dinner</i> (1969) about a computer
programmer turned jewel thief – which was turned into a popular
movie in 1973 starring Ryan O'Neal and Jacqueline Bisset. Something
ran in the family as Smith was the son of a Methodist minister,
<a href="https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/charles-merrill-smith/">Charles
Merrill Smith</a>, who wrote the Reverend Randollph series comprising
of six or seven novels. I'm not entirely sure if the last title in
the series, <i>Reverend Randollph and Modern Miracles</i> (1988),
ended up being published or only announced as forthcoming.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj43fRn5PtF6E_xuSku9FgnX7iavsnlkFC2xRWOJLHaMVKTvYHGz1vjo_QFAfx4Wb8Pg62EoI6jX4RQqa26GgOAnMidjGGj3ZZlhhhYUaclUpWWCOCsnJvbfb34w2nflqnYtb95BEoMY-k2KGQyH8OVcZ6Mq6NuuBSnZl9yVYIlS5kqMr7qzUr3xIYY76M/s606/Murder_Behind_Closed_Doors_PL_I_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="364" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj43fRn5PtF6E_xuSku9FgnX7iavsnlkFC2xRWOJLHaMVKTvYHGz1vjo_QFAfx4Wb8Pg62EoI6jX4RQqa26GgOAnMidjGGj3ZZlhhhYUaclUpWWCOCsnJvbfb34w2nflqnYtb95BEoMY-k2KGQyH8OVcZ6Mq6NuuBSnZl9yVYIlS5kqMr7qzUr3xIYY76M/w240-h400/Murder_Behind_Closed_Doors_PL_I_.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Charles
Merrill Smith died in 1985 and the few listings that can be found
online credits his son as the co-author, suggesting Terrence Smith
was either completing an unfinished manuscript or intended to restart
the series, but died tragically that same year. Terrence Smith worked
part-time as a courier for the Pikes Peak Library District in El Paso
County, Colorado, while driving the library van on an icy road lost
control and got hit by another car. Smith died from his injuries on
December 7, 1988, aged 46.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
perhaps Smith's untimely death got the book canned, whether it be
legal issues or simply an unpolished manuscript, but <i>Reverend
Randollph and Modern Miracles</i> has a brief plot synopsis
("...<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6564821-reverend-randollph-and-modern-miracles">miraculous,
paranormal murders are occurring and the minister-sleuth must find an
earthly explanation</a>...</i>") and someone rated it four-stars on
Goodreads – implying it got published and copies still exist. But
only in hardback. And the lack of paperback reprints made the
hardback edition ridiculously rare. So rare you can't even find
exorbitantly prized copies online! I'm not sure if it should be added
to the list of lost mysteries or the one with all the extremely
scarce titles, but fortunately, father and son collaborated on three
detective novels during their lifetime. Writing under their shared
pseudonym of "Phillips Lore," Charles and Terrence Smith penned
<i>Who Killed the Pie Man?</i> (1975), <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i>
(1980) and <i>The Looking Glass Murders</i> (1980). All three novels
were published by Playboy Press and starred a multi-millionaire
attorney, Leo Roi, who inherited the fortune his father raked
together with his Prohibition-era shenanigans.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
short-lived series would not have caught my attention, or interest,
had <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> not been listed in Robert
Adey's <i>Locked Room Murders</i> (1991). An enticing entry
describing four distinctly different (attempted) locked room murders.
However, I got my copy of <i>Locked Room Murders</i> when I was still
skeptical and hesitant when it came to detective fiction published
after the 1950s. Everything about <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i>
impressed me as one of those locked room curiosities that
occasionally popped up during the second-half of the previous
century. I reviewed a few on this blog like John B. Ethan's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-black-gold-murders-1959-by-john-b.html"><i>The
Black Gold Murders</i></a> (1959), Robert Colby's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/06/in-vanishing-room-1961-by-robert-colby.html"><i>In
a Vanishing Room</i></a> (1961), Stephen Frances' <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-illusionist-1970-by-stephen-frances.html"><i>The
Illusionist</i></a> (1970) and Tony Kenrick's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-tough-one-to-lose-1972-by-tony-kenrick.html"><i>A
Tough One to Lose</i></a> (1972).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What
earned Lore's <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> a special notation on
my wishlist was a comment from John Norris, of <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/">Pretty
Sinister Books</a>, praising it as "<i>a much better book with an
unusual locked room plot</i>" in his review of the first novel in
the series, <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2015/06/ffb-who-killed-pie-man-phillips-lore.html"><i>Who
Killed the Pie Man?</i></a> – calling Lore "<a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2017/11/11/312/#comment-7027"><i>one
of the better locked room mystery writers of the 1970s-1980s</i></a>"
elsewhere. A copy finally landed in my lap last December and I can
say right off the bat that <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> is not a
curiosity. It's actually quite interesting for two reasons: how it resettled a more or less traditional
detective story of yore in then modern-day America and how the
concept of a locked room murder is treated and received by the
characters. So it proved to be an unexpectedly fascinating read
considering the '80s presented something of a small revival for the
traditional detective story and locked room mystery. Let's take a
closer look at the story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiox0Vs4bOHm2acQ2jZG3ZpUDQ6MlBgY_kJPQTqwju9PbRi5xRAJWh4VbYVq3Fb-TgGV7kWD245eBnWldtvM_icKkGnRUGriLCP5P9pxcRyBxVz4viEZLqbjA5QWdrfJ_K61Y85BtxOfrH9QvPBf4CbkWXucgIUQ6oJd-z9gF16wIr8UEBba8ewIJsbM4A/s602/Who_Killed_the_Pie_Man_PL_I_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="360" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiox0Vs4bOHm2acQ2jZG3ZpUDQ6MlBgY_kJPQTqwju9PbRi5xRAJWh4VbYVq3Fb-TgGV7kWD245eBnWldtvM_icKkGnRUGriLCP5P9pxcRyBxVz4viEZLqbjA5QWdrfJ_K61Y85BtxOfrH9QvPBf4CbkWXucgIUQ6oJd-z9gF16wIr8UEBba8ewIJsbM4A/w239-h400/Who_Killed_the_Pie_Man_PL_I_.jpg" width="239" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Phillips
Lore's <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> is dedicated to <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930199/Chandler,%20Raymond">Raymond
Chandler</a>, "<i>for his unparalleled Philip Marlowe—the great
American detective</i>," but reads like a mash of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Dickson%20Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Ellery%20Queen">Ellery
Queen</a>. Funnily enough, every chapter begins with a quote from
A.A. Milne's work. Chandler dragged Milne's <a href="https://pastoffences.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/a-a-milne-the-red-house-mystery/"><i>The
Red House Mystery</i></a> (1922) behind the shed in his 1944 essay "The Simple Art of Murder" ("<i>if the logic is an illusion,
there is nothing to deduce</i>"). Just one of the clues Lore had
his tongue placed firmly in his cheek when he wrote the book.
Anyway...</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Leo
Roi is a multi-millionaire lawyer, or to be more precise, an
investigative attorney whose partner, Jack Pine, handles the
courtroom end of business ("<i>I build briefs and Jack tries the
cases. It works pretty well</i>"). Since he has more than enough
money, Roi can afford to dabble in ethics, "<i>lawyers' ethics are
generally no better than those of the ordinary run of humanity, but I
keep thinking they should be</i>," who's not opposed to somewhat
bending the rules. But never breaking them. A much needed quality
when an old friend, Smith "Soldier" Jones, comes knocking to
represent and possible defend one of his friends, Robert A. Garrison.
A sculptor of some local fame wanted for questioning regarding the
strangling of a Chicago advertiser, William Helld.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
Chicago advertising agency of Fruin, Helld, Forbes & Bascom threw
a party for the cast and crew of the Black Ram Players to celebrate
the opening of their play, <i>Black, White and Blond</i>, which was
held at the home of the victim – whose body was discovered in the
coach house studio of Garrison. That makes the case potentially
explosive in 1980s America, because Garrison was Helld's "<i>longtime
companion</i>." Roi assures his friend that fact does not bother
him, personally or professionally ("<i>as a man I'm more interested
in my own sex life and love life than other people's</i>"). Agrees
to accompany Garrison to the police station, expecting him to be at
least held as a material witness, but surprisingly get brushed off
and send home. Why? Roi gets the answer from the <i>Sun-Times</i>
crime reporter, Art Hough. The murder of William Heldd is a "<i>puzzle
mystery, locked room murder</i>" as the door, windows and even the
skylight were all found securely locked from the inside. They have a
good laugh about it. Roi and Hough explain to Garrison that locked
room murders only happen in fiction and "<i>they never occur in
reality</i>." This locked room murder is no different as it's not
really a locked room murder at all.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Hank
Davis, "<i>international film star who is appearing in the
production</i>," discovered the body when he missed Helld at the
party, went looking for him and saw him lying on the floor of the
coach house. And broke one of the windows to get inside. So he's the
only one who logically could have staged an impossible crime by
pretending he broke into a tightly locked coach house and the police
is simply waiting with an arrest until they can pin a motive on him.
Davis and Helld were ex-lovers before Garrison entered the picture.
Either way, Roi's client is off the hooks for murder. Or so they
believe.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A
week later, they have "<i>a real, live, genuine, double-dyed,
locked-room, puzzle-mystery murder</i>" on their hands when an
anonymous tip leads the police to a second body, shot to death,
inside the locked and bolted den of the coach house. A second locked
room murder that places an entirely different
complexion on the first. So now they have two impossible crimes.
Hough points out to Roi that "<i>most of the methods used in
locked-room murders are absurd or unworkable and not the sort of
thing anyone would really do</i>" ("that's <i>what makes this
case so fascinating</i>"), but admires "<i>someone wild and crazy
enough to kill with a flair</i>" as most killings tend to be
routine and boring ("...<i>except to the participants</i>"). Roi
figures the seemingly impossibilities is a signature as easy to
identify as a fingerprint, because "<i>there just can't be that
many people who could conceive of and execute two locked-room
murders</i>." But to find that person, Roi has to look beyond the
private life of the victims and suspect.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That
brings him to the theatrical company and advertising agency, which is
when the story begins to taste a little pulpy. The play is produced
by the son of a mob boss, Giovanni Palese, who tries to go legit and
is busy cleaning up his public image doing charity or funding "<i>art
crap</i>," but getting publicly involved in a double murder case
could undo all of that – which gets the sympathy of the attorney.
And even promises to look out for his interest, if the case allows
it. Only for a third victim to get run through with a rapier inside
the locked theater. The two characters Roi encounters at the
advertising agency, Anson Forbes and Bonita Bascom, would have been
completely at home in a 1940s pulp magazine or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton%20Rawson">Clayton
Rawson</a> novel. Yes, there's a fourth locked room, of sorts,
involving an elevator, but Lore saves that one for the very end of
the story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfZ9GQyTBQ_wbltBreaA-z_L90qzdhhbdMmKDVxfus2wTyXR_axUMh-7LgRmFQJgB_3SEeL8roXFJaCRlUd_NIXF-GT6kV2549PL4szF4Al9GWFQMS2hw2RlgRqertY9ziObhOvjxMt_xe-DQv2ydiG5U1e4ZnX-ypJCwmn09gTzILekxx8IFoTQB6pU/s487/The_Thief_Who_Came_to_Dinner_PL_I_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfZ9GQyTBQ_wbltBreaA-z_L90qzdhhbdMmKDVxfus2wTyXR_axUMh-7LgRmFQJgB_3SEeL8roXFJaCRlUd_NIXF-GT6kV2549PL4szF4Al9GWFQMS2hw2RlgRqertY9ziObhOvjxMt_xe-DQv2ydiG5U1e4ZnX-ypJCwmn09gTzILekxx8IFoTQB6pU/w274-h400/The_Thief_Who_Came_to_Dinner_PL_I_.jpg" width="274" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">So
how does <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> stack up as a modern-day
locked room mystery? Better than expected, but not for the reasons
some might assume.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Firstly,
the quality of the locked room-tricks with the first one being the
best of the four. Theoretically, the trick is kind of brilliant,
original even, but, as the crime reported predicted, somewhat absurd
and perhaps impractical. Nonetheless, it's the kind of creative
solution you hope to find in a locked room mystery. The second locked
room-trick has been done before and since, while the third one is
merely a filler impossibility (<a href="https://rot13.com/"><b>ROT13</b></a>:
<i>n frys-ybpxvat qbbe</i>) and even the murderer admits to that
fact. So, on that account, it's more or less what you can expect from
a most detective stories trying to string together more than two
impossible crimes. What makes <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i>
noteworthy, beside the first locked room, is how the impossibilities
are treated and received. Going from bemused disbelief someone
actually was stupid enough to try rigging up a storybook murder to
almost surprised admiration a murderer is actually going around
leaving bodies in locked rooms. A reader unaware of the history or
status of the genre in 1980 might get the impression from <i>Murder
Behind Closed Doors</i> the Golden Age-style (locked room) mystery
never went away and Lore took the old warhorse for a little joyride.
Instead of going through a two decade dark age. Lore unwittingly
produced a very fitting novel to kickoff that first, short-lived
revival and makes want to do another <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">historical
retrospective</a> taking a closer look at the '80s. That's something
for later this year.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Secondly,
<i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> is not only about four impossible
crimes. There's also the who-and why to be considered, which proved
to be as unusual as the how with a memorable murderer and motive for
creating a series of locked room murders – all “clued” in a
somewhat unorthodox manner. I liked how the full solution punishes
readers who (<b>ROT13</b>) <i>whqtrq n obbx ol vgf pbire naq qernqrq
n pregnva glcr bs fbyhgvba gb gur ybpxrq ebbzf jura n pregnva
punenpgre vf vagebqhprq</i>. I feared that possibility and even
considered that character working cahoots with another character to
get the job done (<i>nsgre nyy, gur svefg ivpgvz jnf fgenatyrq</i>).
So the eventual solution came as a nice surprise. Even the routine
solution to the second locked room murder and the attempt at a fourth
was put to good use at the end. There is, however, an overall
drawback to the story. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lore
tried to pack a lot in a very short novel counting a little more than
a 180 pages with a lot of blank pages between chapters, whittling the
page-count down to under a 170. In those pages, Lore introduced three
locked room murders, separate casts of characters (theater and
agency), plant clues, sprinkle around some red herrings and even
introduce a personal sub-plot for Leo Roi involving his wife,
Christina. Not to mention the delayed investigation until the second
murder is committed. So <i>Murder
Behind Closed Doors</i> was not bad at all, but obviously could have
been better had it been given more room to develop. In that regard,
<i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i> reminded me of the work of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Ton Vervoort">Ton
Vervoort</a>, e.g. <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/06/murder-under-mantle-of-love-1964-by-ton.html"><i>Moord
onder de mantel der liefde</i></a> (<i>Murder Under the Mantle of
Love</i>, 1964), whose novels were written in a loose, light style
with a small page-count, but always pleasantly full of clever ideas
and unexpected surprises. Although you can't escape the feeling it
could have been even better had it been properly worked out. Judging
by <i>Murder Behind Closed Doors</i>, I suppose the same can be said
about this series.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nevertheless,
as you can probably gauge from this unnecessarily long, rambling
review, I enjoyed this unusual locked room mystery and the reason why
you can almost certainly look forward to a retrospective of the 1980s
impossible crime revival sometime in the near future. In the
intervening time, I'm going to hunt down a few additional titles from
that decade and this series. Probably <i>The Looking Glass Murders</i>.
Next up... a return to the Japanese <i>shin honkaku</i> mysteries! </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-32029670536489587062024-02-12T12:00:00.042+01:002024-02-12T12:00:00.150+01:00Let X Be the Murderer (1947) by Clifford Witting<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>In
2020, Clifford Witting emerged from six decades of obscurity with a
reprint of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/03/catt-out-of-bag-1939-by-clifford-witting.html"><i>Catt
Out of the Bag</i></a> (1939), courtesy of <a href="https://galileopublishing.co.uk/category/golden-age-detective-fiction/">Galileo
Publishers</a>, who have since reissued eight of his sixteen novels
and expended their catalog of Golden Age detective fiction – adding
<a href="https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/tag/joan-cockin/">Joan
Cockin</a>, <a href="https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/tag/joan-coggin/">Joan
Coggin</a> and <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931198/Murray,%20Max">Max
Murray</a> to their line-up. I'll get to those three, but first want
to go through their Witting reprints.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58ErmGjNr6uOmdu9fsqhto1jEMbMAYhtmUbWc3HVQNu0PfMfhffPmc_5Isbp0R53ZsMru4RFuLIRK2TiO9vtYdZjPoFb-74tAnkSeGCQ-4iskdEpb_-eo65Tx0uCeD4I45NwA5nXUF3ldAsDiE78ShK0Y4GK-dCsiT0X4JBM62zedENxzkUGyD6J71w/s502/Let_X_Be_the_Murderer_CW_I_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: helvetica; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="323" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58ErmGjNr6uOmdu9fsqhto1jEMbMAYhtmUbWc3HVQNu0PfMfhffPmc_5Isbp0R53ZsMru4RFuLIRK2TiO9vtYdZjPoFb-74tAnkSeGCQ-4iskdEpb_-eo65Tx0uCeD4I45NwA5nXUF3ldAsDiE78ShK0Y4GK-dCsiT0X4JBM62zedENxzkUGyD6J71w/w258-h400/Let_X_Be_the_Murderer_CW_I_.jpg" width="258" /></a></span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span><i>Let
X Be the Murderer</i> (1947) is the seventh title in the Inspector
Harry Charlton series, </span></span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">following the superb <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/09/subjectmurder-1945-by-clifford-witting.html"><i>Subject—Murder</i></a>
(1945), which begins ordinarily enough for a detective story. An
early morning call from to Elmsdale, "<i>Sir Victor Warringham's
place</i>," to the Lulverton police station to report an attempted
murder. Sir Victor claims that during the night a pair luminous hands
tried to strangle him, but, when he jumped out the bed to turn on the
light, there was "<i>no trace of anything unusual in the room</i>."
So asks the police to come down immediately and have "<i>this spook
removed from the premises without any of the customary delays</i>."</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Inspector
Charlton takes Detective-Sergeant Bert Martin to Elmsdale to hear Sir
Victor's story. Instead, the two policemen find a very strange and
suspicious situation full of contradictions. Lily, the maid, confirms
the Sir Victor's call ("<i>the master was nearly murdered in' is
bed last night"</i>), but the housekeeper, Mrs. Winters, tells a
different story – saying her employer was simply taken ill and is
not to be disturbed ("<i>doctor diagnosed heart trouble</i>").
Sir Victor's son-in-law, Clement Harler, takes the confidential
approach and explains to Charlton that "<i>the old boy</i>" never
was same after his wife and only daughter were killed by a
flying-bomb in 1944. So every now and then, Sir Victor gets funny
ideas, but assures he's quite harmless and that a specialist is
coming down from London to look him over. Clement's second-wife,
Gladys, had yet a different yarn to spin. In the end, they're turned
away without seeing Sir Victor and it doesn't end there. Sir Victor
had also summoned his lawyer, Mr. Howard, but gets told his client is
not fit to see him ("<i>he's mad, I tell you!</i>"). Only for
Mrs. Winters to intervene and telling the Harlers, "<i>you'll not
prevent me from doing everything I can to protect an honourable,
trusting old gentleman from a pair of cheap confidence tricksters</i>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>So,
as they would say back in the days, the game's afoot. This all proves
to be a prelude to murder and someone at the mansion gets strangled
in their bed, but the victim is not the supposedly sick or mad Sir
Victor. And it's obvious the murder committed by a human. Not a pair
of disembodied, glowing hands.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>I've
seen <i>Let X Be the Murderer</i> being described as a homage to the
Victorian-era sensation novel and the premise suggests one of those
Golden Age tributes to the period. Brian Flynn's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-triple-bite-1931-by-brian-flynn.html"><i>The
Triple Bite</i></a> (1931) and Christopher St. John Sprigg's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-six-queer-things-1937-by.html"><i>The
Six Queer Things</i></a> (1937) come to mind. As others have pointed
out, <i>Let X Be the Murderer</i> reads like a Victorian sensation
novel with its long monologues and soapy transgressions driving the
tangled plot and cast of characters, but the resemblance became less,
and less, as the pages between the opening and closing chapters grew
– as it weaved unexpected patterns into familiar designs. For
example, Sir Victor's own account of the midnight attack and why the
assailant should have read his book, <i>England's Haunted Houses</i>,
is a clever and unexpected touch to the plot and overall story. While
it plays on the familiar themes of the Victorian-era novel, I found
the story (after a while) to stand closer to one of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Francis Vivian">Francis
Vivian</a>'s excellent Inspector Knollis novels like <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-laughing-dog-1949-by-francis-vivian.html"><i>The
Laughing Dog</i></a> (1949) or <a href="http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-singing-masons-1950-by-francis.html"><i>The
Singing Masons</i></a> (1950).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Another
comparison I've seen thrown at the book is <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Dickson Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a>, but the ghostly attack in Sir Victor's bedroom is
not an impossible crime or even presented as one. On the contrary!
Witting headed in the completely opposite direction when setting up
the plot. Now if Carr had written <i>Let X Be the Murderer</i>, the
menacing hands would have been the resident ghost terrorizing the
family for generations by trying to strangle them in their beds and
the murder, two disembodied hands strangling the victim, would have
been observed through the keyhole of the locked and bolted bedroom
door. That and I can't see Carr handing this particular murderer over
the hangman.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>So
this is not that kind of detective or sensational novel, but an
enjoyable and pleasant take on the crime fiction of a bygone era
presented as one of those thoroughly competent British detective
stories of the Golden Age. Charlton said it best, "<i>the policeman
plods steadily along the winding highway of cold fact</i>" unlike "<i>the carefree amateur sleuth</i><span style="font-style: normal;">"
scampering "</span><i>madly across the green meadows of intuition</i>."
So the inspector is not all that impress by a pair of murderous
hands, Sir Victor's madness, his scheming relatives or domestic
servants with agendas of their own. It cleverly undermined
expectations. If there's anything to hold against <i>Let X Be the
Murderer</i>, it's the reason why this rambling review is a bit
shorter than usual as the plot leaves very little room for
discussion. This time, Witting can be called stingy when it comes to
clueing. A ton of misdirection and red herrings, but not much to help
the reader, or the inspector, to logically piece the whole thing
together. Nevertheless, even with a glut of red herrings, I think
most readers, just like Charlton, will eventually get "<i>a very
shrewd idea</i>" about the who-and why – or at least in which
direction a solution can be found. So, purely as a fair play mystery,
<i>Let X Be the Murderer</i> is not a patch on the previous <i>Catt
Out of the Bag</i> and <i>Subject—Murder</i>, but, comparisons and
nitpicking aside, it's a good and thoroughly enjoyable Golden Age
mystery. I liked how Witting used the Victorian sensational novel to
frame a 1930s-style country house mystery, of sorts, pleasantly
diverting the plot from established patterns once the murder is
committed. Recommended with some “buts” and nitpicking.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span><b>A
note for the curious:</b> one of the characters references a story
about a boy that "<i>hadn't any relations at all and was Alone in
the World</i>." Is this a reference to Hector Malot's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans_Famille"><i>Sans
familie</i></a> (<i>Nobody's Boy</i>, 1878) famously known in my
country as <i>Alleen op de wereld</i>? For some reason, I always
thought the story is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world.
</span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-79861942637500931582024-02-09T15:00:00.001+01:002024-02-09T15:00:00.130+01:00The Living Dead: Case Closed, vol. 88 by Gosho Aoyama<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>The
88th volume of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gosho Aoyama">Gosho
Aoyama</a>'s <i>Case Closed</i> traditionally begins with the
conclusion to the story that closed out the <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/blogging-gone-wrong-case-closed-vol-87.html">previous
volume</a>, which placed two recurring side-characters from the
pop-culture world of this series, Yoko Okina (pop star) and Ryusuke
Higo (soccer player), on the scene of a murder – an Italian
restaurant that was recently opened by a high school teammate of
Higo. A body was found in the storage room and the story ended with
Conan figuring out the cunning killer made use of a simple tool to
create "<i>an instant alibi</i>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsf14KeZg0iHIdkLgMNML_HHGn-pUcU5Y714l2ru-TJWd3n7ZNDtaoN5zKwEhhc2ctO2j0eFFAjz57XkwxCc9KXX8a15MjI2_lPP3dn4pQg8CmhmcEw5Mw4u7ukq5A8CRX1bOf_B8QbIxH6up5jkYtpZ4kQVD5X4meVA4UxzgTIEeSyUsjY95oFccgY_Y/s482/Case_Closed_vol_88_GA_DC_I_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="322" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsf14KeZg0iHIdkLgMNML_HHGn-pUcU5Y714l2ru-TJWd3n7ZNDtaoN5zKwEhhc2ctO2j0eFFAjz57XkwxCc9KXX8a15MjI2_lPP3dn4pQg8CmhmcEw5Mw4u7ukq5A8CRX1bOf_B8QbIxH6up5jkYtpZ4kQVD5X4meVA4UxzgTIEeSyUsjY95oFccgY_Y/w268-h400/Case_Closed_vol_88_GA_DC_I_.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">I'll
grand that the trick to whip up an instant alibi is clever, in
theory, but how it was put to use here comes across as cheap and
silly. Almost like it was written around the idea, which is not a
recipe for a good detective story. Regrettably, this story is a good
example. I found the little side story of Richard Moore and Anita
being devastated over the news that their celebrity crushes are
dating each other slightly more interesting than the case itself.
Inspector Meguire is becoming a very entertaining, quasi-self aware
side-character who has becomes tired of the formula and tropes of the
series. Meguire is beginning to see Conan as a little grim reaper
stalking city's crime scenes and begins to tire of the whole "Sleeping Moore" act (<b>Sleeping Moore:</b> "<i>but you can't
overlook how ludicrous that theory is</i>" <b>Meguire (thinking):</b> "<i>not as ludicrous as these performances</i>..."). So mostly a
poor showing in the opening story, but the next one is somewhat of an
improvement.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>The
second story returns to the setting of a previous case, Drop-Dead
Delicious Ogura Ramen, where Conan solved an impossible murder by
poison in <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-scythe-of-time-case-closed-vol-73.html">vol.
73</a>. This time, Conan is in the company of Rachel, Serena and
Masumi Sera when they learn from the owners about "<i>a big crime
went down</i>" in the neighborhood – "<i>a woman down the
street was robbed and killed</i>." Apparently, the murderer was
chased down to the noodle shack and three customers present were
questioned, but no arrests were made. However, the two police women
who discovered the crime, Yumi Miyamoto and Neako Miike, keep
returning to the noodle shack to ask questions. You guessed it. Conan
happened to be there are at the same time as the three suspected
customers and one of the now regular visits from the two police
women. Conan has to deduce whom of the three customers is
robber/murderer based on how they over season their food and why that
person was seen, shortly after the crime, swinging a garden hose in
front of the building ("...<i>like some kind of weird ritual</i>").
There was tape residue found on one end of the hose, but why would
the murderer "<i>tape something to a hose and swing it around
instead of making a fun for it?</i>"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>A
good question and the answer is not half bad, better integrated into
the story than the instant alibi-trick from the previous story, but
both tricks obviously came out of the same brainstorming session. So
the plot can feel a bit cluttered, but overall, a small improvement
over the previous story with some minor developments of the larger
storyline going on in the background.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Fortunately,
the third story is a return to form and reads like a parody of
Yamaguchi Masaya's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/01/death-of-living-dead-1989-by-yamaguchi.html"><i>Ikeru
shikabane no shi</i></a> (<i>Death of the Living Dead</i>, 1989) and
Masahiro Imamura's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/09/death-among-undead-2017-by-masahiro.html"><i>Shijinso
no satsujin</i></a> (<i>Death Among the Undead</i>, 2017)! Richard
Moore takes Conan and Rachel on a "pilgrimage" to a deserted,
rundown lodge the woods, which has become legendary as the location
where <i>Zombie Blade: Feast of Death</i> was filmed – a "<i>sleeper
hit</i>" with horror fans starring Yoko Okina. Harley and Kazuha
also turn up at the lodge ahead of the film crew and cast members to
shoot a teaser of the long-rumored sequel. Harley tells Conan there
was a strange incidents a few days ago nearby, when a couple hit
something with their car and when they went to look "<i>a zombie in
tattered clothes with its neck all broken</i>" crawled from
underneath the car. So they left cartoon smoke. The cast and crew of
the film have a haunting, of sorts, of their own.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>They
all used to be members of the same college horror club. Eight years
ago, they came to the very same lodge to shoot a horror movie for the
school film festival, but the brother of the current director decided
to turn their horror movie into a <i>Scooby Doo</i>-style locked room
mystery ("...<i>twist will be that the zombie is a human killer in
disguise</i>"). And came up with a trick to make a corpse disappear
from a room like "<i>it was revived as a zombie and walked out</i>."
Joji Naito demonstrates his trick by disappearing from a room with
every exit guarded and observed, but he never reappeared and a
subsequent search of the room turned up nothing. Four days later, the
group returns to the lodge to discover Joji somehow reappeared in the
room, sitting against the wall, dead from dehydration. In the
present, the producer unexpectedly commits suicide and filmed it on
his phone, which includes Conan and Harley finding the body. So
murder seems out of the question, but then the story takes an
unexpected turns ("<i>they're coming through the window!</i>")
and a second body is found. This death is also captured on video, but
shows the victim was attacked and killed by the dead producer! And
his body has disappeared!!</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhTsnJvFUAt29VCxsDy2S6e05m2pVegPhkNSUhUnq7kugOHbO4qipFjb-_ETwA1dd_ojtW-csIAvsCLKuUZTAkov64UPUvdnPnodQa-nuv9O0EVTid4ejqQBLu2he6ybF4FLr0Qhd_Pqpkn__6nSEYQJJxtIKyrBIkTxJ3Q1llCM0VdM0gpkgWwZGsw4/s434/Case_Closed_vol_88_GA_DC_II_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: helvetica; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="277" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhTsnJvFUAt29VCxsDy2S6e05m2pVegPhkNSUhUnq7kugOHbO4qipFjb-_ETwA1dd_ojtW-csIAvsCLKuUZTAkov64UPUvdnPnodQa-nuv9O0EVTid4ejqQBLu2he6ybF4FLr0Qhd_Pqpkn__6nSEYQJJxtIKyrBIkTxJ3Q1llCM0VdM0gpkgWwZGsw4/w255-h400/Case_Closed_vol_88_GA_DC_II_.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>An
incredibly fun story and the best from this volume, but could have
been a series classic had the video-trick been more credible. The
idea is solid enough, in principle, but (<b>SPOILER/<a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a></b>)
<i>na rvtug-lrne tnc vf gbb jvqr gb pbaivapvatyl hfr byq sbbgntr sbe
n gevpx yvxr guvf</i>. The solution to the impossible disappearance
from the guarded room (“<i>that's the room with the disappearing
corpses</i>”) is good and quite appropriate for a horror-themed
detective story. Edgar Allan Poe would approve! So, overall, a pretty
good and above all entertaining story.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>On
a side note, I can sometimes understand why some part of the Conan
fandom, who are not necessarily detective fans, get frustrated with
the slow-moving or even lack of development in certain areas – like
the Conan/Jimmy/Rachel angle. Rachel hears Conan talking to Harley on
the phone recording and notices how similar Conan sounds like Jimmy
when talking normally ("<i>was that Conan? It sounded like Jimmy</i>"),
but gets easily sidetracked by Harley ("<i>da kid's copyin' me</i>").
I know I drummed on about this twenty, thirty volumes ago, but, now
nearly 90 volumes deep into the series, it has to be said Aoyama
wasted an important character and storyline. Over the first fifty
volumes, Rachel should have become increasingly suspicious, uncertain
and worried before trying to figure what Jimmy is up to, who Conan
really is and eventually putting them together. That should have been
her case to solve. Not wandering around for hundreds of stories in a
daze obliviousness with occasional flashes of lucidity.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>Anyway,
this volume ends with a story that will be concluded in the next
volume and begins with Serena suggesting to Rachel and Masumi they
form an all-girl band. So they end up at a sound studio that rents
space where bands can practice and run into another girl band. And,
as to be expected, one of them gets murdered. What should have been a
open-and-shut case is wide open, because the surveillance camera was
partially covered by a phone on a selfie-stick and a mirror had been
covered. Both would have shown the murderer strangling the victim. I
loved how Inspector Meguire calmly observes, "<i>we've got the kid
detective, the girl detective and the barista detective</i>," who
are respectively Rachel, Masumi and Toru Amuro. Not sure what to
expect from this story as it could turn to be either pretty average
or something surprisingly good. I'll find out next volume which has
at least one story that already sounds very promising.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><span>So,
on a whole, this volume is slightly disappointing and without the
third, zombie-themed story it would have been below average, but, to
be fair, there only two complete stories in this volume. Judged only
by those two complete stories, it's actually a pretty good, solid
volume. Not the best in the series, but good enough and look forward
to next few volumes. Hopefully, Saguru Hakuba reappears one of these
days, because I'm still unwilling to entirely let go of my <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/06/detective-conan-whos-boss.html">pet
theory</a>.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-83185367762170903162024-02-07T15:00:00.043+01:002024-02-07T15:00:00.133+01:00Under Lock & Skeleton Key (2022) by Gigi Pandian<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
recently read J.L. Blackhurst's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/three-card-murder-2023-by-jl-blackhurst.html"><i>Three
Card Murder</i></a> (2023) and revisited two of Clayton Rawson's
Great Merlini mysteries, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-footprints-on-ceiling-1939-by.html"><i>The
Footprints on the Ceiling</i></a> (1939) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-headless-lady-1940-by-clayton-rawson.html"><i>The
Headless Lady</i></a> (1940), which all have one thing in common –
applying the art of stage magic and illusions to the detective story.
I suppose Clayton Rawson founded, what can be called, the
sleight-of-hand school and only recently realized it has some loyal
adherents. Not just back then, but today.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AdWIujZ61E7RtBDQhR8NdgKybQgBxIWhqvxCvMmYMN8ZU5X-EyaVb9a7PJjxUmOnT3k_2zV7zLxvUcG4Qgcgb0LM0c9uo_F0uLRL4akeN_R10r-ykM-9ziULqlS8zLiHuABfvTwKKU3yhzyAJSnnukKxOm_tYq2V8zw3hXZb9C1F0ppOK5RpQvk5euE/s493/Under_Lock_Skeleton_Key_GP_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="318" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AdWIujZ61E7RtBDQhR8NdgKybQgBxIWhqvxCvMmYMN8ZU5X-EyaVb9a7PJjxUmOnT3k_2zV7zLxvUcG4Qgcgb0LM0c9uo_F0uLRL4akeN_R10r-ykM-9ziULqlS8zLiHuABfvTwKKU3yhzyAJSnnukKxOm_tYq2V8zw3hXZb9C1F0ppOK5RpQvk5euE/w258-h400/Under_Lock_Skeleton_Key_GP_I_.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Tom%20Mead">Tom
Mead</a> praised the Great Merlini series as "<a href="https://crimereads.com/the-great-locked-room-mystery-my-top-10-impossible-crimes/"><i>the
purest example of the overlap between professional magic and
professional mystery</i></a>" ("<i>in both cases, the key to the
trick lies in the art of misdirection</i>"). Rawson and the Great
Merlini appear to the biggest source of inspiration for Mead's two
Joseph Spector locked room mysteries, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/09/death-and-conjuror-2022-by-tom-mead.html"><i>Death
and the Conjuror</i></a> (2022), <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-murder-wheel-2023-by-tom-mead.html"><i>The
Murder Wheel</i></a> (2023) and the upcoming <i>Cabaret Macabre</i>
(2024). Mead is not the only locked room champion today who cited
Rawson and Merlini as an influence, Gigi Pandian. I reviewed <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-cambodian-curse-and-other-stories.html"><i>The
Cambodian Curse and Other Stories</i></a> (2018) in 2019, but only "The Haunted Room" (2014) stood out to me. However, I probably
would have enjoyed the collection a lot more had the introduction not
spoiled the theme linking all the short stories together.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
2022, Pandian started the "Secret Staircase" series entirely
dedicated to the traditional craftwork known as locked room mysteries
and impossible crimes. Pandian is not the first, or last, who in
recent years began an impossible crime series. I really should have
waited until 2025 with "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">The
Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century:
A Brief Historic Overview of the First Twenty (Some) Years</a>,"
because a few extra years would given a clearer picture and more to
talk about than just the firsts in all these new series – many from
debuting and/or self-published authors. So the locked room revival is
still very much in its <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930843/It%20Walks%20by%20Night"><i>It
Walks by Night</i></a> (1930) phase <i>en route</i> to the modern-day
equivalents of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-three-coffins-1935-by-john-dickson.html"><i>The
Three Coffins</i></a> (1935), <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2015/02/window-of-opportunity.html"><i>The
Judas Window</i></a> (1938) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/06/rim-of-pit-1944-by-hake-talbot.html"><i>Rim
of the Pit</i></a> (1944). I'm getting off-topic.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Under
Lock & Skeleton Key</i> (2022) is the first of currently two
novels and one novella in the "Secret Staircase" series with the
third novel, <i>Midnight Puzzle</i> (2024), getting published next
month. This series stars a disgraced stage magician, Tempest Raj, who
previously appeared in the short story "Tempest in a Teapot"
(2015) collected in <i>The Cambodian Curse</i>. A botched escape
trick nearly killed her and pretty much ended her career, because
everyone assumed she had "<i>replaced the vetted illusions for
something far more dangerous</i>" ("...<i>putting her own life
and those of many others in danger</i>"). Tempest believes the
illusion had been sabotaged by her former stage double, Cassidy
Sparrow. Either way, Tempest is back home with her father, Darius,
and the family company, Secret Staircase Construction. A business
specialized in creating secret rooms and hidden doors like "<i>a</i>
<i>bookshelf that slid open when you reached for</i> The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes" or "<i>perhaps a door in a grandfather clock
that led to a secret garden</i>." Tempest has to consider working
for her father, if she can't get her career back on track.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Tempest
goes with the Secret Staircase crew to the home of a client, Calvin
Knight, who bought a 110-year-old house and moved in with his
six-year-old son, Justin, but while renovating the place, it seems
like the the house is "<i>hiding something</i>" – not counting
the secret room they built behind a bookcase. When they break open a
very old wall, they discover a dusty sack with black hair sticking
out. And inside is the body of Cassidy Sparrow. But how did her body
end up inside a wall that hadn't been worked on or tempered with for
at least <span style="font-weight: normal;">half-a-century?</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">A
fresh, barely cold body inside an old and practically hermetically
sealed crawlspace, walled up for the better part of a century, is
fantastic premise for an impossible crime story. So it's unfortunate
that impossibility is not the focal point of the plot. You can even
argue the story turns into something entirely different once the body
is pulled out from behind the wall.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">After
the body's discovery, the story shifts focus to the more personal
mysteries surrounding Tempest. Five years ago, her mother disappeared
and her ghost has been haunting Tempest ever since she returned to
Hidden Creek, which comes on top of the family curse ("</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
eldest child dies by magic</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">)
and a treasure hunt for her inheritance. And introducing recurring
characters. So it might appear as if things are happening or being
investigated, but, beside the opening and closing chapters, not all
that much happens. Just a lot of talking and very little in the way
of an actual detective story. Now that can be largely put down to
</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Under Lock & Skeleton
Key</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> having to setup the
series and the second novel, </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Raven Thief</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (2023),
appears to be detection oriented with no less than four impossible
crimes, but neither the characters nor the story pulled me in. I like
the idea of "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
haphazard team of misfit craftspeople</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
fitting people's home with elaborately hidden reading rooms, nooks,
secret doors and fantasy locks or how all of Pandian's
series-character occupy a shared universe, but this just didn't do it
for me.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">That's
the double-edged sword of the miracle problem. A reality-defying
impossibility or even a simple locked room murder is always a great
hook for a classically-styled detective story, but it obliges the
author to do something with it – preferably something good or
original. So when you pull a freshly murdered corpse from a dark,
dusty crawlspace sealed for decades, like a rabbit from a top hat, it
sets certain expectations that were ignored. However, the next entry
in the series look a lot more promising and apparently begins with a
body miraculously appearing during a mock séance. I've noticed a lot
of the current locked room revivalists enjoy making bodies impossibly
appear instead of making them disappear. That's something to keep in
mind, but next up, a return to </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Case Closed aka Detective Conan"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Case
Closed</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and
promising-looking Golden Age whodunit. </span></span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-49761393061561854272024-02-03T15:00:00.063+01:002024-02-03T15:00:00.130+01:00The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939) by Clayton Rawson<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Recently,
I reviewed the last of the unread Great Merlini mysteries that
resided on the big pile, namely <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-headless-lady-1940-by-clayton-rawson.html"><i>The
Headless Lady</i></a> (1940), which proved to be surprising in just
how radically different it's from Clayton Rawson's better-known <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/07/death-from-top-hat-1938-by-clayton.html"><i>Death
from a Top Hat</i></a> (1938) and "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/04/magicians-bouquet.html">From
Another World</a>" (1948) – two classics which gave him the
reputation of a locked room artisan. <i>The Headless Lady</i>
dispenses with the locked room murders and impossible disappearances
in favor of cast-iron alibis, dodgy identifies and an escalations
staged around a three-ring circus. In spirit, <i>The Headless Lady</i>
stands closer to the works of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christopher%20Bush">Christopher
Bush</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Brian%20Flynn">Brian
Flynn</a> than <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Dickson%20Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Hake%20Talbot">Hake
Talbot</a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHntpo5EwFkl5hGUEMdAFjYQwX9q973nyOCcqky41NMXclg3V8QE3mgm-9a5W-1PIUSF3jUwUAD2eAb7BU-VstLgEd8SDGEfLbP5Lkn2KOznnD_PbtYIXyPpfGp9IaX7ikDqHB70v_j6bI08rpji0yhI_flIIeS-uI-1kf3UZXenmF6KEMSayJsq5Exs/s508/The_Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="334" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHntpo5EwFkl5hGUEMdAFjYQwX9q973nyOCcqky41NMXclg3V8QE3mgm-9a5W-1PIUSF3jUwUAD2eAb7BU-VstLgEd8SDGEfLbP5Lkn2KOznnD_PbtYIXyPpfGp9IaX7ikDqHB70v_j6bI08rpji0yhI_flIIeS-uI-1kf3UZXenmF6KEMSayJsq5Exs/w263-h400/The_Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_I_.jpg" width="263" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Headless Lady</i> left me with two thoughts. I already mentioned in
that review it left me with the idea that Rawson's biggest
contribution was not his bag of locked room-tricks, but creating the
archetype of the magician detective in the Great Merlini. What I
didn't bring up is how the plot almost suggested, or revealed,
Rawson's background and ethics as a magician hamstrung his abilities
to deliver satisfying solutions for his locked room scenarios.
Reluctant to give away trade secrets. Rawson appeared to be more
comfortable handling a non-impossible crime story, toying around with
alibis and identities, than a grand-scale, Carr-like locked room
mystery. Such as the impossible crime extravaganza <i>Death from a
Top Hat</i> or the atrociously bad <i>No Coffin for the Corpse</i>
(1942).</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
decided to take another look at the second novel in the Great Merlini
series, <i>The Footprints on the Ceiling</i> (1939), to test that <strike>fan
theory</strike> hypothesis. I read <i>The Footprints on the Ceiling</i>
ages ago in an old, dated Dutch translation (<i>De voetstappen op het
plafond</i>) and remember practically nothing of the overall story or
plot – except for the upside down footprints and some other (minor)
impossibilities. Hey, subverting your expectations is not my job.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">First
of all, <i>The Footprints on the Ceiling</i> is a tightly packed,
complicatedly-plotted mystery piling incident, on incident, right up
till the end. I'm going to gloss over a lot of details as
encapsulating everything that goes on is next to impossible.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
story begins with Ross Harte reading a curious notice in the
newspaper, "<i><b>WANTED TO RENT: Haunted House, preferably in
rundown condition. Must be adequately supplied with interesting
ghost</b></i>," which leads him to the Magic Shop. And from there
the story quickly begins to resemble a story of old-world adventure
and harum-scarum. The shop assistant, Burt, tells him Merlini is away
at the moment, but the magician detective has been looking for him
and investigating the spooky history of Skelton Island, which is a
small island in the East River – "<i>a stone's throw from
Manhattan</i>." Skelton Island has a "<i>positively lurid</i>"
history of piracy, sunken treasure and a haunting. In 1850, Captain
Arnold Skelton, "<i>an eccentric, fiery-tempered old boy</i>,"
appeared out of nowhere to settle down in New York. Rumors at the
time opined the old sea-devil bought Skelton Island and built his
house with pirate loot. The Skeltons were never able to shake-off
their pirate legacy, but instead became rather proud of it over the
generations ("<i>adds an interesting spot of color to the ancestral
tree</i>"). There are still three Skeltons living on the island,
Linda together with her two half-brothers, Arnold and Floyd, which
has become a hotspot for spiritualism, treasure hunters and other
criminal activities. However, the spiritual star attraction is not
the noisy ghost of Captain Skelton, but Colonel Watrous' prize
medium, Madam Rappourt, who both previously appeared in <i>Death from
a Top Hat</i>.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-I1R4lSBXYWoNPkHP_1PZziNQKdzbndJxXKGBE7Q1Uiz6YkVKlmQ8DEi9myPUkctLfU5DTCn2KaOHLp4gwSz-lSkgUtEdMNUeRC7O1nvuREjU5mOYyWu2OyLIESfjc9SexI34j6LgBc5cXBE6R3URhFeV0b3RrepM2KDSZLsQc0RQ7PoZsSH7tierRA/s491/The_Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-I1R4lSBXYWoNPkHP_1PZziNQKdzbndJxXKGBE7Q1Uiz6YkVKlmQ8DEi9myPUkctLfU5DTCn2KaOHLp4gwSz-lSkgUtEdMNUeRC7O1nvuREjU5mOYyWu2OyLIESfjc9SexI34j6LgBc5cXBE6R3URhFeV0b3RrepM2KDSZLsQc0RQ7PoZsSH7tierRA/w270-h400/The_Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_III_.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Colonel
Watrous is a psychic researcher of two decades and believed Madam
Rappourt to be genuine article. And wrote extensively on her in his
latest book Modern Mediums. Going as far as saying that "<i>psychical
research can rest its whole case on her phenomena</i>," but doubt
has began to set in ("<i>she's up to something even stranger than
usual</i>") and wants an outside opinion. So turned to the Great
Merlini to sound out the medium. Linda Skelton happened to be greatly
interested in psychic matters and asked the Colonel to bring along
Madam Rappourt when requesting permission to investigate the
deserted, reputedly haunted house on the island. A séance is being
planned that gives Merlini the opportunity he needs. Ross Harte is
instructed to go the island with his camera "<i>loaded with
infra-red film</i>" and a loaded .32 automatic.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Now
all of that sounds conventional enough for a Golden Age novel. A
mystery novel covering everything from a fraudulent medium, séance
shenanigans and an isolated island to the figure of the Great
Detective trying to disentangle a tangle of Grade-A alibis, seemingly
inexplicable occurrences and a very subtle murderer. This is,
however, only the introduction to the environs of the story and some
of the colorful characters dwelling there. When the plot kicks off,
it gives the strong impression Rawson patterned <i>The Footprints on
the Ceiling</i> after Carter Dickson's <a href="https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/list-of-authors/john-dickson-carr/the-unicorn-murders-carter-dickson/"><i>The
Unicorn Murders</i></a> (1935) and <a href="https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/list-of-authors/john-dickson-carr/the-punch-and-judy-murders-carter-dickson/"><i>The
Punch and Judy Murders</i></a> (1936). Before he can even get to the
island, Ross Harte's suitcase gets switched for one crammed with "<i>funny-looking old coins, worn and wobbly about the edges</i>"
and inscribed "<i><b>GEORGIUS III—DEL GRATIA</b></i>" – dated
1779. But loses this treasure as soon as he gained it when he gets
blackjacked from behind. Everything begins to rapidly accelerate once
they land on Skelton Island.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Merlini,
Harte and the Colonel go to the haunted house to inspect it when they
hear footsteps upstairs, but the only one they find upstairs is Linda
Skelton. She has been dead for hours from cyanide poison. So what
happened to person they heard walking upstairs and where did the
intruder disappeared to as the only way out is a forty feet drop to
the dark river below? A sudden fire breaks out in the cellar. The
phone line is cut and someone scuttled all the boats, which marooned
them on the island. Not to mention the curious footprints on the
ceiling of the crime scene, "<i>one uncanny, inexplicable footprint
after another</i>," stopping "<i>directly above the open window
and the sheer 40-foot drop outside</i>" ("<i>an upside-down
procession of surrealist impossibilities"</i>). Believe it or not,
this is still only a small sample of everything Rawson throws in the
direction of his characters and readers. A naked, unidentified body
of a man is discovered in a locked hotel room who died of the bends
and shootout happens towards the end with one of the bullets
magically changing direction mid-air.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitFVo9LcIK6Zzy1t-ks83_3kHzXcnT93CRS94zb6sTKEJ9_2371BgpYDDZNdy3WgLohKlVvXlwwWt9kCyYdIry6mCnNUeIq-8H1vShoohjJmo6o4r_BXdAXOCkvbr8QOwxzCy0vcZ5cXhbng56gq6zcTwm7GI0SSKybj4e7y2LrJHHYDCo607H-AelgTE/s507/Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitFVo9LcIK6Zzy1t-ks83_3kHzXcnT93CRS94zb6sTKEJ9_2371BgpYDDZNdy3WgLohKlVvXlwwWt9kCyYdIry6mCnNUeIq-8H1vShoohjJmo6o4r_BXdAXOCkvbr8QOwxzCy0vcZ5cXhbng56gq6zcTwm7GI0SSKybj4e7y2LrJHHYDCo607H-AelgTE/w258-h400/Footprints_on_the_Ceiling_CR_II_.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">So,
on paper, <i>The Footprints on the Ceiling</i> is as much an
impossible crime extravaganza as<i> Death from a Top Hat</i>, but
with key differences. One, the impossibilities are not overplayed and
treated like the small puzzle pieces of a bigger, overall picture.
That helped to manage expectations. And, two, none of the tricks
really hinge on any type of magic-tricks or techniques. Rawson
constructed the plot entirely around the gentle art of misdirection
and the principles of deception ("...<i><span style="text-decoration: none;">nothing
more than psychology turned upside down and inside out</span></i>").
Without the risk of breaking the magician's code, Rawson put those
minor impossibilities to better use than those from <i>Death from a
Top Hat</i> and the footprints-trick even allowed for a flicker of
inspired clueing you normally find only in an <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Agatha Christie">Agatha
Christie</a> or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christianna Brand">Christianna
Brand</a> story (<b>SPOILER/<a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a>:</b>
<i>jura bar bs gur punenpgref bofreirf nobhg gur sbbgcevagf, “fher,
gur thl gung znqr ’rz vf gjryir srrg gnyy naq pna jnyx ba uvf
unaqf”</i>). Like I said, the impossibilities here are only pieces
of a larger, incredibly jumbled puzzle that, perhaps, has too much
going on with too many independently moving parts. It's easy to lose
track of all that's going on on the island and to pull the
plot-threads together in the end without dropping one, or two, would
have been impressive feat. But to do with a solution almost bordering
on the believable is the work of master. Not a second-stringer. So
either that old, crummy Dutch translation was rubbish or my taste had
not yet matured or been fine-tuned enough to appreciate this gem.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On
top of all of that, Rawson peppered the story with fascinating
tidbits of the arcane and macabre. The dead man in the hotel room who
died of the bends provides an opportunity to discuss "<i>compressed
air as a murder device</i>," how it can be done, impracticable as
it may be, as well as pointing out its horrific effects – "<i>it
carbonates the blood, literally turns the victim into a human
soda-water bottle</i>." What about the reverse, death by implosion,
which could happen to the hardhat divers of the past. If the surface
pump would let the air pressure go, the tons of water pressure would
squeeze a diver right up into his helmet and taken out with a spoon
("<i>divers have facetiously referred to the results of a squeeze
as 'strawberry jam'</i>"). Another chapter delves into the
subject of poisons and makes an inventory of all the available
poisons on the island with final tally coming to thirty ("<i>this
case is getting to be a toxicologist's nightmare</i>"), which
makes the island something of a poisoner's paradise. And a
fascinating sidetrack in the forgotten history of the so-called Blue
Men. In earlier days, doctors prescribed silver nitrate for stomach
ulcers or silver salts for epilepsy, but they turned their patients
skin permanently blue. Some were condemned to earn their living as
freak show attractions ("<i>billed as</i> The Great What-Is-It From
Mars").</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It
all makes for a rich storytelling adding to a crazy, but surprisingly
lucidly-plotted detective story. Something that had no right to work
or even be successful, but, somehow, someway, Rawson pulled it off
with flying colors. <i>The Footprints on the Ceiling</i> might very
well be the best trick Rawson ever played on his readers and is the
detective novel he should be remembered for today (together with <i>The
Headless Lady</i>). Highly recommended!</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-24192657141676778712024-01-31T12:00:00.105+01:002024-02-01T12:59:02.355+01:00The Hit List: Top 10 Works of Detective Fiction That Have Been Lost to History<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Last
time, I used the top 10 format to do a follow-up to my list of
reprint suggestions, "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/07/curiosity-is-killing-cat-detective.html">Curiosity
is Killing the Cat: Detective Novels That Need to Be Reprinted</a>,"
because "Curiosity is Killing the Cat: Non-English Detective Novels
That Need to be Translated" lacked the scope and depth of the
reprint list – restricted to what I happen to know is out there.
Mostly consisting of <a href="https://mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html">French</a>
and <a href="https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/">Japanese</a>
titles. So whittled down the list to ten tantalizingly-sounding,
non-English and untranslated mystery novels covering countries from
Europe and Asia to South and North America. That gave me an idea.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjM2hGYAIpA3hMryMB0WuXEOMTA15_dIi_CaYPuhXmptiwf9c7e1tugXIUxbWXg1Rz7kKUepVCxL-lLaTifAnY9BmTHczul4Zr7h8o2I8ySZ7pCLdbdGDykJzmVOmkWvlUvcWrOKGIXzGrmzqSF6a5Ip6GYQysx6nyxTjBkWwVVmT-ZFklPCn4I2zqOg/s400/You_Murdered_Me_RT_II_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="201" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjM2hGYAIpA3hMryMB0WuXEOMTA15_dIi_CaYPuhXmptiwf9c7e1tugXIUxbWXg1Rz7kKUepVCxL-lLaTifAnY9BmTHczul4Zr7h8o2I8ySZ7pCLdbdGDykJzmVOmkWvlUvcWrOKGIXzGrmzqSF6a5Ip6GYQysx6nyxTjBkWwVVmT-ZFklPCn4I2zqOg/w201-h400/You_Murdered_Me_RT_II_.jpg" width="201" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">For
years, I wanted to redo two depressing blog-posts, "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-locked-room-reader-v-selection-of.html">The
Locked Room Reader: A Selection of Lost Detective Stories</a>" and "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-locked-room-reader-xi-return-to.html">The
Locked Room Reader: A Return to the Phantom Library</a>," both old,
badly written and incomplete. However, the subject of those two
blog-posts never stopped fascinating me. A subject known in other
parts of the internet as "Lost Media."</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">John
Dickson Carr's <a href="https://thegreencapsuleblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/the-mad-hatter-mystery/"><i>The
Mad Hatter Mystery</i></a> (1933) introduced me to concept of "lost
detective stories" as the plot concerns a rare, hitherto unknown
manuscript of an Auguste Dupin short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Carr
even convincingly creates a passage from that lost story, but never
suspected lost detective stories were more than fiction nor so
abundant. Over the years, I've learned of a shocking number of
unpublished, now irretrievably lost detective novels written by some
respectable names in the genre. And lost came with its own story
ranging from genuine tragedy to the mundane. I unfortunately messed
up the first two, incomplete posts by muddling the unpublished with
truly lost.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So,
concentrating only on lost detective stories, you won't find <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthony Boucher">Anthony
Boucher</a>'s unpublished <a href="https://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/2011/06/case-of-catholic-critic.html"><i>The
Case of the Toad-in-the-Hole</i></a> or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christianna Brand">Christianna
Brand</a>'s never seen before <i>The Chinese Puzzle</i> on this list,
because both manuscript still exist. And, potentially, could be
published at some point in the future. This depressing list will only
go over the detective novels which can be labeled as permanently lost
or made it to print in an inaccessible, parallel universe. On the
other hand, knowing my track record, one of the crumbling, supposedly
vanished manuscripts mentioned will magically turn up before the list
gets posted and make my half-baked lament look a bit hammy. Let's
find out what's currently residing on mystery shelves of the Phantom
Library.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>1.
The Last Voyage of Jacques Futrelle and The Thinking Machine</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930632/Futrelle,%20Jacques">Jacques
Futrelle</a> was a journalist, theatrical manager and mystery writer
who created America's answer to Britain's Sherlock Holmes, Professor
Augustus S.F.X. van Dusen, better known to the world as "The
Thinking Machine" – appearing in some forty short stories from
1905 to 1912. Sadly, Futrelle boarded the RMS <i>Titanic</i> and died
when it tragically sank during the early hours of April 15, 1912, but
not before forcing his wife, May Futrelle, into a lifeboat. The last
glimpse she caught of her husband was him casually smoking a
cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV (Futrelle's "<a href="https://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-e-resurrection-of-master-of-mystery.html"><i>bravery
aboard the Titanic is the ultimate example of manliness and the act
of a true gentleman</i></a>"). All of "<a href="https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/article/92-articles/feature/37-blurb-jaques-futrelle-and-the-titanic?start=1"><i>the
stories that Jacques Futrelle wrote during his stay in Europe were
lost as well that terrible night, leaving his canon far short of what
it might have been</i></a>." This is the only lost on this list
that does not bother me at all, because I like the idea Van Dusen was
right there with Futrelle until the end.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>2. John Dickson Carr ("Carter Dickson") &
J.B. Priestley's Unpublished and Forgotten Mystery Novel/Serial </b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Rhode">John
Rhode</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Dickson%20Carr">Carter
Dickson</a>'s <i>Fatal Descent</i> (1939), alternatively published as
<i>Drop to His Death</i>, is one of those rare collaborations between
two well-known Golden Age mystery writers. Regrettably, the book is
not a crossover between their two series-detectives, Sir
Henri Merrivale and Dr. Priestley, but at least it was published.
Douglas G. Greene writes in <i>John Dickson Carr: The Man Who
Explained Miracles</i> (1995) Carr and playwright J.B. Priestley agreed to write a
serial, <i>The Dancing Men</i>, to be serialized in the British
magazine <i>Answers</i> and "<i>a book edition was announced under the
name</i> The Dancing Postman." Apparently, the story was completed
as "<i>the two men were paid three hundred pounds for it</i>,"
but <i>Answers</i> never published it and "<i>no book under that or
a similar title appeared during the 1930s or early 1940s</i>." So
unless it was published elsewhere under a different title and
pseudonyms, <i>The Dancing Postman</i> is likely lost forever.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>3.
The Self-Destruction of Marcel Lanteaume</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
2019, John Pugmire's <a href="https://www.lockedroominternational.com/">Locked
Room International</a> published a translation of Marcel Lanteaume's
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-thirteenth-bullet-1948-by-marcel.html"><i>La
13e balle</i></a> (<i>The Thirteenth Bullet</i>, 1948). One of three
unique novels, "<i>the fruit of the unbridled, wild, weird and
surprising imagination of a heretofore unknown author</i>,"
published shortly following the liberation of France. La Labyrinth
edition contained "<i>a mouth-watering list"</i> of forthcoming
novels, but poor sales numbers prevented their publication. A
disappointed and frustrated Lanteaume destroyed all his unpublished
manuscripts with such tantalizing titles as <i>Crime rue des
Fantasques</i> (<i>Crime in Weird Street</i>), <i>La Morte sous
scellés</i> (<i>The Dead Woman under Seal</i>), <i>Le Barbier
massacré</i> (<i>The Butchered Barber</i>), <i>La Vallée dans la
brume</i> (<i>The Valley in the Mist</i>) and <i>La Plaine sous le
soleil</i> (<i>The Plain under the Sun</i>). So "<i>what other
marvels of superb logic and subtle wit did they engender? We shall
never know</i>." Only bright spot is that non-French speaking
mystery fans still have translations of Lanteaume's <i>Orage sur la
Grande Semaine</i> (<i>Storm Over Festival Week</i>, 1944) and
<i>Trompe-l'œil</i> (<i>Optical Illusion</i>, 1946) to (hopefully)
look forward to.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>4.
The Four Lost Mystery Novels of a Short Story Specialist</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Joseph%20Commings">Joseph
Commings</a> was together with <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Edward%20D.%20Hoch">Edward
D. Hoch</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Arthur%20Porges">Arthur
Porges</a> a short story writer specialized in <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Locked%20Room%20Mysteries">locked
room mysteries</a> and impossible crimes, but, starting in the early
1960s, the short story market began to stagnate and dry up by the end
of the decade – forcing Commings to try his hands at writing
novel-length mysteries. <i>The Doctor Died First</i> was his first
attempt and abandoned the book after four chapters, but eventually
completed four, intriguingly-sounding detective novels starring his
short story series-detective, Senator Brooks U. Banner. The New
Orleans set <i>Dancers in the Dark</i> "<i>was taken by an agent to
send to France</i>" and "<i>was never seen again</i>." <i>One
for the Devil</i> reportedly was a stunning locked room mystery, "<i>along the lines of a Carr novel and containing two impossible
murders</i>," but was together with the two non-impossible crime
novels, <i>Operation Pink Poodle</i> and <i>The Crimson Stain</i>,
rejected by every publisher in New York. So none of them made it to
print and the manuscripts were likely reduced to <i>"yellowing
crumbling carbons</i>" that "<i>will never be seen this side of
heaven</i>." Fortunately, there are still more than enough
uncollected short stories to do <i>Banner Warnings: The Inexplicable
Cases of Senator Brooks U. Banner</i> (20??), the long-awaited sequel
to <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7929992/Banner%20Deadlines"><i>Banner
Deadlines: The Impossible Files of Senator Brooks U. Banner</i></a>
(2004).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>5.
The Missing Mr. Tarrant</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930882/King,%20C%20Daly">C.
Daly King</a> was an American psychologist and mystery writer who
penned six detective novels, most extremely obscure today, but earned
most of his praise with a series of short stories featuring a
garnered most of his fame with a series of short stories about Mr.
Trevis Tarrant. <i>Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine</i> announced in
its December, 1946, issue that King has completed the manuscript of
the first Travis Tarrant novel, <i>The Episode of the Demoiselle D'ys</i>
("<i>publishers, get busy! Snag that manuscript!</i>"). There
were no takers and the book was never published. Mike Grost cites
King's lost novel as "<a href="http://mikegrost.com/abbott.htm#King"><i>evidence
of the deliberate suppression of the traditional detective story
after 1945 by publishers</i></a>," which comes with the caveat that
the "deliberate suppression" part has been disputed. However, I
agree that a trend among publishers emerged at the time to lower the
standards of crime fiction and generally began to shy away from the
traditional detective story. That closed the door to nearly everyone
except the well-known, solidly established names of the genre. More
on that in a moment.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>6.
Hake Talbot Sees His Third Novel Vanish Into Thin Air</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Henning
Nelms was an American magician and under the name "Hake Talbot" penned two beloved fan favorites, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-hangmans-handyman-1942-by-hake.html"><i>The
Hangman's Handyman</i></a> (1942) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/06/rim-of-pit-1944-by-hake-talbot.html"><i>Rim
of the Pit</i></a> (1944), but it proved insufficient to get the
third Rogan Kincaid mystery novel published. <i>The Affair of the
Half-Witness</i> remained unsold and the whereabouts of the
manuscript is unknown, which after all this time means it got
destroyed or forgotten about and eventually thrown away. So why did
Talbot's third novel fail to find a publisher? Probably the same
story as with Commings, King and many others. The publishers began
to favor the type of crime fiction that was easier to pump out rather
than the traditionally-plotted, Golden Age detective fiction that
required some finely-honed skills or talent to do successfully. There
are, however, other reasons why some detective novels never got
published and faded out of existence.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>7.
When Losing Mystery Novels Becomes a Habit</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Russell%20Fearn">John
Russell Fearn</a> is my favorite pulp writer and second-string
mystery novelist. I use the term "second-stringer"
affectionately, but even a pet second-stringer has undeniable, often
impossible to defend drawbacks that usually have to do with quality
control – except my pet second-stringer cultivated a very peculiar
drawback. Fearn was as prolific in producing so-called "lost media"
as he was in strange, weirdly imaginative science-fiction and
detective stories. In 1946, Fearn wrote "<i>several wonderful
impossible crime novels</i>" that were axed due to hardcover
publishers in the UK struggling with a post-war paper shortage. Fearn
also sold three novels under the penname "Rosina Tarne" of which
one actually came close to making it into print. <i>You Murdered Me</i>
would have been a hybrid mystery in which the ghost of the victim
helps her grieving boyfriend and detective to find the murderer. The
book was advertised as forthcoming on the jacket of Gordon Meyrick's
<i>The Ghost Hunters</i> (1947). <i>The Eyes Have It</i> would have
been about a husband-and-wife detective team investigating a murder
at a swimming pool, but nothing is known about <i>Murder in Suburbia</i>.
A final title to be added to the list is <i>Unfinished Journey</i>,
another impossible crime story set on a train, but the manuscript got
rejected. Fearn also was a loyal patron of the cinema and an amateur
filmmaker who ambitiously made a full-length, home video adaptation
of the unpublished novel. A copy, of sorts, still exists, but,
reportedly, it's unwatchable.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>A
note for the curious:</b> all of this information was provided to me
by Philip Harbottle, literary agent extraordinaire, who tirelessly
worked for decades to preserve Fearn's legacy and work. More
importantly, Harbottle rescued several previously unpublished novels
from limbo. Such as the pulp-thriller <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/01/going-mental.html"><i>The
Man Who Was Not</i></a> (2005) and the truly excellent <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/12/turn-of-screws.html"><i>Pattern
of Murder</i></a> (2006), which somehow remained unpublished during
his lifetime. So not all was.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>8.
Lost in Liquidation</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/R.T. Campbell">R.T.
Campbell</a> was a poet who wrote eight lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek
detective novels in the spirit of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Leo Bruce">Leo
Bruce</a> and Edmund Crispin featuring a parody on John Dickson
Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale, Professor John Stubbs
– a loud, portly beer guzzling botanist. Five more titles in the
series were announced as forthcoming by his publisher, John
Westhouse, but, in 1948, they went into liquidation. <i>The Hungry
Worms Are Waiting</i>, <i>No Man Lives Forever</i>, <i>Death is Not
Particular</i>, <i>Death is Our Physician</i> and <i>Mr. Death's
Blue-Eyed Boy</i> never made it to print nor turned up somewhere
else. And are now considered to be lost.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>9. Two for the Price of One<br /></b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
is twofer! <a href="https://www.coachwhipbooks.com/">Coachwhip</a> is
one of the publishers that made the reprint renaissance possible by
bringing unjustly forgotten authors and long out-of-print mysteries
back into circulation. Willoughby Sharp (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/03/tricks-of-trade.html"><i>Murder
of the Honest Broker</i></a>, 1934) and Kirke Mechem (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-strawstack-murder-case-1936-by.html"><i>The
Strawstack Murder Case</i></a>, 1936) were two of those forgotten
authors who had their work finally return to print. Sharp had two
mystery novels published and Mechem only one, but not for a lack of
trying. In a 2013 blog-post, Curt Evans reveals Sharp "<a href="https://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-mystery-of-mystery-of-multiplying.html"><i>was
scheduled to produce a third detective novel in 1935</i></a>," <i>The
Mystery of the Multiplying Mules</i>. A short description was
actually given in promotional material, <i>"Inspector Bullock is
called in by the Logans not because something has been stolen, but
because something has been added to their household</i>," but the
book never materialized. In the same post, Curt notes Mechem also
wrote an additional detective novel (<i>Mind on Murder</i>), but the
manuscript was rejected by his publisher ("...<i>because it dealt
with miscegenation"</i>) and never got published.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><u style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>10.
The Lost Generation</b></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For
the last entry on this list, I want to return to King's unpublished
and lost mystery novel. I noted how Mike Grost sees the lost of <i>The
Episode of the Demoiselle D'ys</i> as evidence of the deliberate
suppression of the traditional detective story and how some find that
a bit too strong. I always assumed it was simply short-minded,
heavy-handed favoritism that pushed the traditional detective novel
out of the picture during the post-war era. Over the past few years,
I've come across the remnants of, what should have been, the new
generation of Golden Age-style mystery writers. A small group of
writers comprising Kip Chase (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2018/10/murder-most-ingenious-1962-by-kip-chase.html"><i>Murder
Most Ingenious</i></a>, 1962), Charles Forsyte (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/03/diving-death-1962-by-charles-forsyte.html"><i>Diving
Death</i></a>, 1962), Jack Vance (<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-fox-valley-murders-1966-by-john.html"><i>The
Fox Valley Murders</i></a>, 1966) and a special mention for Paul
Gallico's two Alexander Hero novels, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2011/04/crowded-with-ghosts.html"><i>Too
Many Ghosts</i></a> (1961) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-hand-of-mary-constable-1964-by-paul.html"><i>The
Hand of Mary Constable</i></a> (1964). All tried to continue the
Golden Age tradition in their own way, often with a modern slant, but
most of them didn't get more than two, or three, novels published –
before you can hear the plug being pulled on their little dalliance
with the whodunit. If you hold their work up against what was being
published at the time, you almost get the idea that they accidentally
slipped through the meshes of the net. Just like John Sladek's
beloved <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/10/black-aura-1974-by-john-sladek.html"><i>Black
Aura</i></a> (1974) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/10/invisible-green-1977-by-john-sladek.html"><i>Invisible
Green</i></a> (1977) more, or less, came about accidentally, because
Sladek won a short story contest with "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2017/03/john-sladek-short-slayings.html">By
an Unknown Hand</a>" (1972).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">You
would expect more writers to have appeared in the '60s and '70s, who
read Golden Age mysteries during the '30s and '40s, wanting to give
their take on their favorite type of detective story or character.
And the aforementioned author makes their absence look even more
conspicuous. So that begs the question... how many Chases, Foresytes
and Sladeks got consistently rejected, regardless of
quality, because they wrote Golden Age-style, fair play detective
fiction containing the p-word (plot)? Is that favoritism or
suppression? Either way, I suspect publishers moving away from the
traditional detective story and slamming the door in the face of new
writers resulted in the lost of an untold amount of detective
fiction. Ever since discovering post-1950s writers, like Chase and
Forsyte, I can't help but wonder what could have been had the
traditional detective story been allowed to change and adept to the
times. A legitimate claimant to Agatha Christie's crown might have
emerged or enough of an incentive would have existed for Sladek to
take on the mantle of John Dickson Carr.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span lang="en-US">This
was depressing enough for one post. I don't know when, or if, I'll do
another one of these top 10s. Currently, I've no idea for an original
theme or worthy topic to do another one, unless "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-hit-list-top-10-non-english.html">The
Hit List: Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be
Translated</a>" gets enough suggestions to do a follow-up. So next
up is likely going to be a review of either </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Case Closed aka Detective Conan"><span lang="en-US"><i>Case
Closed</i></span></a><span lang="en-US">
or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton Rawson">Clayton
Rawson</a>. Stay tuned! </span></span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-14562704004636075742024-01-27T12:00:00.047+01:002024-01-27T12:00:00.128+01:00The Headless Lady (1940) by Clayton Rawson<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton%20Rawson">Clayton
Rawson</a> was an American magician, magazine editor and mystery
writer who wrote four novels and a dozen short stories starring his
most well-known creation, The Great Merlini – a professional
magician and amateur detective who first appeared in <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/07/death-from-top-hat-1938-by-clayton.html"><i>Death
from a Top Hat</i></a> (1938). <i>The Headless Lady</i> (1940) is the
third title in this short-lived series and <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2022/06/09/the-footprints-on-the-ceiling-clayton-rawson/#comment-43690">apparently</a>
the book everyone saves for last.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnf6mDfQwtvc9ShBIDLt9aBtglIocNefbT7dCL8AlDbW7kvQ8rylDhx7ku2VBl8TXd8uhNaAbsmRk-N4_6yMc4wlWeYKB97Ogw_VHIb4AMzimBDKer3lhHTlXPSZlwmukmVURNYW9QSjv4xy1f9-wugQBc300-e0fqkrpPsCf2R_5AEj2hRCufJ2ZCJ1M/s466/The_Headless_Lady_CR_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="310" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnf6mDfQwtvc9ShBIDLt9aBtglIocNefbT7dCL8AlDbW7kvQ8rylDhx7ku2VBl8TXd8uhNaAbsmRk-N4_6yMc4wlWeYKB97Ogw_VHIb4AMzimBDKer3lhHTlXPSZlwmukmVURNYW9QSjv4xy1f9-wugQBc300-e0fqkrpPsCf2R_5AEj2hRCufJ2ZCJ1M/w266-h400/The_Headless_Lady_CR_I_.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Headless Lady</i> begins in "<i>that curious commercial
establishment in which the Great Merlini carries on his darkly
nefarious business of supplying miracles for sale</i>," The Magic
Shop, stocking "<i>only the best grade of witchcraft, every item
fully guaranteed or your money back</i>." So no surprise when a
woman enters the shop asking for the headless lady trick, complete
with "<i>visible, circulating blood feature and the respiratory
light attachment</i>," but Merlini only has a show model in stock.
However, the woman is adamant about wanting the illusion immediately
("<i>I have to have it at once</i>") and is willing to pay cash
money to get it. Merlini is positively intrigued by her haste in
acquiring the illusion and the false name, Mildred Christine, she
gave him ("...<i>tell me why the monogram on your purse is an H
rather than a C</i>"). No answers are forthcoming. The mysterious
woman manages to get her hands on the headless lady illusion outside
the ordinary ordering-and-delivery process, before disappearing.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nevertheless,
Merlini picked up enough clues and hints to make an educated guess
where to <br />find her. Merlini together with his chronicler and freelance
journalist, Ross Harte, travel to the Mighty Hannum Combined Shows
currently playing in Waterboro, New York. Only to find the circus
plagued by trouble, ill-omens and even death.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Major
Rutherford Hannum, "<i>an old-time circus man who dates from the
wagon-show days</i>," owns and runs the show, but died the previous
night outside of Kings Falls when his car hit a bridge abutment
("<i>pretty bad smash</i>"), which immediately arouses suspicion
as the Major was a notoriously slow driver – "<i>no one ever saw
him go faster than forty-five on a straight stretch</i>." More
evidence comes to light pointing towards a staged roadside accident
as the strange incidents, and accidents, start to pile on. Pauline
Hannum is the daughter of the late owner and wire-walker who makes a
nasty fall when the lights fail, but was it merely an accident or
attempted murder? And who, or what, left the bizarre, whorlless
fingerprints on a trailer window? Who took the evidence Merlini had
gathered and who is the mysterious, reclusive woman playing the
headless lady?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ross
Harte astutely observes, "<i>murder on a circus, as I'm beginning
to realize, is as easy as breathing and damned hard to prove</i>,"
because, "<i>instead of a nice tight little matter of half a dozen
suspects cooped up in an isolated mansion out at the end of nowhere</i>,"
they "<i>got a hundred or more all in the open and moving rapidly
across-country</i>" ("<i>clues, if any, scattered halfway across
the state</i>"). A problem that gets even worse when nearly
everyone has solid-gold alibis and potential shenanigans with
identities have to be taken into consideration. It takes a while, but
eventually <i>The Headless Lady</i> produces a dead, headless and
very likely murdered lady. Merlini immediately becomes the number one
suspect in the eyes of the local police.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2RR-m6Bs5AVVyaEVPtpuYaxnOAjfwihUFxTY5mTM1k_fkB_j6Joouc41wA602RPi6qfC_3ADZWAG7bFKaKlqb2HWpLMnZ1fA-6sdo6XjXVn1eOkCgB1BWYGClJVrduaHx4Hj5tba9QqrQHYKAUADCvlQ0U6xdZKOImL5_vKS5ZX0s_BUTwZEXPxqmZQ/s482/The_Headless_Lady_CR_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="320" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2RR-m6Bs5AVVyaEVPtpuYaxnOAjfwihUFxTY5mTM1k_fkB_j6Joouc41wA602RPi6qfC_3ADZWAG7bFKaKlqb2HWpLMnZ1fA-6sdo6XjXVn1eOkCgB1BWYGClJVrduaHx4Hj5tba9QqrQHYKAUADCvlQ0U6xdZKOImL5_vKS5ZX0s_BUTwZEXPxqmZQ/w265-h400/The_Headless_Lady_CR_II_.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Clayton
Rawson is remembered today as a writer of locked room mysteries, a
reputation largely due to his impossible crime extravaganza <i>Death
from a Top Hat</i> and a handful of short stories, but <i>The
Headless Lady</i> stands closer to <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christopher Bush">Christopher
Bush</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Brian Flynn">Brian
Flynn</a> than to <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Dickson Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Hake Talbot">Hake
Talbot</a>. First of all, <i>The Headless Lady</i> is not a locked
room mystery. It's sometimes mistakenly identified as one on account
of the jail house scene in the second half. Merlini and Ross Harte
are thrown in a brand new, up-to-date cell block with an electrical
control box operating "<i>an additional bolt on all the cells
simultaneously, double locking them</i>" ("<i>a ghost couldn't
get outta here unless I let him</i>"). What follows is a fun
vignette along the lines of Jacques Futrelle's "The Problem of Cell
13" (1905) in which they try to escape from their cells and cell
block. A fun little escape story-within-a-story, but not really a
locked room mystery.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Like
I said, <i>The Headless Lady</i> is much more reminiscent of Bush or
Flynn with its caravan of alibis, potentially dodgy identities and a
woman of mystery. While the story can feel fragmented without a main
hook or even really a central murder, Rawson wrote an engrossing,
tremendously enjoyable whodunit loaded with background information
and footnotes on circus life, carnival slang and some colorful
characters. My favorite footnote gives a translation to an anecdote
entirely told in slang beginning with the sentence, "<i>I was
tossing broads on the backstretch at Saratoga</i>." Add to this an
earnest attempt to hide the murderer in plain sight and trying to
plant clues in the direction of this person, the result is one of the
most striking circus mysteries from this period. And a low-key good,
solid Golden Age detective novel! I'm glad I saved this one for last.
I liked it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">More
importantly, the absence of a locked room murder or other type of
impossible crime in <i>The Headless Lady</i> proved to be
eye-opening. It made me realize Rawson's most important contribution
to the detective story are not his bag of locked room-tricks, but
simply the creation of the Great Merlini. One of the first and still
the best magician detective the genre has produced. I can see now why
writers like <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Tom Mead">Tom
Mead</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gigi Pandian">Gigi
Pandian</a> cite this series as a favorite and major source of
inspiration. So you can probably expect a review of <i>The Footprints
on the Ceiling</i> (1939) before too long.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-55672354795386140902024-01-23T12:00:00.051+01:002024-01-23T12:00:00.129+01:00Three Card Murder (2023) by J.L. Blackhurst<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/jenny-blackhurst/">Jenny
Blackhurst</a> is a British crime-and thriller novelist who debuted a
decade ago with <i>How I Lost You</i> (2014) and has since written
seven more psychological thrillers, which are of no interest to me,
but last year she started a new series – published as by "J.L.
Blackhurst." <i>Three Card Murder</i> (2023) was alluringly touted
as "<i>a real puzzle box of a story</i>" with "<i>three
deviously clever impossible crimes</i>." Blackhurst described the
book herself as "<i>Jonathan Creek meets Hustle</i>" (the BBC
TV-series, not the 2019 movie), but you have to be wary these days of
novels <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2022/01/15/reclaim-the-locked-room-mystery-notalockedroom/">falsely
presented</a> as locked room mysteries. Several <a href="https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2023/09/10/three-card-murder-2023-by-j-l-blackhurst/">reviews</a>
appeared <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/08/20/three-card-murder-2023-by-j-l-blackhurst/">assuring</a>
that <i>Three Card Murder</i> is the real deal with no less than
three genuine locked room murders. What sealed it is that this series
is called "<a href="https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/j-l-blackhurst/impossible-crimes/">The
Impossible Crimes Series</a>" with <i>Smoke and Murders</i> (2024)
scheduled for release in September.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEl2dJIqqbnf6CtbgYoY-fuyd337-fdquzRbnsNsTJxZt_jXyhlcO705eUtaw_PHuh-kgpcACe3YGcPiRwtIhYDV1-VyxqwnhlOSJuRf2dHUEtucJLU5tNbZL1qPEG9aKxakEpFcn4OX_W6XdwGc8BABs2jbADyXOTNLl1Eipf6FQLKCr46mRZlQeafXA/s494/Three_Card_Murder_JLB_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="320" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEl2dJIqqbnf6CtbgYoY-fuyd337-fdquzRbnsNsTJxZt_jXyhlcO705eUtaw_PHuh-kgpcACe3YGcPiRwtIhYDV1-VyxqwnhlOSJuRf2dHUEtucJLU5tNbZL1qPEG9aKxakEpFcn4OX_W6XdwGc8BABs2jbADyXOTNLl1Eipf6FQLKCr46mRZlQeafXA/w259-h400/Three_Card_Murder_JLB_I_.jpg" width="259" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">That
somewhat alleviated some of my initial doubt and hesitancy when it
comes to modern crime fiction. One of the alarm bells is what's
printed on the cover, "<i><b>One sister is a cop. The other is a
con artist. Both of them are suspects</b></i>," which sounds more
like a character-driven crime novel than an intricately-plotted,
triple locked room mystery. So was glad to find that the
character-arc of the protagonists were integral to the puzzle plot.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Acting
Detective Inspector Tess Fox, of Sussex Major Crimes Team, has a
secret. She's the daughter of "<i>Brighton and Hove's biggest
confidence men</i>," Frank Jacobs, who runs a crew (his "family")
with Sarah at his right hand. Fifteen years ago, Tess turned up at
their doorstep as the long-lost prodigal daughter and stays with them
for six months, but then she and her step-sister Sarah got into some
serious trouble, which made Tess decide to leave the Jacobs to join
the police as "<i>some kind of redemption quest</i>" – which is
a big no-no in the Jacobs family. So fifteen years come, and go, when
Tess gets to handle and lead her first murder investigation. A man
had his throat cut and thrown from the third-floor balcony of a
high-rise flat, but there a few oddities about this brutal murder.
Firstly, the front door is both locked and boarded-up on the inside.
Secondly, the CCTV showed nobody left the flat after the body landed
outside on the pavement. Apparently, "<i>a man who had been sliced
from one side of his neck to the other</i>" and "<i>thrown from a
third-floor balcony by the invisible man himself</i>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
more than enough complications to untangle and earn her stripes as an
acting detective inspector, but Tess recognizes the victim, knows he
had a connection with Sarah and that incident fifteen years ago.
There are even clues at the crime scene that hint at it, which should
not be possible as only two people knew what really happened. Tess
and Sarah.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Tess
tries to reconnect with Sarah, not as a suspect at first ("<i>I do
illusions, not murders</i>"), but to help explain the murderer's
miraculous exit from the scene of the crime. After all, "<i>when it
came to illusions and sleight of hand, Sarah had been an expert, even
fifteen years ago</i>." However, their uneasy reunion is beset with
trouble as nobody is supposed to know Tess is the daughter of the man
who heads a crew "<i>consisting of forgers, illusionists, actors,
street magicians and all manner of other grifters</i>" –
something could get her fired ("<i>every case I've ever worked on
would be called into question</i>"). Likewise, Sarah can't be seen
with her step-sister who works for the enemy. This makes for great
storytelling and their character-arc is nicely braided into an
engrossing plot and intriguing locked room-puzzle. I really liked the
character of Sarah. Not only because she's a self-declared "<i>student
of Dr Fell, a rival perhaps to Merivale </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(sic)</span><i>
and Dr Hawthorne</i>" who hit upon exactly the same two solutions
for the first locked room that immediately occurred to me, which then
got demolished as false-solution, but how she dons and shreds
disguises and personalities like she's Kaito KID. Blackhurst
obviously intended to have some fun with this series. So, as a fan of
Gosho Aoyama's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Case Closed aka Detective Conan"><i>Case
Closed</i></a> series, I found that to be a small treat.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While
the two sisters work out their issues, on top of a locked room
murder, the invisible killer is still roaming the city and strikes
two more times under seemingly impossible circumstances. One man is
stabbed by the invisible killer inside an elevator and the third one
is shot in a hotel room locked and chained from the inside. Every
murder and discovery hands Tess more evidence against Sarah, while
<span style="font-style: normal;">simultaneously driving Tess into a
corner. Like I said, it all makes for good, fun read with the three
impossible crimes giving weight to the plot. But is it any good
purely as a detective story and locked room mystery?</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZQ3ZGMroevpqksFCGxdNJJRsV4tx8CqsJwUiUxNkHY31edTjxqs-vcWep8_hyphenhyphenvPRkqYs-r6yhyphenhyphentYpCwsiXrqKUZnWjPG4c5e2x7uaz3evhazhwT8MXtvRBk0fQ6f5r9eaetPRhhJff9C9wdUjbbdGxdgPcT-2U3j41MezwQnzUiIOfqU-DmO_WU2wNs/s695/Three_Card_Murder_JLB_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="695" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZQ3ZGMroevpqksFCGxdNJJRsV4tx8CqsJwUiUxNkHY31edTjxqs-vcWep8_hyphenhyphenvPRkqYs-r6yhyphenhyphentYpCwsiXrqKUZnWjPG4c5e2x7uaz3evhazhwT8MXtvRBk0fQ6f5r9eaetPRhhJff9C9wdUjbbdGxdgPcT-2U3j41MezwQnzUiIOfqU-DmO_WU2wNs/w400-h231/Three_Card_Murder_JLB_II_.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">First
of all, I think I speak for all rabid locked room fans that we love
and adore David Renwick's </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Jonathan Creek"><i>Jonathan
Creek</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> series. If only
because episodes like </span><a href="https://mysteriesahoy.com/2020/09/26/jonathan-creek-danse-macabre-tv/"><i>Danse
Macabre</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1998) and </span><a href="https://mysteriesahoy.com/2020/11/14/jonathan-creek-black-canary-tv/"><i>Black
Canary</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1998) gives us a
glimpse of what good, faithfully done adaptations of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Carter Dickson">Carter
Dickson</a>, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Edward D. Hoch">Edward
D. Hoch</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Hake Talbot">Hake
Talbot</a> would look and feel like. There is, however, a gulf in
quality between the best and worst episodes large enough for an
entire fleet of aircraft carriers to sail through. Generally,
</span><i>Jonathan Creek</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is not
the best series to use as a model. Blackhurst definitely modelled
</span><i>Three Card Murder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> on
Renwick's plotting. The first locked room (</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>SPOILER/<a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a>:</b></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>erjbexf gur gevpxf sebz gur wbanguna perrx rcvfbqrf ubhfr
bs zbaxrlf naq zbgure erqpnc vagb fbzrguvat gung yrsg zr hapbaivaprq,
ohg gur nggrzcg vf nccerpvngrq</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
The stabbing in the elevator has a perfectly fine solution, but is
given the least amount of attention as the trick would eventually
have revealed itself (</span><i>va gur nhgbcfl naq gbkvpbybtl
ercbegf</i><span style="font-style: normal;">). The third and last
murder has something clever and perhaps even new to offer to the
locked room mystery. A good, simple enough trick, but a satisfying
one and particular how it's executed. Just one observation: </span><i>jnf
vg ernyyl arprffnel gb uvqr gur zveebe jvgu fhpu n tvzzvpx, orpnhfr
vg purncraf gur pber vqrn bs gur gevpx n ovg naq gur cerfrapr bs n
zveebe jbhyq abg vzzrqvngryl tvira njnl ubj vg pbhyq or hfrq gb yvar
hc gur xvyy fubg</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">So
while the trio of locked room-puzzles are somewhat uneven in quality,
best one saved for last, it's the jack-in-the-box approach to the
who-and why that ultimately left me in two minds about </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Three
Card Murder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> – coming after a
thoroughly enjoyable read. But the identity of the murderer is
impossible to anticipate. And what drove this person to murder
somehow seemed almost flimsy compared to the perceived motive. I
remember not everyone appreciated my lukewarm "hot take" on Tom
Mead's </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/09/death-and-conjuror-2022-by-tom-mead.html"><i>Death
and the Conjuror</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2022) and
feel a little pang of guilt for ending this review so tepidly, but
found the conclusion to this otherwise fun and excellent mystery to
be a bit of a letdown. Nevertheless, </span><i>Three Card Murder</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
is a spirited first stab at the locked room mystery that tried to do
something different with it and mostly succeeded. I never expect a
writer swim or drown on their first try, especially in a specialized
area such as the traditional detective story and locked room mystery.
So very much look forward to see where the series goes from here and
what it will bring to the locked room revival. One thing is for sure,
I really should have waited with "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">The
Locked Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century</a>"
until 2025.</span></span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-21884716912555327562024-01-20T12:00:00.044+01:002024-01-20T12:00:00.127+01:00Terrarium Nine: "Murder in the Urth Degree" (1989) by Edward Wellen<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Earlier
this month, I revisited the short-lived Dr. Wendell Urth series of
short stories, "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/earth-is-armchair-wendell-urth-quartet.html">Earth
is An Armchair: The Wendell Urth Quartet by Isaac Asimov</a>," which was brought back to my attention by two anonymous comments left
on <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html"><i>The
Caves of Steel</i></a> (1953/54) review – recommending the Edward
Wellen pastiche "Murder in the Urth Degree" ("...<i>which has
perturbed me ever since</i>"). "Murder in the Urth Degree" is a
pastiche specially written for <i>Foundation's Friends, Stories in
Honor of Isaac Asimov</i> (1989) with short stories set in Asimov's
universe. I'll admit right off the bat this is a good short story and
pastiche, but not for the reason you might think.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26BNlz2EGIoaOcI56Wh5WUukw9V4P8AAbHDOPH9MjdmRuu3_WTB-lQNOUITizYe9fKzdjM8WmnjgMiBcKp6nQ-f8ydnT50lbvOsRR6cCcD301pGstonz_mlQE0DD2Zf6kaxy-bBgi5myON2V1xsiR58vPPHe07Hc39qpTpSiqmpHMek2SdpJDPXjuqvo/s501/Murder_in_the_Urth_Degree_EW_IA_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26BNlz2EGIoaOcI56Wh5WUukw9V4P8AAbHDOPH9MjdmRuu3_WTB-lQNOUITizYe9fKzdjM8WmnjgMiBcKp6nQ-f8ydnT50lbvOsRR6cCcD301pGstonz_mlQE0DD2Zf6kaxy-bBgi5myON2V1xsiR58vPPHe07Hc39qpTpSiqmpHMek2SdpJDPXjuqvo/w266-h400/Murder_in_the_Urth_Degree_EW_IA_I_.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Terrarium
Nine is one of a dozen hydroponics in near-earth orbit comprising of
six concentric spheres with a pseudo black hole at the center to
provide Earth-gravity for the innermost sphere. In this future, there
are laws in place "<i>against releasing genetically altered plants
and animals into the terrestrial environment</i>." So experiments
have to be done off-place and the Terrariums in near-earth orbit were
created for exactly that purpose.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Keith
Flammersfeld, "<i>the lone experimenter aboard Terrarium Nine</i>,"
is hard worker and only occasionally takes a break to enjoy an
interactive video. When the story opens, Flammersfeld is enjoying an
interactive video of <i>Through the Looking Glass</i>, but, shortly
after plugging out, discovers "<i>someone had entered his system
and infected it with rabid doggerel</i>" ("<i>who will win the
Red Queen's race?</i>"). A computer virus? A very elusive stowaway
who suddenly made its presence known to Flammersfeld? The answer, or
part of the answer, is found in the disturbance, uprooted soil of a
cabbage patch in Buck Two. Flammersfeld "<i>knew perfectly well
what had grown at this particular spot, what should still be growing
here, what seemed now on the loose"</i> – stalking and targeting
him ("<i>how could he not have seen its intelligence waken, its
hate turn on him?"</i>). And he does not survive the encounter.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Now
you might think I've revealed too much or Wellen tipped his hand too
early, which is not the case. Wellen just managed expectations very
well by not being too mysterious about what exactly was running loose
in Buck Two of Terrarium Nine. It just needed a lot of horrifying
details filled in.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That
brings Inspector H. Seton Davenport, of the Terrestrial Bureau of
Investigation, to the extraterrologists' extraterrologist, Dr.
Wendell Urth. From the point of the view of the investigators, the
death of Flammersfeld presents something of an impossible crime ("<i>we
can't call it accident, we can't call it murder, and we're not ready
to call it suicide</i>”) on a isolated space station with an array
of bizarre clues and facts. Flammersfeld died from a poison-tipped
dart, "<i>a weird kind of curare crudely prepared</i>," of which
the remnants were found in a walnut shell along with a crude,
toy-like catapult and winch ("...<i>contraptions looked as if a
child might have put them together</i>"). And a decomposed cabbage!
So had the story not been a quasi-inverted mystery showing from the
beginning the murderer is non-human, the ending would have been
something of a letdown. Well, not to its purely science-fiction
audience, but the visiting detective fan certainly would have been
disappointed. Now "Murder in the Urth Degree" stands as the most
striking of the Wendell Urth short stories. An imitation outshining
the original!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">However, "Murder in the Urth Degree" is perhaps closer to a
science-fiction/horror hybrid seasoned with a pinch of existential
dread than an actual science-fiction mystery, but a great short story
regardless. I enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, Anon! </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-76512765706183219462024-01-16T15:00:00.064+01:002024-01-16T15:00:00.137+01:00The Footprints of Satan (1950) by Norman Berrow<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">Last
year, I reviewed the last two of Norman Berrow's locked room mystery
novels, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-bishops-sword-1948-by-norman-berrow.html"><i>The
Bishop's Sword</i></a> (1948) and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-spaniards-thumb-1949-by-norman.html"><i>The
Spaniard's Thumb</i></a> (1949), featuring Detective Inspector
Lancelot Carolus Smith of the Winchingham police – a small, rural
community plagued by strange, seemingly impossible crimes. <i>The
Bishop's Sword</i> ambitiously tried to string together numerous
miraculous incidents and <i>The Spaniard's Thumb</i> centered on the
legend of a giant, disembodied thumb angrily stamping around a sealed
cellar in a homicidal rage. Regrettably, the locked room-tricks were
prosaic at best and hackneyed at worst, which detracted from their
other qualities as wildly imaginative Golden Age detective stories.
If they had have been penned by a writer and storyteller of lesser
talent and capabilities, they would have been extremely
disappointing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DJ_EjHkCSL3HT2nO5vp_rvf_-GY1qwUvmgBRZ5uI-YdSUFcMflv_Z26Y9uZy-85mrCKkjvNOxgFxqvnZt85VhC9nVq5bOg21hd7a59l2JJtlBcs0n8HU63w3A6UpVmuaPwtGVT6FowR3M0nB0I8YUjhfDnTfL8zuxH8_qeT5-f_f2PoIOeI9X-9ZolI/s421/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="295" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DJ_EjHkCSL3HT2nO5vp_rvf_-GY1qwUvmgBRZ5uI-YdSUFcMflv_Z26Y9uZy-85mrCKkjvNOxgFxqvnZt85VhC9nVq5bOg21hd7a59l2JJtlBcs0n8HU63w3A6UpVmuaPwtGVT6FowR3M0nB0I8YUjhfDnTfL8zuxH8_qeT5-f_f2PoIOeI9X-9ZolI/w280-h400/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_I_.jpg" width="280" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">That
being said, Berrow's was not inept when it came to handling locked
room mysteries and produced two often overlooked classics of the
form.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-three-tiers-of-fantasy-1947-by.html"><i>The
Three Tiers of Fantasy</i></a> (1947) is a crime caper in which
respectively a man, a whole room and finally an entire street simply
vanish as if they were wiped out of existence. <i>The Footprints of
Satan</i> (1950) is his crowning achievement with one of the most
enterprising treatments of the impossible footprints-in-the-snow.
Both can stand comparisons with other locked room classics, but,
until recently, you rarely heard or came across them on the many
best-of and must-read lists – neither receiving a spot on the 1981
nor 2007 ranking (see John Pugmire's "<a href="https://mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html">A
Locked Room Library</a>"). Robert Adey's <i>Locked Room Murders</i>
(1991) is an exception as it singled out <i>The Footprints of Satan</i>
as "<i>one of the surprisingly few stories to make use of the
devil's-hoofprints case of early-nineteenth century Devon</i>" and "<i>probably Berrow's best effort</i>." In 2005, <a href="http://www.ramblehouse.com/">Ramble
House</a> began to bring Berrow's back into print and <i>The
Footprints of Satan</i> has since <a href="https://thegreencapsuleblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/the-footprints-of-satan-norman-berrow-1950/">garnered</a>
some <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2016/01/13/61-the-footprints-of-satan-1950-by-norman-berrow/">favorable</a>
<a href="https://mysteryofmurder.wordpress.com/2021/01/20/the-footprints-of-satan-1950-by-norman-berrow/">reviews</a>.
And, finally, appeared on <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-updated-mammoth-list-of-my-favorite.html">one</a>
or <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/2022/12/10/a-locked-room-library/">two</a>
best-of lists. So high time to revisit this old favorite.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">The
opening chapter suggests a conventional, typically British village
mystery as the young, recently widowed Gregory Cushing arriving in
Steeple Thelming, Winchingham, to stay with his uncle, Jake
Popplewell – who's considered by some a character and by other "<i>a
blot on the town's escutcheon</i>." An independently minded drunk
who sneers at moderation ("<i>the curse of the cultured classes</i>")
and women. Stating to his nephew that "<i>never the breath nor the
shrill complainin' voice of a woman shall poison the atmosphere</i>"
of "<i>Jake Poplewell's castle</i>." The castle being a small
cottage stands at the foot of a small hill on the outskirts of
Winchingham known as The Rise. On the other side of the road, up the
Rise, stand the homes of well-to-do, mostly retired gentlefolk of the
rural community. Old Jake shows his nephew around the neighborhood
and who lives where. From the poor, bedridden Jacques who lives
opposite of Jake, Farmer Silver and the Croxley's to the fancy homes
of Lionel Maltravers and old Mrs. Pendlebury. And the later lives
there together with her sister, Miss Emmy Forbes, who previously
appeared in <i>The Bishop's Sword</i>. She hasn't changed a bit ("<i>an
old maid with funny ideas</i>"). Lastly, there's a small county
house where Montague Mason, a London business of ill-repute,
occasionally stays.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">So,
like I said, <i>The Footprints of Satan</i> begins ordinarily enough
and could have been the beginning of a <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christopher Bush">Christopher
Bush</a> mystery (e.g. <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-case-of-curious-client-1947-by.html"><i>The
Case of the Curious Client</i></a>, 1947). One morning, after a night
of heavy snowfall, the inhabitants awaken to discover a trail of
hoof-marks that defies a natural explanation. All the evidence
suggests the Devil, "<i>or one of his imps</i>," came down to
Winchingham ("<i>specifically to The Base and Steeple Thelming</i>...")
and it walked by night!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbH2xdYfpkXn0maE09ADPYr9r8qP9VprKaSVddJCgCRS12PsnCg1q0asr_QmUK30eFchrCbw8ES9xsTFMPsARkDOSCt32ZS6WyUorL3G4JXaD91VldfyaaG0z5vqX8FLCrxdVxW5GoFvO25tsL71JoB5M5CgNKsTRG-yf03msnVVQvn1yYcaTbaFkjcA/s493/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbH2xdYfpkXn0maE09ADPYr9r8qP9VprKaSVddJCgCRS12PsnCg1q0asr_QmUK30eFchrCbw8ES9xsTFMPsARkDOSCt32ZS6WyUorL3G4JXaD91VldfyaaG0z5vqX8FLCrxdVxW5GoFvO25tsL71JoB5M5CgNKsTRG-yf03msnVVQvn1yYcaTbaFkjcA/w263-h400/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_II_.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">According
to the physical evidence, a hoofed entity that "<i>walked upright
on two legs in a fashion unlike any creature known to man</i>"
landed at the foot of The Rise ("<i>like a bird from flight</i>"),
casually walked up The Rise and entered various private gardens –
always "<i>turning away from the front doors of those people's
houses</i>." But it gets even weirder as the hoof-prints are found
in physically inaccessible places. They are found on top of flimsy
privet hedge, "<i>which would not have supported a newly-born
kitten</i>" and across the top of a six-foot wall. Detective
Inspector Lancelot Carolus Smith is called to investigate and follow
the trail to its end, which become increasingly more impossible as it
nears its end. Bafflingly, the creature apparently can walk through
solid matter as it passed through Maltraver's garden pavilion and
Pendlebury's boarded-up summerhouse, towards the Steeple Inn and
Montague Mason's house. There the situation really begins to look
otherworldly. Mason's house has a steep roof, "<i>far too steep for
almost anything other than a fly to retain a footing on it</i>,"
but nobody present fails to notice that on that steep, snowy roof was "<i>a ring of marks where something that had hooved had walked
round and round in a wide circle</i>." Another ring of hoof-marks
circle the house, as if it was trying to enter the house, and a pair
of prints are found on a window sill. The trail that began at the
bottom of The Rise came to an end in the middle of a bare, empty
paddock underneath a dead tree. Montague Mason was hanging from the
lowest branch of the dead tree and the only traces where his
bootprints going from the house into the paddock!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">What
an amazing and fantastic premise for an impossible crime story of the
no-footprints variety. Surprisingly, like Adey said, perhaps the only
detective novel to make use of the real-life, unexplained 1855
incident of the Devon hoof-marks. That case gets discussed complete
with excerpts from <i>The Times</i> and the <i>Illustrated London
News</i>, but also the 1840 report of similar hoof-marks on Kerguelen
Island and the foot-marks found around the famously haunted Borley
Rectory at Christmastime 1938. Miss Emmy Forbes who stimulates the
discussion of alternative explanations for the strange hoof-marks in
the snow. I enjoyed how Berrow's depicted the discovery of the
hoof-marks with the yawning, sleepy-eyed people leaving their warm
beds to study the line of prints, rampantly speculate and even taking
some pictures. That small touch of simple humanity made those strange
prints standout even more as something that intruded upon reality and
left its traces.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2jVCeEvmUCTDlZFcyltpNQ8Ja4q6iTMJkKABPOD9pLu2aenfeJAcAMb9LOV9WO-3cAXyGVnWpY7SQhYrqxKNDJWlyVjuItWdK37q5guHOOoLMPni1KNXkPUscSj78zrISYD97iHjKGxEL0W4BOxybOSaY0zfly5RTcr4xCcdhAn058Y5MHM6F7PmRaA/s554/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="393" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2jVCeEvmUCTDlZFcyltpNQ8Ja4q6iTMJkKABPOD9pLu2aenfeJAcAMb9LOV9WO-3cAXyGVnWpY7SQhYrqxKNDJWlyVjuItWdK37q5guHOOoLMPni1KNXkPUscSj78zrISYD97iHjKGxEL0W4BOxybOSaY0zfly5RTcr4xCcdhAn058Y5MHM6F7PmRaA/w284-h400/The_Footprints_of_Satan_NB_RH_III_.jpg" width="284" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">However,
Smith has more on his plate than just a dodgy suicide and a trail of
footprints that appear to have cleared an obstacle course from hell
without breaking a sweat.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">The
barren, empty paddock with the dead tree has a ghost story, the ghost
of a reputed witch called the Blue Woman, who had been hanged in
paddock centuries ago and now her ghost walks Steeple Thelming on
certain nights, but the only one whoever sees her is Jake – always
when he returns home drunk. Whoever, or whatever, left those
impossible hoof-marks returns. This time, the hoofed creature left
behind another dead body inside a circle of hoof-prints. Just like
the first time, "<i>the hoof-prints began from nowhere, ended in
nothing</i>." So not the usual questions of motive and opportunity,
checking the soundness of alibis or even trying to solve a normal
locked room-puzzle dominate the story, but trying to find a rational,
down-to-earth explanation for the hoof-marks. Smith simply has to
find an answer rather than admit "<i>the phenomena transcended the
bounds of physical interpretation</i>" that would hurl them "<i>back
a thousand years to days of misty medieval thought and fearful belief
in black magic and witchcraft</i>."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">Smith
has been called a drab, colorless character. I would call him homely
rather than colorless and, artistically, some might want to see a
character like Dr. Gideon Fell or Rogan Kincaid the case of the
devil's hoof-marks. There is, however, something to be said about
having a normal, level-headed and logical detective on a case as
extraordinary as this one. Smith explained it himself as follow: "<i>I've got a simple mind! I don't make mysteries—only the
complicated minds do that—I unravel them, or try to. My mind is too
simple to believe what my eyes seem to tell me, so I look for the
simple truth</i>." Smith simply does not believe a demonic presence
came down to Winchingham and methodically begins to examine every
inch of the trail. Uncovering small inconsistencies along the way.
And, inch by inch, print by print, Smith begins to slay his goblins
and uncovering pieces of the puzzle. Pieces that slowly start to fall
into their place with satisfying clicks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">The
solution to the titular footprints is worthy of its ambitious
premise. It would have been easy to simply say the murderer created
the prints by walking on long stilts that allowed to reach the high
places to make imprints by hands, but most of us would have tossed
the book angry across the room had that been solution. Berrow's put
some work into setting up and then explaining away this hellish
obstacle course in the snow. Some stretches of the journey are better
and more convincing than other parts, but, on a whole, admirably done
and particular liked the tricks for apparently passing through the
boarded-up summerhouse and the circle of prints on the steep roof. If
the plot comes up short anywhere, it's all the attention and focus
going into the impossible hoof-prints that allowed a small, really
tiny flaw to be overlooked (<a href="https://rot13.com/"><b>ROT13</b></a>:
<i>rira nsgre n phefbel rknzvangvba, gur qbpgbe fubhyq unir orra noyr
gb gryy gung Znfba qvqa'g qvr va n unatvat cbfvgvba naq jnf abg
unatrq hagvy frireny ubhef nsgre uvf qrngu onfrq ba gur yvibe zbegvf.
Nsgre qrngu oybbq frggyrf va gur ybjre cbegvba bs gur obql, juvpu,
jura unatrq, jbhyq unir orra uvf yrtf</i>).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">Other
than that, <i>The Footprints of Satan</i> is a one-of-a-kind
impossible crime novel that does something very special and out of
the ordinary with the ever tricky problem of the miraculous
footprints. I consider the impossible footprints to be the most
difficult of all impossible crime scenarios to pull-off convincingly
and satisfactory, which is why there are so few classics of it. So
always admire any mystery writer who can do one, or two, successfully
without relying on one of the basic tricks. Berrow's turned the
impossible footprints-in-the-snow into an Olympic winter sport.
Something that can only be compared in scope and originality to Hake
Talbot's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/06/rim-of-pit-1944-by-hake-talbot.html"><i>Rim
of the Pit</i></a> (1944), James Scott Byrnside's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-strange-case-of-barrington-hills.html"><i>The
Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire</i></a> (2020) and maybe Kaito KID's mid-air walk from <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gosho Aoyama">Gosho
Aoyama</a>'s <i>Case Closed</i>, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2012/11/magician-under-moonlight.html">vol.
44</a>. I hope <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Dickson Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a> got to read <i>The Footprints of Satan</i> as it's
the kind of pick-me-up he sorely needed in 1950. So highly
recommended to everyone hopelessly addicted to impossible crime
fiction and Golden Age detectives in general. </span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-29795583562891556052024-01-13T12:00:00.043+01:002024-01-13T12:00:00.127+01:00This is It, Michael Shayne (1950) by Brett Halliday<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>This
is It, Michael Shayne</i> (1950) is the eighteenth novel in the
Michael Shayne series by "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Brett%20Halliday">Brett
Halliday</a>," penname of Davis Dresser, which attracted my
attention for exactly the same reason as <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-corpse-that-never-was-1963-by-brett.html"><i>The
Corpse That Never Was</i></a> (1963) – promise of a tough nut (i.e.
an impossible crime) to crack. Shayne is a hardboiled private eye
who, every now and then, "<a href="http://authorscalendar.info/bhallida.htm"><i>solved
classical locked room mysteries</i></a>." <i>This is It, Michael
Shayne</i> is cited as an example and <i>The Corpse That Never Was</i>
is another often marked as one, but neither are locked room
mysteries. Only legitimate locked room mystery in the series appears
to be <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/06/murder-and-married-virgin-1944-by-brett.html"><i>Murder
and the Married Virgin</i></a> (1944).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi80FPXqbSPrZ3VEJoJfrrLXjjJp7VGnB-ZAFrlnt2JKZkBofyM69PXlVPyIggygXUqmhHTSu2wmj2LInNiRexQssehPb3cEOOwFkpLyr2jPsvRMmUOEK3gbniQf3dbg71OIcdgiNFygDkEFXwuiRHp8rLG_yDFntvusDF5gDpFgZf-e7hIts9m1IvRx0/s499/This_is_It_MS_BH_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi80FPXqbSPrZ3VEJoJfrrLXjjJp7VGnB-ZAFrlnt2JKZkBofyM69PXlVPyIggygXUqmhHTSu2wmj2LInNiRexQssehPb3cEOOwFkpLyr2jPsvRMmUOEK3gbniQf3dbg71OIcdgiNFygDkEFXwuiRHp8rLG_yDFntvusDF5gDpFgZf-e7hIts9m1IvRx0/w265-h400/This_is_It_MS_BH_I_.jpg" width="265" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">I
wanted to get that out of the way first as the only locked room
mystery discussed on this blog since Edmund Crispin's short story "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/not-ghost-to-be-found-name-on-window.html">The
Name on the Window</a>" (1951) is D.L. Marshall's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2024/01/77-north-2023-by-dl-marshall.html"><i>77
North</i></a> (2023). That's simply shocking for this blog and
something that will be remedied in the next post, but first let's
take a look at <i>This is It, Michael Shayne</i>.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>This
is It, Michael Shayne</i> begins with Shayne stepping from a deep-sea
fishing boat, "<i>luxuriously relaxed after a day of
good-fellowship combined with moderate amounts of aged liquor</i>"
and "<i>a fair day's catch</i>," but upon returning to his office
he finds an urgent message on his desk from his secretary, Lucy
Hamilton – three messages in fact and a thick envelope. The three
memos urge Shayne to immediately call Miss Sara Morton at the
Tidehaven hotel when he's back. Shayne then opens the envelopes and
finds three, small squares of paper with threatening messages, "<i><b>YOU
HAVE THREE DAYS TO GET OUT OF MIAMI ALIVE</b></i>," "<i><b>TWO
MORE DAYS</b></i>" and "<i><b>ONE DAY LEFT</b></i>," but even
more perplexing is the half of a five-hundred dollar bill ("<i>ripped
across the middle</i>"). A letter from Morton explaining she has "<i>given up hope that you will contact me before it is too late</i>"
and enclosed "<i>the notes which my secretary will explain to you,
and one-half of a retainer which I trust you will earn by bringing my
murderer to justice</i>." Miss Morton does not answer his calls,
but her secretary, Beatrice Lally, does and she's not alone. Timothy
Rourke, a reporter from the <i>Miami News</i>, is also at the hotel.
There he learns Morton has been in her hotel room awaiting his call,
but the door is still locked and light can be seen through the
transom without a sign of life. So they enter the room through an
unlocked, connecting bathroom door and find Morton with "<i>an ugly
gash in her throat</i>." So the problems begin as Sara Morton was
not only a celebrity, but practically a legend in her profession.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sara
Morton is a roving reporter for a national syndicate, "<i>feared by
the underworld and criminals in high places</i>," who "<i>broke
into the big time years ago by becoming the moll of one of Capone's
original mob to get an exclusive</i>." She came to Miami to get a
story and has been pestering a local criminal, Leo Gannet, who runs
the Green Barn and the Red House. And both places offer an
opportunity to do some illegal gambling. She immediately jumped on
Gannet and began dropping into those two places as soon as she
arrived, "<i>they have both closed their gambling-rooms since she
started visiting them</i>," which is always a dangerous game to
play with hardened criminals. Nor was it perhaps a clever idea to
turn down Gannet's $25,000 (more than $300,000 today!) to leave town
immediately. There's also a potential personal angle to the case.
Sara Morton intended to divorce her estranged husband, Ralph Morton,
whom she pays half a grand a month to stay out of her hair. And she
intends to marry a man, Edwin Paisly, several years her junior
("...<i>all the earmarks of being more interested in her money than
in her</i>"). Will Gentry, Miami's chief of police, really wants to
speak with Beatrice Lally, but Shayne whisked her away from the crime
scene and stubbornly keeps her away from Gentry as long as possible.
And not with reason. But it goes without saying this causes some
friction between the two.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
all makes for a quick, fun and perfectly serviceable tough-guy
private eye novel and Shayne always seems to act more as a detective
than a pulp-style gunslinger, dodging bullets and catching fists, but
the plot is pretty lousy – a transparent plot that needlessly tied
itself into a knot. First of all, the murderer is so obvious, I kept
dismissing it as a red herring. After all, why (<b>SPOILER/<a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a></b>)<i>
frghc gur zheqre nf n ybpxrq ebbz zlfgrel jura gur bayl crefba jub
pbhyq unir qbar vg, rvgure orvat va gur nqwnprag ebbz be univat n xrl
gb gung ebbz, unf qbar vg? Lbh qb gung gb ybnq fhfcvpvba ba na
vaabprag punenpgre naq cerfragvat n ceboyrz gung arrqf fbyivat:
svaqvat nabgure jnl vagb gur ybpxrq ebbz. Guvf vf whfg havafcverq naq
qvfnccbvagvat, ohg, rira jbefr, vg znxrf Funlar ybbx yvxr ur unq whfg
orra ehaavat nebhaq cbvagyrffyl gur ragver gvzr. Fbzrguvat rnfvyl
svkrq unq gur pevzr fprar abg orra fb gvtugyl ybpxrq be Unyyvqnl unq
whfg ena jvgu gur vzcbffvoyr pevzr, juvpu pbhyq unir orra rnfvyl
nppbzcyvfurq ol tvivat gur xrl gb gur nqwnprag ebbz na nyvov ol
unaqvat bire ng gur ubgry qrfx (gur gvzr-gevpx jbhyq unir gnxra pner
bs gur erfg)</i>. So a fun enough read that long-time fans of the
series will undoubtedly enjoy, but has nothing to recommend to most
readers of this blog who come for the classical whodunits,
unbreakable alibis, dying messages and miraculous murders.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">However,
I'm not going to give up on this series just yet. Only on trying to
find one, or two, hidden locked room mysteries within the series.
There are some and intriguing titles to be found the series with the
meta-sounding <i>She Work to Darkness</i> (1955), Shayne crosses path
with Brett Halliday at a mystery writer's convention, is likely going
to be next stop.</span></span></p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-72346400023157203522024-01-10T18:00:00.067+01:002024-01-10T18:00:00.129+01:00A Novel Crime: Q.E.D. vol. 33-34 by Motohiro Katou<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
the original plan to get to <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Q.E.D."><i>Q.E.D.</i></a>
vol. 36, or even as far 38, regrettably didn't pan out as planned,
holiday's certainly did its part in sidetracking it, but still, not a
bad result considering I covered vol. 21-32 in 2023 – on top of "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-hit-list-top-10-favorite-cases-from.html">The
Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Q.E.D. vol. 1-25</a>" and "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/qed-x-masnew-year-special-christmas-eve.html">Q.E.D.
X-MAS/NEW YEAR SPECIAL</a>." I'm getting back on track with the
intention of finishing this series this year or get as close as
possible to vol. 50, which is likely going to translate into some
extra <i>Q.E.D.</i> reviews down the line. That includes sampling the
first two <i>C.M.B.</i> volumes in anticipation of the crossovers
between <i>C.M.B.</i> vol. 19 and <i>Q.E.D.</i> vol. 41.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxy8xyD6LHaMRntxPNGvMWS-jzFopvWGgvRuKcuTHA2uPEW2cW2A9chMIkfJPvNmSFMrRJb8gu3YV8S16B0AExyHGfr3Y2GJkrP0yH1RG06yAbYt9Y1cppTMQkPEYrS0Dxfg8vBOgfFo4Jjgsz8n9aniOQ64keLlbfCHlqwV9ELHQhtQ_33JhAwEwNO0/s502/QED_vol_33_MK_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="336" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxy8xyD6LHaMRntxPNGvMWS-jzFopvWGgvRuKcuTHA2uPEW2cW2A9chMIkfJPvNmSFMrRJb8gu3YV8S16B0AExyHGfr3Y2GJkrP0yH1RG06yAbYt9Y1cppTMQkPEYrS0Dxfg8vBOgfFo4Jjgsz8n9aniOQ64keLlbfCHlqwV9ELHQhtQ_33JhAwEwNO0/w268-h400/QED_vol_33_MK_I_.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Q.E.D.</i>
vol. 33 opens with a fantastic story, "Paradox Room," which is
very different from what the title and my track record suggests. The
story is not a locked room mystery, but a puzzle of personalities.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Hisanaga
Rio is the legal representative of her elderly, ailing grandmother
who had to go to court to get the tenant evicted currently living in
her apartment. Mineyama Tatsuo had rented the apartment, but stopped
paying rent eight months ago and, somehow, appeared to have
disappeared. Presumably leaving the apartment abandoned, but she
needed and secured an eviction letter from the courts. Rio confides
in her two friends, Kana Mizuhara and Sou Touma, who accompany her to
the apartment to oversee the eviction. When they try to go inside,
they're immediately repelled by a foul stench ("<i>smells like a
corpse in here</i>"). Behind a sliding door and a garbage heap,
they find the decomposed remains of Mineyama Tatsuo. This is where
things begin to get weird.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Firstly,
the police suspects from the lack of external injuries that he either
died from an illness or possibly suicide, but then his ex-wife,
Mineyama Etsumi, turns up at the crime scene – screaming blue
murder that her ex-husband was murdered. Not only murdered, but taken
out by assassins ("...<i>hired by a mysterious organization which
rules all of Japan</i>"). According to her, Tatsuo had a strong
developed sense of justice and "<i>often wrote books books and blog
articles that exposed the bad side of the government</i>."
Secondly, the investigation turns up two more people who were close
to Tatsuo, but they both describe two entirely different people.
Somehow, the apartment reveals clear cut evidence supporting all
three differing testimonies! So what's going on? Sou Touma recognizes
the problem as a paradox, "<i>something that can trap
mathematicians in a labyrinth</i>," because the three "<i>are all
simultaneously supporting as well as contradicting each other's
testimonies</i>." Touma assures this particular paradox can be
destroyed, "<i>the key to that is already hidden in one of their
testimonies</i>," but also reminds Kana and the reader "<i>paradoxes
exit not just in cold logic</i>" ("<i>but also in people's
hearts</i>"). Touma breaks the contradictory testimonies apart in
order to destroy the paradox and reveal the tragic backstory of the
real Mineyama Tatsuo, which made for one of those human,
character-based puzzles that sets this series apart. I kind of liked
the open, unanswered question posed to Touma and the reader in the
final panel.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
second story from vol. 33, "The Detective Novelist Murder Case,"
was praised in an anonymous comment left on the <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/11/scientists-and-sorcerers-qed-vol-31-32.html">review</a>
of vol. 31-32, "<i>it is not a grand trick by any means, but it is
original and still one of my favorite tricks by Katou</i>." I
agree. But more on that trick in a moment.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Enoki
Sadayuki, Higashinaka Kazuo, Maitake Toshihiro and Shimeji Mamoru are
a group of friends who all have one thing in common: they're all
published mystery writers. Some more successful than others. A week
before the story begins, the four were drinking at a Shinjuku bar and
discussing the state of the genre when Higashinaka tells them he
come up with a method to commit the perfect murder. A murder
disguised as a domestic accident in the bathroom, but someone detects
a flaw in the trick. How is the murderer is going to get out and
leave the place locked from the inside, because "<i>the police will
suspect the presence of another person if the victim is found in the
bathtub at night with the door unlocked</i>." So exactly what you
expect to hear from four drinking, mystery writing buddies, but then
Higashinaka "<i>died in the exact same way as described in that
trick</i>" – only the murderer added something to the trick. All
the doors and windows to the house were found to be securely locked
from the inside!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One
by one, the mystery writers turn to the police, represented by
Inspector Mizuhara, to air their fear and suspicions how one of them
might be a killer. Why employ a very specific trick narrowing down
the potential suspects to just them? And how did the murderer manage
to turn that trick into a full-fledged locked room mystery? Sou Touma
and Kana Mizuhara insert themselves into the investigation with the
latter doing the legwork, while the former acts as an armchair
detective reasoning from the shadows. Touma reasons "<i>the culprit
is someone who has a reason to use this trick</i>" and ends with a
challenge to the reader, before all the suspects are gathered at the
victim's house. Note that none of the suspects has met teenage
detective until then ("<i>what does this brat want to talk about?</i>")
and enjoyed that little touch to the storytelling. Touma not only
reveals the who, why and how, but also explains why the other two
couldn't have done it. A detective story with a purity of the highest
order.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimUYKARpbwDyXIdtTgbWRnFovCAW4tlAy1wpE93o4SH6guDdqM3pIZpjgMNYqmp_BbQypaY4LV4XDo0BXsqGMZ0OeBPO1AxtdLAMduCTjZeMCdhSIIZm56JSwcCHJyaypTtXnz_USfhvpV7Q0LCC1JtEh_s1tPMPWHTSwFRZZ7xiJI6XWJjfb9D2Y3Hg/s598/QED_vol_34_MK_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="399" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimUYKARpbwDyXIdtTgbWRnFovCAW4tlAy1wpE93o4SH6guDdqM3pIZpjgMNYqmp_BbQypaY4LV4XDo0BXsqGMZ0OeBPO1AxtdLAMduCTjZeMCdhSIIZm56JSwcCHJyaypTtXnz_USfhvpV7Q0LCC1JtEh_s1tPMPWHTSwFRZZ7xiJI6XWJjfb9D2Y3Hg/w267-h400/QED_vol_34_MK_II_.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What
about the locked room-trick, you ask? I agree with anon that the
trick is a grand one, but locked room mysteries and impossible crimes
don't always have to be grandiose spectacles like John Dickson Carr's
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-three-coffins-1935-by-john-dickson.html"><i>The
Three Coffins</i></a> (1935) or John Sladek's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/10/black-aura-1974-by-john-sladek.html"><i>Black
Aura</i></a> (1974). A locked room murder can have a simple, elegant
solution without being inferior or less effective than those
grandiose spectacles. For example, Anthony Boucher's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2011/02/theres-key.html"><i>The
Case of the Solid Key</i></a> (1941) and Douglas Clark's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/10/death-after-evensong-1969-by-douglas.html"><i>Death
After Evensong</i></a> (1969). "The Detective Novelist Murder Case"
is a beautiful demonstration of combining elegance and simplicity to
create a very satisfying impossible crime. Just avoid the really
time-worn tricks (secret passages) or the dull routine ones (culprit
simply replacing the key after the crime is discovered). A fantastic
detective story all around!</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After
two first-class detective stories, the first story from <i>Q.E.D.</i>
vol. 34 is a bit of a step down. "Disaster Man's Wedding" brings
together some familiar recurring characters for the wedding of the
CEO of Alansoft, Alan Blade, whose last appearance was in <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/02/drawn-from-memory-qed-vol-21-22-by.html">vol.
22</a>. Alan Blade is about to be married to his company secretary,
Ellie Francis. Part of the wedding gift is a joined charity, Alan &
Ellie Foundation, "<i>to help those less fortunate than us that
live in third world countries</i>." Just one problem. A notorious
international bank, "<i>infamous for the many failures that led to
people becoming victims worldwide</i>," has shown interest in their
charitable organization. So the bank is want to attach themselves to
the newly minted, high profile charity, in order to rehabilitate
their tarnished reputation, but their behavior strongly implies to
Alan "<i>they're definitely trying to cover something up</i>" –
which might have something to do with a refugee camp in Africa. But
what? Sou Touma, Kana Mizuhara and several other recurring characters
begin to trot across the globe in search for answers. I suppose the
story deserves some credit for planting an unusual puzzle at its
heart and trying to do something with a rarely touched subject, but
it all fell a little flat in the end. Not in the least because the
bank is apparently run by a collection of cartoon-like villains who
can't help but say the quiet parts out loud. So, on a whole, a fairly
minor story in the series that could, perhaps, have been better than
it ended up being.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Fortunately,
the second and last story making up vol. 34, "Bonaridou," is a
return to form. Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara travel to the Tono City,
Iwate Prefecture, to support Kana's friend from middle school,
Shirakawa Ryo.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ryo
is competing in the local diving tournament to secure a place in the
national competition, but, before they even arrived, trouble has
started. Ryo was raised by her grandmother, Shirakawa Hari, because
her father ran away with another woman and left her mother with a
large debt. Just before the arrival of our two protagonists, the body
of Ryo's father is found inside a car on the side of a road. Fukatsu
Shinji has a bullet wound in his stomach and a gun is lying in the
passenger seat, but "<i>how did the culprit get out of the car?</i>"
Yes, this is a locked car mystery, of sorts. A second, cleverly
camouflaged murder occurs halfway through the story at a swimming
pool and a masked stranger with a scythe appeared to make threatening
gestures at them. Touma points out that “<i>these are not murders,
but choices</i>” and begins to reconstruct what really happened
noting the importance of the locked car doors, a gun with only one
shot fired and the similarity between both deaths. I also liked how
the floor plan is used, if only in a very small way. The methods of
both murders might not go down with every reader, but I thought they
fitted the character of the murderer like a glove. More importantly,
the motive is a refreshing take on a well-worn trope of Japanese
mystery fiction (<b><a href="https://rot13.com/">ROT13</a>:</b>
<i>vafgrnq bs niratvat gur qrnq, gurl jrer xvyyrq gb cebgrpg gur
yvivat</i>). So not as good as the two stories from the previous
volume, but a pretty solid story on a whole.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">All
in all, two truly excellent stories, a good one and one that's
average at best, which is not a bad at all and convinced me that
compiling "The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro
Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 26-50" is going to be bloodbath. I already have
seven or eight candidates from just vol. 26-34!</span></span></p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-38267227208599131842024-01-09T15:00:00.093+01:002024-01-09T15:00:00.128+01:00Earth is An Armchair: The Wendell Urth Quartet by Isaac Asimov<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">During
the early 1950s, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac%20Asimov">Isaac
Asimov</a> observed "<i>one would think that science fiction would
blend easily with the mystery</i>," but, oddly enough, "<i>it was
the mystery form that seemed most difficult to amalgamate with
science fiction</i>" – <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Hybrid%20Mysteries">hybrid
mysteries</a> were little more than novelties at the time. There were
some early, well-intended attempts to blend the detective story with
science-fiction, which were clunky at best (Manly Wade Wellman's
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html"><i>Devil's
Planet</i></a>, 1942) and poorly conceived at worst (David V. Reed's
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/07/asteroid-blues.html"><i>Murder
in Space</i></a>, 1944). <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthony%20Boucher">Anthony
Boucher</a> arguably produced the only good hybrid mystery of the
period, the time travel short story "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/11/golden-age-locked-room-mysteries-2022.html">Elsewhen</a>"
(1946).</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8byugHCL3nd6Kl9crp1opmR-42e1TryyooAegBLR8Dhu7xYHTfXDzeCnBL7lNJpRze8EecPKXwjoLXQOcE-Gxgs1yIN2ZstjNi8gXiYNapY6d69lzmzKUGc_rq6r55GMWxbbUuDL381EGOkmPHB1UsL9fG1Vqe41Bw0CO0RjdnEt_m7IGyLjNKTuA50s/s586/Asimovs_Mysteries_WU_IA_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="352" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8byugHCL3nd6Kl9crp1opmR-42e1TryyooAegBLR8Dhu7xYHTfXDzeCnBL7lNJpRze8EecPKXwjoLXQOcE-Gxgs1yIN2ZstjNi8gXiYNapY6d69lzmzKUGc_rq6r55GMWxbbUuDL381EGOkmPHB1UsL9fG1Vqe41Bw0CO0RjdnEt_m7IGyLjNKTuA50s/w240-h400/Asimovs_Mysteries_WU_IA_I_.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Asimov
saw a practically untapped reservoir of potential, "<i>science
itself is so nearly a mystery and the research scientist so nearly a
Sherlock Holmes</i>," prompting him to write his own
science-fiction mystery, <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html"><i>The
Caves of Steel</i></a> (1953/54). I reread it last year and remained
of the opinion that it's one of the most important detective novels
of the previous century. A truly futuristic, fair play detective
novel demolishing the future argument that advancements in science
and technology made the traditionally-plotted detective story
obsolete. <i>The Caves of Steel</i> played the Grandest Game in the
World inside a dystopian hellhole with humanoid-looking robots, mind
probes and high-tech, breakaway civilizations. Asimov wrote a sequel,
<i>The Naked Sun</i> (1956/57),<i> </i>"<i>just to show that the first
book wasn't an accident</i>" in addition to "<i>several short
stories intended to prove that science fiction mysteries could be
written in all lengths</i>."</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A
personal favorite of these short stories is the standalone "<a href="https://www.asimovreviews.net/Stories/Story196.html">Obituary</a>"
(1959), another criminal time travel story horribly gone wrong, but
Asimov also created a short-lived series-character, Dr. Wendell Urth,
who, "<i>if the judgment of experts counted for anything, was
Earth's most outstanding extraterrologist</i>" – "<i>on any
subject outside Earth men came to him</i>." However, Dr. Urth is an
earthbound space sleuth who visited any of the planets nor strayed
further than a few miles from his rooms. So basically a space
detective who reasons from the largest and most comfortable armchair
in our Solar System, Earth.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
read the four stories in the collection <a href="https://cjcjcountdownjohnschristiejournal.wordpress.com/2021/06/12/asimovs-mysteries-1968-by-isaac-asimov/"><i>Asimov's
Mysteries</i></a> (1968) and thought the character was a great and
original take on the armchair detective, but found the plots to be
lacking. An anonymous comment brought up this short-lived series and
noted "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html?showComment=1698617295450#c512652178074241395"><i>Edward
Wellen also wrote a Wendell Urth mystery in </i></a><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html?showComment=1698617295450#c512652178074241395"><span style="font-style: normal;">Foundation's
Friends</span></a><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-caves-of-steel-195354-by-isaac.html?showComment=1698617295450#c512652178074241395"><i>
which has perturbed me ever since</i></a>." That just sounded like
a good excuse to revisit this series. After all, I wanted to probe
deeper into the hybrid mystery following the publication of <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/01/death-of-living-dead-1989-by-yamaguchi.html">Yamaguchi
Masaya</a> and <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/09/death-among-undead-2017-by-masahiro.html">Masahiro
Imamura</a>'s two zombie mysteries, but there's simply not much out
there to probe. So why not take another look at this series to see
how they stand up.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Singing Bell," originally published in the January, 1955, issue of
<i>The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>, which is an
inverted mystery involving the "<i>first murder on the Moon</i>."
Louis Peyton is asked by Albert Cornwell, "<i>small-time retailer
of stolen things</i>," to help him get a cache of moon rocks,
so-called "Singing Bells," from a crater on the Lunar surface
("...<i>enough there to enable you and me to retire in affluence</i>").
Singing Bells make heavenly sounds when struck correctly, which makes
them expensive collector's items ("<i>a supply of Bells would be
worth murder</i>"). After securing the cache, Peyton shoots
Cornwell with a blaster and hastily beats a return to Earth to
destroy evidence where rigged up a clever, counter intuitive
non-alibi – reasoning that nothing is "<i>so conducive to an
appearance of innocence as the triumphant lack of an alibi</i>."
Peyton has a long-standing habit to seclude himself every August
inside his remote house in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, protected
with a force field fence ("<i>no one saw him, no one could reach
him</i>"). Inspector Davenport, of the Terrestrial Bureau of
Investigation, knows Peyton was on the Moon and shot Cornwell, but
difficult to prove without an apparently rock solid alibi ("<i>if
he had an alibi, I could crack it somehow, because it would be a
false one</i>"). And he first needs to prove Peyton was on the
Moon, before he can subject him to a psychoprobe. So turns Dr.
Wendell Urth to help him nail the man on the Moon for murder.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gPtqZ6O8I6AXVxIeCole00mOy1TgMrmOBSMCv51APRbYemaOR9HQQLXynmBr7UaW8rfWuGFSRK8WCbNgQVqaISVHfDjF6hCKFpufksDNi2t9V227gaVP5i_mIaTuiI0i1KMkCJZRLvI5ohS_3yJlfMMIEE3nzQRgpdpyG7TFSr8ikrEUGgE0bQ81pXE/s479/The_Talking_Stone_IS_AM_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="342" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gPtqZ6O8I6AXVxIeCole00mOy1TgMrmOBSMCv51APRbYemaOR9HQQLXynmBr7UaW8rfWuGFSRK8WCbNgQVqaISVHfDjF6hCKFpufksDNi2t9V227gaVP5i_mIaTuiI0i1KMkCJZRLvI5ohS_3yJlfMMIEE3nzQRgpdpyG7TFSr8ikrEUGgE0bQ81pXE/w285-h400/The_Talking_Stone_IS_AM_II_.jpg" width="285" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">A
fairly good and amusing short story with an intriguing enough premise
and a clever take on the unbreakable alibi, but it all begged for
something better, slightly more ambitious than a simple "ha,
gotcha" solution.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Talking Stone" originally appeared in the October, 1955, issue of
<i>The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</i> and is rightfully
the best-known of the Wendell Urth stories. The titular stone is a
silicon based life form, a silicony, which are ovoid-shaped creature
with smooth, oily skin with two sets of appendages – six "legs"
below and rabbit-like "ears" on its back. Siliconeus asteroidea
exist on asteroids who "<i>get their energy by the direct
absorption of gamma rays</i>" and Dr. Wendell Urth argued "<i><span style="font-weight: normal;">there
isn't enough gamma radiation on any asteroid to support siliconies
more than an inch or two long</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">."
When a spaceship, </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Robert
Q</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">, docks at Station Five
in the asteroid belt for emergency repairs, the attendant notices the
captain has a bigger than usual silicony aboard. And figures the
creature must have come from an uranium rich asteroid ("...</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">one
great big fat chunk of uranium ore like nobody on Earth saw</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">...").
So sees an opportunity for promotion, but everything goes horrible
wrong when the </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Robert Q</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
collides with an asteroid. The human crew of uranium died in the
crash and the silicony is dying.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">Only
the dying silicony knows where the human crew hid, or wrote down, the
coordinates to the uranium asteroid, which are nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, the silicony have "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">rudimentary
telepathic powers</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"
that allows it to read minds and talk to humans. Although not much
help as the last words of the silicony, "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
the asteroid</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">," proved
to be very little help. Why write the coordinates on the asteroid
("</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">that's like locking a
key inside the cabinet it's meant to open</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">).
So they turn to Earth's most celebrated extraterrologist, Dr. Wendell
Urth, to decipher the silicony's dying message.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">This
is an excellent blend of science-fiction and mystery as having a
detective decipher a dying message from an alien creature is a great
idea. Due to the short length and some clueing, the problem is
actually a solvable one. All you need is to add a bit of creative
thinking and the solution should not be too difficult to spot, which
is incidentally its only weak spot. Not because it's solvable, but
because cracking an alien dying message should be a lot harder to do.
And perhaps "The Talking Stone" should have been a novel-length
science-fiction mystery. Nevertheless, it's a rock solid hybrid
mystery.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEsdNhcUS4GopkTNAfgETPx60aR6at69QsdLZD16n2NOH549I2DmokyeKwcwtbevC4y96OKnrDqAtJHJrmxOL47BJx4fceHMvv4y5eUlT1LyBX5Cax1eg9b0kt7EL4q5qSeFdafEEA4IIRVL4OoXo02f2q3v1B9WZ3UQDjTznSze6Lo0GQ1Y5NBuek6xU/s490/The_Dying_Night_IA_AM_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="335" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEsdNhcUS4GopkTNAfgETPx60aR6at69QsdLZD16n2NOH549I2DmokyeKwcwtbevC4y96OKnrDqAtJHJrmxOL47BJx4fceHMvv4y5eUlT1LyBX5Cax1eg9b0kt7EL4q5qSeFdafEEA4IIRVL4OoXo02f2q3v1B9WZ3UQDjTznSze6Lo0GQ1Y5NBuek6xU/w274-h400/The_Dying_Night_IA_AM_III_.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">The
last two stories are both longer and poorer, much poorer, detective
stories beginning with "The Dying Night," published in the July,
1956, issue of </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
which centers on a class reunion of four scientists – three of whom
recently returned to Earth. Edward Talliaferro worked on the Lunar
Observatory, Stanley Kaunas on the Mercury Observatory and Battersley
Ryger and the distant Ceres Observatory. Romano Villiers, "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
most brilliant of the four</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">,"
became sick and was unable to leave Earth. Something that ate away at
him and eventually unbalanced his mind, but, during the reunion,
Villiers announces he's "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">discovered
a practical method of mass transference through space</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">."
But then he dies in his hotel room. And papers goes missing. Most
curious of all is the particular, illogical hiding place of a certain
object. Dr. Wendell Urth is asked to shine his light on this little
mystery among scientists.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">Asimov
wrote in his afterword that "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">this
story, first published in 1956, has been overtaken by events</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"
and (jokingly) wishes "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">astronomers
would get things right to begin with</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">,"
because he refused to "</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
change the story to suit their whims</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">."
That's all fine and funny, if "The Dying Night" had just been
dated science-fiction short story, but it also tries to be a fair
play detective story requiring knowledge of astronomy in order to
solve the problem. So, purely as a detective story, it has aged very
poorly and became less fair overtime. Still better than the last
story in the series.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"The
Key" first appeared in the October, 1966, issue of <i>The Magazine
of Fantasy and Science Fiction</i> and takes the series back to the
Moon. Karl Jennings and James Strauss are conducting the first ever,
privately funded selenographic expedition to land on the Lunar
surface and they make a momentous discovery. A ragged, nearly
amorphous piece of metal and the spectrograph identifies it as
artificial, "<i>titanium-steel, essentially, with a hint of cobalt
and molybdenum</i>," but no records exist of a spaceship ever
landing or crashing on that part of the Moon – suggesting it "<i>to
be of ancient and non-human manufacture</i>" ("<i>an artifact of
some ship wrecked eons ago</i>"). Something they're able to confirm
when they find something Jennings calls the Device. A strange piece
of technology that allows for mind reading and it reveals to Jennings
that Strauss is an Ultra. A group of radicals who want to reduce the
six billion people of Earth down to roughly five million.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
the aftermath of this revelation is Jennings' body being found on a
skim boat with a stab wound and Strauss was alive but in delirium.
What happened to the Device? A dying Jennings hid it somewhere on the
Moon and left behind a coded message addressed to his old teacher,
Dr. Wendell Urth, who naturally manages to decode it. A very
disappointing story as it completely ignored the fascinating mystery
of what and who crash landed on the Moon ages ago. Why bring in a
mind reading device when Dr. Urth could have been presented with the
ultimate case for an <span style="font-weight: normal;">extraterrologist!
Something that could very well have forced him to break his habit of
never leaving his neighborhood, which would have been fitting for his
final outing and a puzzle of such a enormous magnitude. This is just
dumb, stupid and unworthy of Asimov.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: normal;">Well,
it seems a second reading only confirmed my first, dimly remembered
impression that the first two were definitely better than the last
two and the best part being the character of Dr. Wendell Urth.
There's something very pleasing about an earthbound extraterrologist
and armchair detective who uses the planet as his armchair to ponder
the mysteries of the universe, but Dr. Wendell Urth deserved to have
better, much more cases to his credit. Perhaps even his own
science-fiction mystery novel as there's more in the character and
series than Asimov got out of it. So I'll definitely going to track
down Edward Wellen's pastiche "Murder in the Urth Degree" (1989)
to see what he managed to do with the character. </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-17572655880719571822024-01-05T12:00:00.001+01:002024-01-05T12:00:00.123+01:0077 North (2023) by D.L. Marshall<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Last
year, I did my best Herodotus impression and wrote up "<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-locked-room-mystery-impossible.html">The
Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century:
A Brief Historic Overview of the First Twenty (Some) Years</a>"
tracking the changes of everyone's favorite subgenre over the past
two decades – evolving into something of a revival. A revival whose
seeds were planted by the reprint renaissance and translation wave,
which started showing fruit towards the end of the last decade. So
far, the harvest has been plentiful and growing.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioB2qEB9wsANcfIEra-sDUUwHcClzxZdigkfE-0OOvGlS40_UPZnp-_NZUb7f5fKyAanrJa3A7jKa-IkwPpbuCBFFbs5GBtWynwbRCyjyn2UR832P_ebzYziVJDYl0eZ7oR7bbQzxmTyurLfyoNVynxc0PJSJRFiQchrYIYK9IcbLDjYCzVXQv7bz0JKg/s507/77_North_JT_DLM_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="330" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioB2qEB9wsANcfIEra-sDUUwHcClzxZdigkfE-0OOvGlS40_UPZnp-_NZUb7f5fKyAanrJa3A7jKa-IkwPpbuCBFFbs5GBtWynwbRCyjyn2UR832P_ebzYziVJDYl0eZ7oR7bbQzxmTyurLfyoNVynxc0PJSJRFiQchrYIYK9IcbLDjYCzVXQv7bz0JKg/w260-h400/77_North_JT_DLM_I_.jpg" width="260" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just
in the past year, locked room and impossible crime fans were treated
to James Scott Byrnside's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/11/monkey-see-monkey-murder-2023-by-james.html"><i>Monkey
See, Monkey Murder</i></a> (2023), A. Carver's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-christmas-miracle-crimes-2023-by.html"><i>The
Christmas Miracle Crimes</i></a> (2023), Anne van Doorn's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-delft-blue-mystery-2023-by-anne-van.html"><i>Het
Delfts blauw mysterie</i></a> (<i>The Delft Blue Mystery</i>, 2023)
and Tom Mead's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-murder-wheel-2023-by-tom-mead.html"><i>The
Murder Wheel</i></a> (2023). J.L. Blackhurst's <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/08/20/three-card-murder-2023-by-j-l-blackhurst/"><i>Three
Card Murder</i></a> (2023) and Gigi Pandian's <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/08/03/under-lock-and-skeleton-key-2022-by-gigi-pandian/"><i>Under
Lock & Skeleton Key</i></a> (2022) and <i>The Raven Thief</i>
(2023) are currently residing on the big pile. One of the more
intriguing takes today on the traditional detective story and locked
room mysteries comes from D.L. Marshall's John Tyler series.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Marshall
smashed together the action-packed, 1980s movie thrillers and weaves
deceivingly intricate plots throughout the gunfights, standoffs,
hand-to-hand combat and betrayals. No matter where on the planet
Tyles finds himself, the morally ambiguous mercenary is always
confronted with killers who execute their victims under apparently
inexplicable circumstances. <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2022/07/anthrax-island-2021-by-dl-marshall.html"><i>Anthrax
Island</i></a> (2021) brings Tyler to the post-apocalyptic Gruinard
Island contaminated with deadly anthrax spores where the first murder
is committed in the locked and watched radio room. <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/05/black-run-2021-by-dl-marshall.html"><i>Black
Run</i></a> (2021) takes place on an old, rusty Soviet era transport
ship filled with modern-day pirates, smugglers and assassins as
Tyler's cargo (a prisoner) is knifed to death inside the sealed tank
of the ship. Steve, of <a href="https://classicmystery.blog/">In
Search of the Classic Mystery Novel</a>, called the series "<a href="https://classicmystery.blog/2023/08/29/77-north-2023-by-d-l-marshall/"><i>the
lovechild of Alistair Maclean and John Dickson Carr</i></a>." While
the impossible crime took a backseat in the second novel, it was
still a cracking good read. And looked forward to the third title.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>77
North</i> (2023) concludes, what's hopefully, the initial trilogy and
wraps up all the ongoing storylines and plot-threads in an
unrelenting, action-packed survival thriller – a very clever plot
lurking underneath it all. The ending suggests <i>77 North</i> is not
going to be Tyler's last appearance ("<i>one last job</i>"), but
a lot happens between the opening and closing pages. Like a lot.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRm1udyGSHGor9nCFAbKhZfDeeNzhp4gDKqCwWXa_NWdtXogaJ1hyphenhyphenIGoajNltD706YDgvrNR9dw8gfUKkq739HVmjg6AmHdAREf3N1GqiNcFoXj_v4CoRbIV9j1kqrFydWWRSmc-Kvlg9OFhQyP9hlJcv-PJux8XwS0FN9f7rYzJ2Sf25_wwtKOitXIro/s508/77_North_AI_DLM_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRm1udyGSHGor9nCFAbKhZfDeeNzhp4gDKqCwWXa_NWdtXogaJ1hyphenhyphenIGoajNltD706YDgvrNR9dw8gfUKkq739HVmjg6AmHdAREf3N1GqiNcFoXj_v4CoRbIV9j1kqrFydWWRSmc-Kvlg9OFhQyP9hlJcv-PJux8XwS0FN9f7rYzJ2Sf25_wwtKOitXIro/w261-h400/77_North_AI_DLM_II_.jpg" width="261" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">John
Tyler is "<i>dead in the eyes of the world</i>" and so has the
freedom to move around to extract revenge on the people responsible
for killing his older brother, Justin. Tyler takes his bloody
vengeance on a world tour as he goes from Rio and the coast of
Croatia to Amsterdam to pick off a group of ex-special forces turned
private military ("<i>real close-knit team</i>"), which was bound
to get him noticed. Tyler is trapped by the man who helped him to die
and stay dead. And he needs him to a job. There's a Russian arms
dealer, Viktor Golubev, who has setup shop in one of the roughest,
most inhospitable parts of Siberia. Somewhere deep into the Arctic
Circle, Severnaya Zemlya, stands a Cold War era "hotel" where the
KGB experimented with ESP, astral projection and telekinesis. So
remote enough to conduct some shady, downright illegal business deals
and sales, but Golubev attracted the attention of certain people when
he got his hands on a small amount of bioweapons. Normally, those
people are not interested in obsolete Soviet weapons, but they are
interested in Golubev's bioweapons expert, Professor Balakin, who
wants to get out. Professor Balakin is wiling to trade the name of "<i>a
Russian double-agent well-placed within NATO</i>" in exchange for a
white picket fence in the United States. Only they hit a snag. One of
the two agents sent out there was killed under mysterious
circumstances. Somehow, the professor knew John Tyler is alive,
because he secretly requested Tyler to get him out of there.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
barely touches on all the intricate details, characters and
plot-threads of the story's opening pages as Tyler takes the place of
the dead undercover agent to get the intel and protect the second
agent, Dr. Carr – a legit bioweapons expert. They went to the
Arctic hotel undercover of checking out the goods on behalf of
General Kayembe, dictator of the central African country Nambutu, who
also happens to be a friend of Tyler. So no problem to go down there
as the general's man on the ground, but getting to the hotel is an
ordeal and sets the tone for the rest of the story. Tyler has to
battle both the unforgiving climate ("<i>the Arctic Circle wants
you dead, and will try at any opportunity</i>") and creeping,
disappearing shape fleeting across the ice shooting at him and
leaving behind a burned body. That's just before arriving at the
isolated hotel of a Russian arms dealer with a private army who's
hosting a who's who of terrorists, cartel members, killers and "<i>probably just a few shady fuckers who wanted big guns</i>."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2-ih6QFmKOJk1w1RDZKPLrFYXrsi7MFUv8Dnef2dnI6pUAgf06TqtVvN5tFYR8o5cEPCaugkhhz8Wu-F_UxEE1m9fUy4u-Gj_M0INQjEt5O1pTYiSJAXF4sd4FDRtbzH1aTqX-cWOAkgFBOIrUIzafl750Nhc59c9eNMn1R0pXYpytBtNrt4CUol2e9E/s508/77_North_BR_DLM_III_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="330" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2-ih6QFmKOJk1w1RDZKPLrFYXrsi7MFUv8Dnef2dnI6pUAgf06TqtVvN5tFYR8o5cEPCaugkhhz8Wu-F_UxEE1m9fUy4u-Gj_M0INQjEt5O1pTYiSJAXF4sd4FDRtbzH1aTqX-cWOAkgFBOIrUIzafl750Nhc59c9eNMn1R0pXYpytBtNrt4CUol2e9E/w260-h400/77_North_BR_DLM_III_.jpg" width="260" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">First
of all, the settings is one of the strongest and most attractive part
of this mystery-thriller series. John Tyler can be placed in settings
and circumstances in a setting that would be off-limits for a "normal" amateur detective or police inspector. For example, I
can't imagine Carver's Alex Corby and Cornelia Crow setting foot on
Gruinard Island or Byrnside's Rowan Manory getting a fee big enough
to board the <i>Tiburon</i>. <i>77 North</i> does not disappoint in
that regard. The place is like a decaying time capsule of the 1970s
with portraits of Brezhnev hanging askew on half-collapsed walls with
peeling, mustard-yellow wallpaper where Golubev conducts his
business. Strewn with relics of the period ("<i>Urbexers or eBay
profiteers would have a field day with the kitsch</i>"). But the
place also has a "<i>destroyed wing</i>." Decades ago,
experiments where carried out there involving psychic and paranormal
phenomena to create super soldiers, but one experiment reputedly lead
to a deadly fire destroying half the building. This ruined section is
sealed off from the rest of the building by a huge steel door ("<i>the
kind you'd see on a ship or submarine</i>"). Underneath the old
hotel is a nuclear bunker from the Cold War "<i>designed to
withstand a two megaton nuclear strike nearby</i>." And with a
history like that, the place acquired a ghostly resident. They call
the ghost the White Demon or Pozharnyy, "Fire Man," who stalks
its dilapidated corridors as a harbinger of doom, death and burned
corpses. Great stuff!</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
nuclear bunker underneath the hotel naturally becomes the scene for a
locked room murder. Tyler is alone with two other people in the
sealed bunker when one of them is burned to death, inside a locked
section of the bunker, but the relatively small, hermetically bunker
had been searched top to bottom – offering no hiding place or
escape route for the murderer. And no source of ignition. No our
mercenary has a problem with the ruthless arms dealer.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I'm
not going to attempt to give you an idea about what happens next as
this is only a mere fraction of what goes down during the first half
of the story, which is interspersed with flashbacks to Tyler's first
time on the job back in 1999 when he joined his brother in Nambutu.
And everything is connected to everything.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>77
North</i> is first and foremost an first-rate thriller, as intricate
as it's exciting, rarely letting up its relentless pace. So while a
mystery-thriller, of sorts, it's not a tale of detection or
deduction, because the punishing pace and pile-on of incidents,
twists and turns simply won't allow for it. However, you're strongly
advised to pay attention as the keen eyed armchair detective can pick
up enough clues and hints to get a long way towards the correct
solution. On top of that, Marshall wonderfully used the melee of the
action thriller for some good, old-fashioned trickery and
misdirection in a way that would difficult to pull-off in a garden
variety murder case. More importantly, this series perfectly
demonstrates why having a sound plot and some historical genre
awareness is a rock-solid foundation for the characters and story to
stand on (*). After all, if this series had been about Tyler simply
shooting his way to the final chapter, I would never have bothered
with it nor would the series have stood out from the raft of other
action-oriented thrillers. Now they are something more than just
action-thrillers or locked room mysteries. I suspect genre scholars
and locked room fans of the future will look back with great interest
to these first three John Tyler novels.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Hopefully,
Tyler has enough fuel left in the tank to take on future assignments
as I feel the series has not yet ran its course. So much more can be
done with those specialized, usually off-limits settings. Something
like a black site prison in some jungle outpost where prisoners are
killed in locked and guarded cells or a prequel novel with Justin
Tyler set during the Yugoslav Wars to give his younger brother a
breather. Until then, the Tyler Trilogy comes highly recommended as a
truly new and radically different take on the traditional locked room
mystery.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">*:
see my review and comments on Pierre Siniac's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/10/death-on-bastille-day-1981-by-pierre.html"><i>Un
assassin, ça va, ça vient</i></a>
(<i>Death
on Bastille Day</i>,
1981). </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-63236299931069640082024-01-02T12:00:00.037+01:002024-01-02T12:00:00.136+01:00Archery and Alibis: "Greenshaw's Folly" (1956) by Agatha Christie<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Agatha Christie">Agatha
Christie</a>'s short story collection <a href="https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-adventure-of-christmas-pudding.html"><i>The
Adventure of the Christmas Pudding</i></a> (1960) reposed on last
month's festive to-be-read pile, but didn't get around to it and
moved to the 2024 pile – together with the British Library Crime
Classics Christmas-themed anthologies. There is, however, one short
story from <i>The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding</i> I wanted to
get to before the end of this year. A short story I've not read
before!</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCUmjgQmM9H0ju2fS2DPAhcKxopXzYsH7ggZoZ4lhfusChS98PTFzoM4GA7JBD9KGt6NHAl4W6BM8pGCZt1LkFm7nDXZkg52QyjYRjCC9hSn-FK0ivGYuHQXZSGH60mAy4Wz-Ca0gB19OFPKd4mKNa4yfj1X1ubNEkNtztkDpW7IevWFAAnsK6ubjN5g/s499/Greenshaws_Folly_AG_MM_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCUmjgQmM9H0ju2fS2DPAhcKxopXzYsH7ggZoZ4lhfusChS98PTFzoM4GA7JBD9KGt6NHAl4W6BM8pGCZt1LkFm7nDXZkg52QyjYRjCC9hSn-FK0ivGYuHQXZSGH60mAy4Wz-Ca0gB19OFPKd4mKNa4yfj1X1ubNEkNtztkDpW7IevWFAAnsK6ubjN5g/w280-h400/Greenshaws_Folly_AG_MM_I_.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Greenshaw's
Folly" originally appeared in the November 3, 1956, publication of
<i>Star Weekly</i>, reprinted in the March, 1957, issue of <i>Ellery
Queen's Mystery Magazine</i> and collected in <i>The Adventures of
the Christmas Pudding</i>. This short story has a bit of complicated
backstory. In 1954, Christie wrote a Hercule Poirot novella, "Greenshore Folly," to help raise funds for her local church, but
she decided to rework the novella into <a href="https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/dead-mans-folly-1956-by-agatha-christie-in-which-we-learn-poirot-is-not-a-fan-of-women-in-shorts/"><i>Dead
Man's Folly</i></a> (1956). "Greenshaw's Folly," featuring Miss
Marple, was written as a replacement for the Hercule Poirot novella.
That originally novella was eventually published in a 2014 hardcover
edition (<i>Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly</i>, 1954). But
the Miss Marple short story has an entirely different plot.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
story begins with the author Raymond West ("<i>his books dealt
bleakly with the sordid side of life</i>") taking the well-known
literary critic, Horace Bindler, to see a place known as Greenshaw's
Folly. Bindler's hobby is collecting photographs of architectural
monstrosities and Greenshaw's Folly certainly fits the bill. A
sprawling, rambling miss-mash of styles erected in the 1800s costing
the original Greenshaw a small fortune and "<i>either went bankrupt
or the next thing to it"</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
("</span><i>hence the name, Greenshaw's Folly</i>"), but a
Greenshaw still lives there. The old, very eccentric Miss Katherine
Greenshaw. While looking around and snapping pictures, Miss Greenshaw
asks West and Bindler to witness her new will. A new will favoring
her housekeeper, Mrs. Cresswell. She also tells them in passing she
wishes to see her grandfather's old diaries published and West
recommends someone to work on the diaries, Louisa Oxley.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
every day, Louisa reports to Raymond West and his aunt, Miss Jane
Marple, what's happening at Greenshaw's Folly (<i>"tomorrow another
instalment of this thrilling serial</i>"). Miss Marple is very
puzzled about one of Miss Greenshaw's remarks, "<i>if you want to
know the time, ask a policeman</i>," drawing a comparison to a
certain Mr. Naysmith – who kept bees and liked to fool people
("...<i>sometimes it led to trouble</i>"). But everyone at the
table "<i>decided that dear Aunt Jane was perhaps getting a little
bit disconnected in her old age</i>," until the murder happened.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Louisa
Oxley is working in the library, on the first floor, she hears a
scream from the garden and sees Miss Greenshaw staggering towards the
house with the shaft of an arrow sticking out of her breast. She
can't go down to help, because someone had locked her in. Mrs.
Cresswell is locked inside an adjacent room. So they have to wait for
the police to arrive to begin their hunt for the murderer, but the
three suspects, nephew, gardener and housekeeper, who have a motive
also possess perfectly acceptable alibis. So it's up to Miss Marple
to play ("...<i>murder, dear Raymond, isn't a game</i>") armchair
detective and explain who killed Miss Greenshaw. But is it any good?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Greenshaw's
Folly" has been called "<a href="https://mikegrost.com/chris1.htm#Double"><i>a
genuine tale of pure mystery</i></a>" and I agree for the most
part, but it was written after Christie had produced her last great
detective novel (<i>After the Funeral</i>, 1954) and right before the
steady decline in quality. In this short story, you can see some of
Christie's strengths has already began to wane as she recycled and
patched together a ton of old ideas and tricks. However, the Agatha
Christie of the 1930s and '40s was waning, <i>en route</i> to the
Swinging Sixties, but not entirely gone as she certainly didn't phone
it in. Christie's treatment of those old ideas and tricks felt fresh
and even somewhat original in how they were presented and put to
excellent use. It perhaps needed to be slightly longer to be fully
effective, but, in every other regard, a good, solidly-plotted
detective story from Christie's last strong period.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>A
note for the curious:</b> "Greenshaw's Folly" is listed in Robert
Adey's <i>Locked Room Murders</i> (1991), but it's not an impossible
crime story. It's a classic alibi-breaker closer to <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Christopher Bush">Christopher
Bush</a> than <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/John Dickson Carr">John
Dickson Carr</a>.</span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-86288629823945674812023-12-30T20:00:00.033+01:002023-12-30T20:00:00.266+01:00Q.E.D. X-MAS/NEW YEAR SPECIAL: "Christmas Eve Eve" (vol. 24) and "The Drama Murder Case" (One-Shot Special) <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Back
in March, I <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/03/its-numbers-game-qed-vol-23-24-by.html">reviewed</a>
Motohiro Katou's <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Q.E.D."><i>Q.E.D.</i></a>
vol. 24 and springtime was either too late or too early to fully
enjoy the seasonally-themed first story of the volume, "Christmas
Eve Eve" – promising to revisit it in December. I intended to do
this <i>Q.E.D.</i> XMAS Special earlier in the month, but plans
rarely follow the plan on this blog. There's still a day, or so, left
to tidy up some odds and ends before closing the book on 2024.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUitg5tko9kW9A3KwDhEBxPX-5YiEc-m2pLmWA6gjVlcoiq9ObjO0JoGYnS99EUTI7E76i-ZUTY26osu46h6Cs8roqowfREhD3m5g_yfZXs12rbFeUIk_yH8OuoJpm45ebRKHmgmFVbmWcW8MdiHjULImQ0Bz8wk1CbQU9r8FNOq9EN16ubczrkOvbbJk/s535/QED_XMAS_Special_MK_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="357" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUitg5tko9kW9A3KwDhEBxPX-5YiEc-m2pLmWA6gjVlcoiq9ObjO0JoGYnS99EUTI7E76i-ZUTY26osu46h6Cs8roqowfREhD3m5g_yfZXs12rbFeUIk_yH8OuoJpm45ebRKHmgmFVbmWcW8MdiHjULImQ0Bz8wk1CbQU9r8FNOq9EN16ubczrkOvbbJk/w268-h400/QED_XMAS_Special_MK_I_.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">I
definitely enjoyed "Christmas Eve Eve" a lot more the second time
around. Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara take a part-time job at a karaoke
bar to earn extra money to buy Christmas presents, but they end up
playing Santa's Little Helpers in gumshoes helping to clear up some
little, everyday problems and minor crimes plaguing the people
working at the karaoke bar.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Hagio
Youko is the owner of the karaoke bar and a friend of Kana Mizuhara,
who are both professional wrestling fans, but she currently breaking
up with her boyfriend and manager, Tokunaga Tsutomu. Youko's friends
had seen Tsutomu on a date with another woman and they overheard
discussing marriage. Tsutomu flatly denies the accusation, but who's
right? Iguchi Yuzou is another, older part-timer who had been
released from his old job after the company downsized and took a
part-time job at the karaoke bar to buy his son a video game for
Christmas. And then his wallet disappears. Presumably stolen. So has
that anything to do with other strange incidents? At the time, there
are only eight groups of customers, but nine rooms are occupied and
the ones in charge of registrations at the counter are Youko and
another part-time college student, Fujimura Misataka – who both
deny responsibility for having made a possible mistake. There are
muddy shoe prints on the office floor apparently belonging to
someone who came in from the outside. So are there trespassers and
thieves sneaking through karaoke bar lifting wallets and leaving
muddy prints?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
while all relatively minor problems and small incidents, tensions and
tempers begin to flare as they begin to pile on. Just when everybody
begins to lose their minds and yelling at each other, Sou Touma
returns from handing out flyers as Santa Claus (see pic below). And
immediately is pushed to play armchair detective to clear up the
whole mess. One by one, Touma explains all the incidents ensuring
everyone can go home happy to celebrate Christmas with their loved
one.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgxYoJ6HnWwPAClPPHc3Z98AsP83n7HkQU8E04yB_NtBHf20gdWYQpQfMijjQatQUeb4TWApW96XtXaSePzqrlhylA4MFGVqhGguo6fAryvCfT02HN9t27yDEQZAHmI8rGTQH7tnBvqgu73T0PJq-SrJ6FBJ4HbThBDgnaCG3dpm3wklIUj48SjgdkBQ/s403/QED_XMAS_Special_MK_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="403" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgxYoJ6HnWwPAClPPHc3Z98AsP83n7HkQU8E04yB_NtBHf20gdWYQpQfMijjQatQUeb4TWApW96XtXaSePzqrlhylA4MFGVqhGguo6fAryvCfT02HN9t27yDEQZAHmI8rGTQH7tnBvqgu73T0PJq-SrJ6FBJ4HbThBDgnaCG3dpm3wklIUj48SjgdkBQ/w400-h259/QED_XMAS_Special_MK_II_.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Christmas
Eve Eve" is one of those very light, character-driven slice-of-life
mysteries perfectly suitable for a Christmas-themed story. Not the
best or most memorable story in the series, but nice enough for what
it is.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
second story I decided to discuss in this <i>Q.E.D.</i> special
twofer is "The Drama Murder Case," a special one-shot story to
commemorate the TV drama, which I had been warned about was going to
be a really weird story. Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara film "<i>a
thorough report on the behind the scenes happenings for a TV drama</i>"
on behalf of the Sakisaka High School Broadcasting Club. During the
backstage tour, they find the body of the chief producer, Arakawa
Noriichirou, under utterly bizarre circumstances. Arakawa Noriichirou
is wearing a bald wig, helmet and a traditionally <i>hakama</i>
holding a comb and an old-fashioned, matchlock rifle hanging around
his neck. And he had been strangled to death with the strap on the
rifle. Even stranger is that all the suspects share exactly the same
motive as the victim loved to make atrocious, overly elaborate puns.
The kind of bad puns that land with all the impact of a crossbow bolt
smacking into your eardrums.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Believe
it or not, the solution is even more ridiculous and far-fetched, but
suppose that was the intention. Just an amusing, quick little
one-shot not meant to be taken seriously nor to be considered
official canon. And, to be fair, some of the fun and humor was
definitely lost in translation. I'm sure "The Drama Murder Case'
is funnier in Ja-pun-ese. ;)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So
that rounds out 2023. I wish you all a very happy, healthy 2024 and
hope to see you all back in January! </span></span>
</p>
TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-9028108176488588532023-12-27T15:00:00.053+01:002023-12-27T15:00:00.146+01:00At the Sign of the Clove and Hoof (1937) by Zoë Johnson<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Zoë
Johnson was a British author of only two detective novels, <i>At the
Sign of the Clove and Hoof</i> (1937) and <i>Mourning After</i>
(1939), but then she stopped writing and disappeared into obscurity
as her "<i>books fell out of print and were forgotten</i>" –
until a few years ago. John Norris, of <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/">Pretty
Sinister Books</a>, reviewed the book in 2021, "<a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2021/04/ffb-at-sign-of-clove-hoof-zoe-johnson.html"><i>made
me grin in admiration</i></a>," ending with a wish to see it
reprinted. <a href="https://moonstonepress.co.uk/">Moonstone Press</a>
got the hint and reissued Johnson's long-forgotten mystery novel just
two years later.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAjqgeoD99P2F4jL51h7k0J_CdcxxDI5_N54t-Vcot-OdwRWA9J3T-qtSCofzEpxrx98L-9IMIv7eBxgVgxJMuJwrKkxfqXB8DrxuBJWyMRKIqJV6AqH8E7aeljrCgM9ZkCkrlZSzfV4GhubtgBPlKUKMH55JVW_6twDa2FT0MBha8DIcmBVChmce0B8/s480/At_the_Sign_of_the_Clove_and_Hoof_ZJ_MSP_I_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="322" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAjqgeoD99P2F4jL51h7k0J_CdcxxDI5_N54t-Vcot-OdwRWA9J3T-qtSCofzEpxrx98L-9IMIv7eBxgVgxJMuJwrKkxfqXB8DrxuBJWyMRKIqJV6AqH8E7aeljrCgM9ZkCkrlZSzfV4GhubtgBPlKUKMH55JVW_6twDa2FT0MBha8DIcmBVChmce0B8/w269-h400/At_the_Sign_of_the_Clove_and_Hoof_ZJ_MSP_I_.jpg" width="269" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">John
Norris warned in his review "<i>Johnson has dared to flout the
tacit and written rules of detective fiction</i>" with "<i>a
solution that defies all those conventions</i>." In principle, I've
no problem with breaking the rules or upturning conventions, but it
comes with a big but. I'm with <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthony Boucher">Anthony
Boucher</a> that the rules of the detective story can be broken,
twisted and subverted, but, to do it successfully, it requires a
mystery writer who understands and respects them in the first place.
Zoë Johnson seems to have been a knowledgeable mystery fan first and
author second as she pokes fun at everything from <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle">Conan
Doyle</a>, <a href="https://theinvisibleevent.com/tag/edgar-wallace/">Edgar
Wallace</a> and the British village mysteries of the 1930s to the
fictitious detective in all their guises. So a very amusing and
imaginative rule breaker, but a tricky one to discuss. Let's give it
a shot.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Larcombe
is a small fishing village, "<i>off the beaten track</i>,"
standing at the head of a lonely promontory and pretty much isolated
by a valley, moor, cliffs and devious, ill-kept country lanes. <span style="font-style: normal;">The
Clove and Hoof</span> is the local pub where the villages and
fishermen come to drink, share stories and gossip. The arrival of a
big, red-faced man in Larcombe opens the door to rampant speculation, "<i>there'd never been such a hubbub over one topic since 1918</i>,"
because the Stranger is rumored to be a detective from London – a
detective who seemed to have a special interest in the unlikable
vicar. So everyone expected to wake up one morning to the news Rev.
Ernest Pratt had been hauled away in chains, but not that he had been
found shot at the bottom of a cliff. And the Stranger is nowhere to
be found. Inspector Percy Blutton is tasked with finding the vicar's
murderer among the strange, colorful and eccentric villagers and
fishermen who frequent the <span style="font-style: normal;">The Clove
and Hoof.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">There
were footprints and marks at the crime scene indicating the vicar had
struggled with two, possibly three men and one of them must have had
a wooden leg. And there's only one man in Larcombe with a wooden leg,
Captain John-Thomas Ridd. A true character, "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>like an
illustrated joke in</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Punch,"
who has "</span><i>a wooden leg, a black patch over his left eye
and his dress was cut in an out-moded, sea-faring mould.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">" Ridd is very popular with the locals and the odd summer visitor
entertaining them at the Clove and Hoof with tall tales of "</span><i>Sea
Serpents, pirates, treasure-trove, sharks, smugglers, octopuses and
duels with cutlasses</i><span style="font-style: normal;">." Ridd is
not the only local oddity. Lionel Gedling is an old eccentric
curmudgeon and nervous recluse who lives in a big, rundown house with
his servant, Costigan. Old Sebastian Hannabus runs a small antique
shop and jack-of-all-trades from trapping rabbits and taxidermy to
repairing clocks and relieving the British healthcare system
("...</span><i>he'd pull out a bad tooth for sixpence</i><span style="font-style: normal;">").
Dick Bowle is the aging, bedridden tobacconist who wears a bowler hat
even in bed to cover his bald head. Bert Yeo is the mountainous,
immovable owner of the Clove and Hoof, but a sudden change has come
over him ever since the Stranger arrived and mysteriously
disappeared.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXfdKtFVUnHMRnKZMAlj2fu6W9CU8jkqekO7tEao5czRGlnKpCAC1yttqe7fvP6Vk14z31A8cLeOKOxL2wFHZohfpzYf98HTXDrApeKJMEFKuxs5gaJR45pcw5RBiYr5zOQbwzsAL3TiUaLTYT2CtSncEv8RH_FMa5b6dUGNcQtylXiW7g9Qnz-2Bo8Y/s500/At_the_Sign_of_the_Clove_and_Hoof_ZJ_MSP_II_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXfdKtFVUnHMRnKZMAlj2fu6W9CU8jkqekO7tEao5czRGlnKpCAC1yttqe7fvP6Vk14z31A8cLeOKOxL2wFHZohfpzYf98HTXDrApeKJMEFKuxs5gaJR45pcw5RBiYr5zOQbwzsAL3TiUaLTYT2CtSncEv8RH_FMa5b6dUGNcQtylXiW7g9Qnz-2Bo8Y/w260-h400/At_the_Sign_of_the_Clove_and_Hoof_ZJ_MSP_II_.jpg" width="260" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Finally,
there's the best and most memorable character, Christian Peascod. An
artist, poet, lover and self-appointed amateur detective who has
studied "<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>the works of Bailey, Doyle, Van Dine, Roger
East, Freeman, Wills and Croft, and the Misses Sayers and Christie</i><span style="font-style: normal;">"
– combined with a training in Speculative Philosophy at Oxford.
Just like John noted in his review, Peascod dominates whenever he
appears and a shame he's likely a one-and-done deal. A list of
potential suspects and witnesses comprising of characters escaped
from the pages of Lewis Carroll or J.M. Berry story is not the only
complication for Inspector Blutton. A poison pen writer is sending
out threatening letters in blue water color like they are birthday
party invitations ("</span><i>the real Penny Dreadful touch,
what?</i><span style="font-style: normal;">"), while simultaneously
someone is pulling a string of bizarre pranks with dead fish, air
guns and a metronome. When a severed head is dragged from a pool, the
Chief Constable calls in Scotland Yard. That brings in the third
detective, Detective-Sergeant Plumper. A very promising,
up-and-coming officer who's "</span><i>somewhat unorthodox in
manner and method</i><span style="font-style: normal;">." So quite
the opposite of the much more plodding Blutton.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">So,
conventionally-sounding enough, but, after this point, </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>At
the Sign of the Clove and Hoof</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
starts to live a life of its own away from the beaten track. And
impossible to discuss the plot any further. But there are one, or
two, things that deserve to be highlighted.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">Firstly,
I enjoy the case-for-three-detectives structure and always find it a
pleasure to come across one, especially from this period of time. The
best examples are Ronald A. Knox's </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-three-taps-1927-by-ronald-knox.html"><i>The
Three Taps</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1927), Leo
Bruce's </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2023/02/case-for-three-detectives-1936-by-leo.html"><i>Case
for Three Detectives</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1936)
and the fairly recently translated </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-forbidden-house-1932-by-michel.html"><i>La
maison interdite</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (</span><i>The
Forbidden House</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 1932) by Michel
Herbert & Eugène Wyl. All take a satirical approach, one way or
another, to lampoon the detective story, the detective character or
both, but it gives room to something criminally underused to this
day. Namely rival detectives. A good, well-drawn rival detective can
liven up a detective story more than padding out the murderer's
bodycount. So having three detectives is a party, but these
case-for-three-detectives novels also tend to be excellent detective
stories in their own right making them so much more than just
parodies. Now the solution is where Johnson differs a little from
Bruce and Knox, but more on that in a minute. Secondly, while the
second-half of the novel is better read than discussed, it should be
noted it's littered with great and memorable scenes. Such as the
siege of Old Barton "</span><i>throughout the ghostly hours of
early morning</i><span style="font-style: normal;">" or the press
descending on the village with their screaming headlines ("</span><i><b>Hell
Let Loose in Quaint Village</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;">," <i><b>"</b></i></span><i><b>Work of Secret Society?</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;">"
"</span><i><b>Who Next?</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;">")
and sensational write-ups ("</span><i>this quaint picture-village
has become a ghastly charnel-house</i>"<span style="font-style: normal;">).
Just fun from start to finish. What about the ending, you ask?</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;">In
the hands of a less talented writer, </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>At the Sign of the
Clove and Hoof</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> would have fallen
flat on its face at the end. Something that should have been deadly
dull as it brazenly thumbs its nose at the rules and conventions of
the day, but Johnson got away with it based on nothing more than
barefaced cheek, a ton of charm and being relentlessly entertaining
throughout. Johnson intended to have some fun and she even got a plot
purist, like myself, to go along with it. No mean feat! </span>So
I'll keep my fingers crossed Moonstone Press gets an opportunity to
reprint <i>Mourning After</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> next.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;"><b>A
note for the curious:</b></span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-style: normal;"> I
was wondering where Zoë Johnson fits on the family tree of mystery
writers. It's tempting to pigeonhole her with the British satirists
like Bruce or <a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Edmund Crispin">Edmund
Crispin</a>, but, based solely on this novel, Johnson had a radically
different approach to the traditional detective story. So maybe
Johnson was something of an isolated phenomenon like the incomparable
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/Gladys Mitchell">Gladys
Mitchell</a>, but then it struck me. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>At the Sign of the
Clove and Hoof</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> reads like one of
<a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/search/label/E.R. Punshon">E.R.
Punshon</a>'s own unorthodox detective novels, e.g. </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/07/devils-delicacies.html"><i>Diabolic
Candelabra</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1942) and </span><a href="https://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2016/09/whose-body.html"><i>The
Conqueror</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><i>Inn</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1943). Just an afterthought. Anyway, I'll probably pick something
light and short to close out the year.</span></span></span></p>TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com4