JASON HALF : writer
  • Home
  • Full-length Plays
    • The Community Play
    • Kate and Comet
    • Sundial
    • Tulip Brothers
  • Short Plays
    • Among the Oats
    • Holly and Mr. Ivy
    • Locked Room Misery
  • Screenplays
    • The Ballad of Faith Divine
    • My Advice
    • Finders
  • Fiction
  • Blog

Book Review: THE CASE OF THE FAMISHED PARSON (1949) by George Bellairs

4/19/2020

2 Comments

 
As both an avid reader and a practicing writer of fiction, I am especially attuned to the spell an author can (and ideally should) cast. When I start to read a novel, I always wait for that moment, hopefully early on, that signals I’m in the hands of a capable storyteller. Whether it is an evocative description of setting, the introduction of an intriguing character, or a surprise in plot or tone that runs counter to expectations, if there is something in those early pages to assure me that the author knows his or her business and that continued reading will likely pay a satisfying return on investment, then I will happily continue the ride. And if it’s not a single element but multiple characteristics that augur well right from the start, then you have likely made a convert of me.
Picture
So I was thrilled when the first chapters of my first George Bellairs book, 1949’s The Case of the Famished Parson, showed so much promise in so many literary directions. Bellairs, the pen name of British banker Harold Blundell, presents in this Inspector Littlejohn mystery an atmospheric world peopled with idiosyncratic and marvelously detailed characters right out of the gate. At a shabby coastal hotel, a misanthropic after-hours night-porter combines and drinks up the dregs of the bar patrons’ glasses before begrudgingly cleaning the shoes lined up outside the guest rooms. This unhappy little man, Fennick, is destined to earn the wrath of Mr. Cuhady, a self-important and bellicose businessman whose shoes are discovered dirtier than when they were set out the night before. Cuhady, who is staying at the hotel with a doubtful “Mrs.” Cuhady, is happy to see a police presence there to investigate the Case of the Muddied Shoes – and to arrest the negligent night-porter for good measure – but Inspector Littlejohn is concerned with weightier matters: it seems the body of the malnourished Bishop of Greyle has been found hanging head down on the side of a cliff, his boot wedged into a crevice.

Characterization is excellent, the plot is off to a roaring start (Why is the bishop emaciated? Why was he killed? Who or what brought him outdoors in the middle of the night?), and those early chapters have a wonderful ribbon of dark humour running through them. But, perhaps appropriate for a story revolving around footwear, near the midway point of Famished Parson, the other shoe dropped with a rather disappointing thud. I can’t think of another detective story that started out so strongly only to arrive at such an underwhelming finish. There is no doubt that the engaging and enjoyable first half set my expectations high, and that had Bellairs’ book been merely mediocre throughout, the contrast (and therefore my disappointment) would have been far less pronounced.

Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that much of the potential of plot, character, and place is diluted by development and resolution that feels simultaneously blunt and generic, qualities that the setup neatly avoided. For example, the bishop’s eccentric family is never brought into focus enough or given enough stage time to be contenders as suspects, and the explanations of both the victim’s starved state and the motive for murder are oddly insignificant. In particular, I was frustrated by a very unconvincing monologue confession from the guilty party that runs on for pages; this is the kind of tin-ear philosophizing where the villain recounts every action and rationale to a hapless listener who is to be dispatched post-speech. At one point, this character actually says, “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” In that artless moment, I knew narratively why it was happening but still wondered the same thing.

Curiously, the book as a whole is very reminiscent of the Inspector Maigret storylines penned by Georges Simenon, and similarities are found in The Famished Parson’s strengths and weaknesses alike. Inspector Thomas Littlejohn is quite Maigret-like, an intuitive outsider whose profession throws him into a crime-infused environment but who chooses to never fully integrate into that world. Like Simenon, Bellairs seems to be less interested in fair-play narrative structure (i.e., presenting interpretable clues to the reader) than in releasing regimented information (e.g., through witness interviews and predicting human psychology) that gradually brings a sequence of events into focus. In particular, the solution to this Bellairs mystery feels very much a Maigret case: it is rooted not in the fantastical but in the ordinary, and not in the mystical but the mundane. Because the story started out so exceptionally, however, the reveal of a surprisingly common motive ended the tale on an anticlimax.

Picture
All that said, I will certainly try another Inspector Littlejohn mystery at some point. If any readers wish to suggest titles they consider strong work from George Bellairs, I welcome their input. Thank you to Agora Books for providing an advance reading copy, and for making so many Bellairs titles available once more in digital editions.

2 Comments

    BLOG

    Lots of book reviews and discussion of classic and contemporary mystery fiction. I welcome comments and continuing conversation.

    Subscribe below to receive updates!

    Subscribe

    Categories

    All
    19th Century Novels
    Andrew Garve
    Anne Morice
    Anthologies
    Anthony Boucher
    Appalachian Authors
    Bill James
    Book Review
    Catherine Dilts
    C. Daly King
    Craig Rice
    David Goodis
    E.C.R. Lorac / Carol Carnac
    Erle Stanley Gardner
    E.R. Punshon
    Freeman Wills Crofts
    French Authors
    George Bellairs
    George Milner
    Gladys Mitchell
    Golden Age Mystery
    Gregory McDonald
    Hardboiled Detectives
    Helen McCloy
    Helen Simpson
    Henry Wade
    Herbert Adams
    Hugh Austin
    James Corbett
    J. Jefferson Farjeon
    John Bude
    John Rhode/Miles Burton
    Leo Bruce
    Maj Sjowall / Per Wahloo
    Margery Allingham
    Martin Edwards
    Michael Gilbert
    Michael Innes
    Mignon G. Eberhart
    Milward Kennedy
    Mitchell Mystery Reading Group
    New Fiction
    New Mystery
    Nicholas Blake
    Nicolas Freeling
    Noir
    Philip MacDonald
    Play Review
    Q. Patrick / Patrick Quentin
    Rex Stout
    Richard Hull
    Ross MacDonald
    Russian Authors
    Science Fiction
    Vernon Loder
    Vladimir Nabokov
    William L. DeAndrea
    Winifred Blazey
    Writing

    Mystery Fiction Sites
    -- all recommended ! --
    Ahsweetmysteryblog
    The Art of Words
    Beneath the Stains of Time
    Bitter Tea and Mystery
    Catherine Dilts - author
    Countdown John's Christie Journal
    Classic Mysteries
    Clothes in Books
    ​A Crime is Afoot
    Crossexaminingcrime
    Gladys Mitchell Tribute
    Grandest Game in the World
    Happiness Is a Book
    In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
    The Invisible Event
    Martin Edwards' Crime Writing Blog
    Murder at the Manse
    Mysteries Ahoy!
    Noirish
    The Passing Tramp
    Past Offences
    Pretty Sinister Books
    Tipping My Fedora
    To the Manor Born
    Witness to the Crime
    

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    September 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    January 2024
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed

Unless otherwise stated, all text content on this site is
​copyright Jason Half, 2024.