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GLADYS MITCHELL Celebrated at 2021 Bodies from the Library Conference

5/19/2021

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PictureHowdunit (2020), ed. Martin Edwards
On Saturday, May 15, scholars, authors, and fans of Golden Age Detective fiction attended the annual Bodies from the Library conference. As the Covid pandemic threw everyone a global plot twist last year, the 2020 event planned to take place at the British Library in London was canceled and this year’s celebration was an entirely virtual affair. While it was surely not the same experience as the in-person conference would have been, the online version had one excellent silver lining: a landlocked American like me could attend without the challenge of navigating some formidable springtime travel, schedule, and income hurdles. (In short, if it had only been an in-person event, I would have surely needed to sit it out.)

The same gratitude for an online conference was shared by other attendees as well, based on the feedback provided by many international voices at the end of the day. Sincere thanks and congratulations to the organizers and tech (‘tec?) supervisors for a smooth and lively affair. It was immense fun to see and hear from all of the learned participants and enthusiastic fans, and the topics could not have been better chosen or more intriguing.

First, Martin Edwards, Alison Joseph, and Kate Ellis shared insights on the newly published Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by the Detection Club. Next, Martin and Christine Poulson discussed the criminous stage, screen, and book contributions of identical twin brothers Peter and Anthony Shaffer. Kate Jackson and The Puzzle Doctor explored the books of Brian Flynn, a GAD author once more in the spotlight thanks to the reprinting efforts of PD and Dean Street Press. Mark Green looked at the ease of readability among the prose of the four Crime Queens. Jim Noy shared a delightful classification of detective types “from Holmes to Hammer” and Curtis Evans (who will soon be publishing a comprehensive book on the subject) provided an overview of authors Rickie Webb and Hugh Wheeler, the driving forces behind the American pseudonyms of Patrick Quentin and Q. Patrick.

Whew. That’s a lot of fascinating GAD ground that was covered.

But wait; there’s more. As the creator of a tribute site for the sui generis, prolific mystery author Gladys Mitchell, I was particularly excited about the topic scheduled for 3.15 pip emma, British Summer Time. Moira Redmond from Clothes in Books and author L.C. Tyler were to provide an overview of “The Great Gladys” and her work, and their spirited discussion was delightful. While they rightly forewarned prospective new readers of some of GM’s elements that might disappoint or alienate – such as arbitrary killers or obscure motives revealed at a story’s solution – L.C. and Moira spent much of their time making the case for this highly original author and her strikingly strange psychoanalyst detective.

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I found myself nodding in agreement (within my little webcam box) as the presenters made their case for Gladys Mitchell: her amazingly rendered and meticulous evocation of place; her fascination with British history, folklore, and the occult; her unforgettable creation Mrs Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, with her reptilian leer, raven-black hair, and claw-like grip of iron; the surprisingly progressive thematic ideas on display in a genre that is traditionally conservative; and the astounding variety of styles and stories that the author delivered, especially in her first two decades of published mystery fiction. Judging from the chat comments, it appears that several neophyte GM readers were tantalized by the conversation and planned to give Miss Mitchell a try.

Moira Redmond has posted a blog entry at Clothes in Books campaigning for The Great Gladys once more, and recommends 1941’s When Last I Died, which is also my favorite Mrs Bradley title of the 66 books in the series. And as Moira argues, “we strongly encourage people to give her a chance and stick with the books with their weird plots, strange motives, and strange plot turns. Mrs Bradley is worth it!”

Who am I do disagree?

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Book Review: LEFT-HANDED DEATH (1946) by Richard Hull

5/10/2021

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“Of one thing though I am most perfectly certain and that is that the case is more completely topsy-turvy than it ought to be. I like my murders to start at the beginning with the corpse and go on to the end with the conviction. But when you start in the middle with the confession – well, all I can say is, that it’s all wrong!”
– Inspector Hardwick, assessing the circumstances in Left-Handed Death


The war years saw a four-year hiatus between Richard Hull’s previous mystery, 1942’s underwhelming The Unfortunate Murderer, and his next tale of office-inspired mayhem, Left-Handed Death. While this book is more engaging than Hull’s prior effort, there are nevertheless some structure and pacing problems on display that will plague many of the author’s later stories. At the book’s start, we find Arthur Shergold and Guy Reeves, managers of an engineering company that manufactures goods ordered through Ministry contracts, deep in discussion. Soon thereafter, Reeves proudly visits Scotland Yard and confesses to strangling Barry Foster, an overweight Ministry accountant assigned to review the company’s finances.

Upon investigation, the police discover Foster dead in his flat, marks on his neck indicating that he was strangled with only a thumb and one finger, which are the digits remaining on Guy Reeves’ left hand after a combat accident in Tunis. But Inspector Hardwick finds the man’s unsolicited confession problematic, and his explanation that he killed Foster because he insulted co-worker and budding love interest Cynthia Trent does not convince. Hardwick tasks his colleagues, Sergeant Matthews and Constable Troughton, with some old-fashioned detective work, and soon alibis are checked, time tables are created, and waiters, bartenders, and bus conductors are shown photographs in hopes of identification.

Curiously, the final 30 pages of Left-Handed Death are to me fleet and satisfying; it is the trek to get there that proves a marathon. Richard Hull seems to embrace the misanthropes of the business world in his books, people who can charitably be considered antiheroes, as Guy Reeves is here. Reeves is vain and egotistical, and if anything, his managing partner Arthur Shergold is even worse. As a result, the reader doesn’t worry overmuch about his plight, even as one suspects he is confessing out of a misguided mix of pride and obtuseness.

Hull’s fascination with despicable characters can yield bracing, wonderful results: visit the egotistical narrator from his début novel, 1934’s The Murder of My Aunt, or the delightfully dyspeptic copy writer Nicholas Latimer in 1936’s Murder Isn’t Easy. But when unlikable characters get paired with poor plotting, as in the desultory Invitation to an Inquest (1950), it is an effort to slog forward. Left-Handed Death finds itself staking out a middle ground. While some dialogue runs and episodic moments are enjoyable – and the trio of nicely sketched police officers, with an assist from an amusing Ministry official named Pennington, steal the show, in my opinion – Guy Reeves remains a weak figure who acts irrationally.

Hull’s structuring of his tale may be the most quixotic aspect, especially as a narrative skeleton definitely exists on which to craft a highly successful story. But that meeting between Shergold and Reeves in the opening pages effectively gives the game away, resulting in an undercutting of mystery and a diminishing of suspense. For some reason I don’t understand, Hull also has Reeves send a letter to Cynthia Trent boasting of his impending cleverness before he goes along to Scotland Yard to confess. Why does he do it? What will that help? I’m not sure. Nor does Richard Hull do much with that message, beyond having Inspector Hardwick note the letter’s postmarked date and time. That, along with the strange circumstances and inner motives that inspire Reeves to confess, add to the list of elements that alienate more than intrigue.

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For those who wish to sample this interesting but uneven experiment in crime fiction, Agora Books has returned it to print in trade paperback and eBook editions. For a second opinion, you can find reviews at crossexaminingcrime, In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, and Martin Edwards’ Crime Writing Blog.


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