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 GHOST IT WAS (1936) by Richard Hull

11/15/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Synopsis – Aspiring journalist Gregory Spring-Benson sees two benefits to rekindling his relationship with his estranged Uncle James: for one, he stands a good chance of receiving at least part of the eccentric relative’s inheritance; and for another, his uncle’s current residence, Amberhurst Place, carries a rumor of ghost sightings that might prove good copy. Upon his arrival, Gregory finds a full house: in addition to cantankerous Uncle James, quarrelsome cousin Henry Malcolm and the quieter Emily Warrenton are also present, with fussy lawyer Arthur Vaughan and his brother, poet Christopher, living nearby with Gregory’s stoic Aunt Julia. Feuding gets well underway between all parties, and Arthur recruits the Reverend Cyprian to re-enact the specter of a murderous twin pushing his brother off the manor house’s high tower. While Arthur’s dubious motive is to test his uncle’s beliefs in spiritualism and stir up dissension between the would-be heirs, his second effort proves deadly when an unknown assailant pushes the lawyer over the parapet.

Acrimony and paranoia lead to Uncle James first disinheriting, and then locking up, each of his relations. With a storm rising and everyone imprisoned in his or her bedroom, James is lured to the top of the tower. From afar, Emily witnesses her uncle attacked by a “floating dagger.” Inspector Fenby, already in the neighborhood under the guise of a devout spiritualist, takes charge of the investigation. With some historical help from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fenby separates the supernatural from the criminal and reveals the ghost of Amberhurst Place.


Review – As usual, there is much to recommend in this Richard Hull mystery. The Ghost It Was features some wonderfully comic characterization, an intriguing premise, and a plot that moves smoothly from one complication to the next. It delivers the satisfaction of the best Golden Age Detection prose: the writing is cosy and entertaining while the mystery puzzle is agreeably contrived to match the tone of the tale. In other words, while this M.R. James-by-way-of-Wodehouse approach has been replaced over the decades with a sober true-crime verité tone, it remains a great pleasure to escape to this lively corner of mystery fiction.

Hull provides some of his characters with highly entertaining description and personality. Gregory Spring-Benson, who begins the tale, is an engaging mix of well-bred underachiever and schemer. (More on him in a minute.) And James Warrenton, the dyspeptic uncle plagued with too many nephews, is a marvel of gullibility, acidity, and stubborn unsentimentality. Regarding the death of one of his relations, Hull captures Uncle James’s perspective with this colorfully blunt rationale:


He objected to there being an inquest held on the death of Arthur Vaughan ostensibly because (a) there was no such thing as death – his nephew had merely passed over to a slightly different form of existence; (b) it was quite obvious what happened; (c) Inspector Perceval of Periton was an ass who did not even know it until he had been told so – by James, needless to say; and (d) that it was his own nephew and his own house and his own ghost, and he ought to be able to do what he liked. It was, of course, all of no avail, and he had to content himself with being as obstructive as possible.
The introduction of “Mr. Fenby,” first appearing incognito as a member of the ghost-friendly Departed Spirits Association, is described as a memorably forgettable soul:

[He] was so small and insignificant, and so very anxious not to put any one to the smallest particle of trouble, that it was impossible to do anything else than just accept the fact that he was there and, if possible, avoid tripping over him. Indeed, he really did rather resemble a footstool.
As mentioned, the plot moves along agreeably, although the first murder – and therefore the first opportunity to start investigating a crime – does not occur until 100 pages in. Hull gives the opening chapters to the story’s outsider, the estranged Gregory, and this (and Gregory's goal of sniffing out a story and/or an inheritance) proves a wonderful way to engage the reader and introduce the strained and strident lives residing at Amberhurst Place. Perhaps it works too well; when Gregory and his objectives slip largely into the background as other arguments and events take over, I registered the drop of a lost narrative thread. And while he does play a role by mystery’s end, Hull continues to keep Gregory largely offstage. Fenby and Inspector Perceval deliver the denouement in an after-the-facts dialogue. Were this presented as a family ensemble piece from the start, with Gregory and the household introduced equally, the structural switch might not have been as disorienting.

All elements considered, The Ghost It Was remains an enjoyable read. Richard Hull is clearly drawn to unlikable, comically confident characters, and watching these figures scheme and argue with everyone in their orbits is a great pleasure. Inspector Fenby returns (and creates an equally unremarkable impression on the reader) in the following year’s The Murderers of Monty.

0 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.