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: MALICE IN WONDERLAND (1940) by Nicholas Blake

4/26/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Wonderland is a holiday camp promising fun and relaxation for the whole family: organized sports and leisure activities abound, and there are multiple opportunities to socialize and make new friends. Hundreds of visitors descend on the camp each season, and that means the potential for hundreds of suspects if crimes should occur. And crimes – or at least unpleasant incidents – soon begin to happen. Some visitors are pulled underwater while bathing in the sea; tennis balls are covered in treacle; and under cover of night a pet dog is poisoned and dies. Camp managers Teddy and Mortimer Wise begin to wonder whether the escalating pranks might be leading up to a serious attack on a person, and the vacationing visitors’ response to the work of the self-proclaimed “Mad Hatter” soon moves from curiosity to unease as they wonder the same thing.

Enter private consultant Nigel Strangeways (fairly late in the game, in Chapter 10 of 18) to investigate. Malice in Wonderland, which has also been variously published as The Summer Camp Mystery (the U.S. title), Malice with Murder, and Murder with Malice, is to me an underrated entry in Cecil Day-Lewis’ enjoyable detective series. Strangeways isn’t the only one to put in a delayed appearance; there is a murder in this story, but it only appears near the novel’s climax, and killer and motive are soon identified. Instead, Malice’s pleasures lie not solely with the puzzle but with its agreeable setting, tone, and characters.

While Blake was prone to becoming overly psychological and heavy-handed with characterization in his final Strangeways stories, like The Worm of Death (1961) or The Morning after Death (1966), he serves up a winning cast here. The staff at Wonderland are nicely delineated, whether between the slightly past-his-prime athlete Teddy Wise and his stuffier, more bureaucratic brother Mortimer or in describing the latter’s assistant, a resourceful and attractive young woman named Esmeralda Jones. Front and center amongst the holiday-makers are James Thistlethwaite, a fussy professional tailor who fancies himself a keen observer of people and places (and who may be right), and his energetic daughter Sally.

Sally quickly strikes up an acquaintance with a reserved young man named Paul Perry, and it is their flirtatious, hot-and-cold relationship that is both endearing and authentic. Both of these romantic leads – so often an unwanted and unconvincing element in mystery fiction – are deftly drawn, and it is their contradictions of personality that Blake gets so perceptively right. The two are (like so many young people attracted to each other) alternately cynical and sincere, defensive yet vulnerable, often generous one moment, selfish the next. In Paul and Sally, the author lets the reader feel genuine pathos for the couple and their situation, especially as it appears that Paul is Harboring a Secret and may be more involved in the Mad Hatter madness than he will admit.

PictureU.S. Title: The Summer Camp Mystery
A tone that is often humorous with its details and dialogue, coupled with an intriguing outdoor setting that provides an idyll while a war rages around the world, adds to the book’s enjoyable qualities. And although we are largely focused on the “malice” of malevolent practical jokes instead of a murder investigation, Blake (through his anonymous anarchist) keeps the reader engaged with a busy run of incidents that often just evoke more questions: was a camper’s blistered fingers after a scavenger hunt a result of mustard gas or wild parsley? And if this was another Mad Hatter stunt, then does that incriminate the staff that had organized the search? What of the grudge-holding old hermit living on the outskirts of the camp? And is meek visitor Albert Morley really as bad a shot as he demonstrates at the shooting gallery? The question needs to be considered when a bullet nicks Teddy Wise’s ear as he stands on a balcony, and Albert emerges from the woods below.

For those wanting to take a lively holiday and experience the merry mischief vicariously, Malice in Wonderland is available in print and eBook editions from Agora Books. Les at Classic Mysteries and Margaret at BooksPlease have also posted reviews of this title.

2 Comments
TracyK link
4/28/2021 05:12:49 pm

I have probably commented here before on how much I like Nicholas Blake's mysteries. I have read some of the earlier ones in the last few years (and quite a few when I was younger), but the only ones I have on my TBR right now are 1949 and later. I will look around for this one.

Nice review. I don't mind when the detective comes in later. I like the some setup in mysteries before the arrival of the detective.

Reply
Jason Half link
4/29/2021 08:33:04 pm

Hi Tracy -- The Nigel Strangeways mysteries are usually a lot of fun, and I have been working through the books to provide reviews on this blog. (I think I have five or six titles left to reread and review.)

And I agree with you that that detective coming in later can be very enjoyable. In this title, it makes sense, as the practical jokes don't escalate to truly dangerous heights until the story is well underway. I seem to remember a story or two over the years from other writers where the series detective doesn't show up until nearly the climax, and then provides the solution with the skill of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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
    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
    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
    In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
    The Invisible Event
    Martin Edwards' Crime Writing Blog
    Mysteries Ahoy!
    Noirish
    The Passing Tramp
    Past Offences
    Pretty Sinister Books
    Tipping My Fedora
    Witness to the Crime
    

    Archives

    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, 2023.