Murders by Heath Robinson
Faber. 7s. (id.) Mr. Simpson Finds a Body. By David Frome. (Longmans.
Jeremiah and the Princess. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.) CivicrzerroN, it seems, has done little to safeguard the life of the individual. True, we are no longer disturbed by the mammoth or the dinosaur. But if we are to believe the evidence of the " thriller" is it difficult to engage in any of the pursuits of a so-called civilized life without being murdered. Dangerous to advertise ; to take part in a motor rally ; to shoot grouse ; and to be an initiate of the Mu Beta Sigma Fraternity of the University of Philadelphia. Dangerous even—to body as well as to mind—to go to the University at all. And such complicated dangers It is not merely that death is brought about by methods whose ingenuity would do credit to a Heath Robinson. It is that the motives for murder are as involved as Einstein. Take, for instance, Miss Sayers' brilliant new story, Murder Must Advertise. Victor Dean was not simply hit on the head or pushed down the Asks; he was shot at through a skylight with a scarab by means of a
catapult taken from the confiscation desk. And why did he come to this timely end in the offices of Pym's Publicity ? Not simply because he was a blackmailer ; but also because he was concerned in the dope traffic ; because he knew that fast young woman Dian de Momerie ; because he was acquainted with the circumstances in which the Nutrax 11-inch double
was prepared for Friday's Morning Star. It takes, of course, Lord Peter Wimsey to find out all this ; and it takes Miss Sayers and a long and extremely, clever book to make it
plausible. Perhaps the complications of detail arc a little excessive, but we must be grateful for a story written with intelligence and education. Readers of this will go on with
profit to The Dorothy L. Sayers Omnibus, which reprints The- Five Red Herrings," "Strong Poison" and "Lord Peter Views the Body."
The famous Dr. Priestley's acumen is severely tested In The Motor Rally Mystery (the Crime Club selection for February). Why had car No. 514 swerved so violently into the ditch as to kill both its occupants ? Why was Lessingham competing with a stolen car ? What was the meaning of the very feminine telegram ? Dr. Priestley as usual takes nothing on trust ; and Mr. Rhode achieves a pretty-piece of deduction. So does Mr. Nigel Orde-Powlett in Driven Death, which proves that blood sports may be fatal to the hunter as well as to the hunted. Mr. Orde-Powlett gives us the clue at the start, but superimposes so many red herrings that we forget all about it. Sir George Beald has just shot nine grouse when he is hit on the head and pitched down a disused mine shaft ; Tony Rillington conclusively proves that nobody present at the drive could have done it. A nice problem with a really possible solution.
The trouble about Murder of an Initiate is, not that nobody could have done it, but that everybody could have done it. Which of the yellow-hooded figures at the Mu Beta Sigma initiation ceremony injected conine into Stuart Jordan's wrists while untying the ritual cords ? Was it the lawyer whose wife paid Jordan such rash attentions ? Was it Patterson, who was mixed up with a vice parlour? Was it Buckley, who cheated at crap ? Perhaps the best part of Mr. Propper's book is its picture of the American" Fraternity" system ; my dear too horse-playing. But the investigation of the crime has its merits, and there is a surprising finish. As for Murder at the 'Varsity—well, well ! Death on staircase ; death under a lilac bush by the Master's lodge ; death (nearly) at the Master's tea-party ; really the older Universities must be-looking up. A good melodramatic story in which, though Mr. Patrick does not indulge in much deduction, he writes about Cambridge with humour and knowledge. Mr. Holling,worth in Dead Man's Alibi—which begins in a doss-house and ends in a nursing home—makes an honest attempt to base his story on psychology. Tantallon, having committed a crime, is so shaken in his soul that he does not merely lose his memory ; he becomes a dual personality. The difficulty is—since the corpse is missing—so far to revive his original personality as to discover the identity of his victim. An interesting piece of work.
A story in the first class up to the last few pages is Mr. Simpson Finds a Body. Mr. Simpson returns from the Continent to find a corpse in the library ; later the corpse's brother is found in Theobald's Road. It would be a pity to reveal the workings of this excellent story, which, as I say, never falters till the very last. Finally, Mr. Oppenheira in Jeremiah and the Princess rewards his devoted readers with a cosmopolitan tale. The rich young American ; the secretive Royalty from Central Europe ; champagne ; actresses ; valets ; vast interests at stake ; here they all are, stirred with the usual dexterity into the usual Oppenheim rago4t. An honest adventure with plenty of glitter and glamour thrown in.
DILYS POWELL.
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