Review: The Silent House by Fergus Hume

by Mary

Lucian Denzil is a young barrister who lives in Geneva Square, a cul-de-sac situated in Pimilico, an area of London devotees of older British comedies will recognise as the post-war setting of Passport to Pimilico.

In The Silent House Denzil's passport to mysterious happenings begins when he becomes interested in the titular dwelling at l3 Geneva Square. Empty for 20 years, it has a bad reputation because strange lights and noises have been seen there, plus it is in a neglected, run-down condition in contrast to the other houses in Geneva Square.

Naturally it causes a great deal of local gossip when number l3 is rented to Mark Berwin, a man usually seen in an intoxicated condition. Indeed, Denzil makes Berwin's acquaintanceship one extremely foggy November night by way of escorting him home, having found him the worse for drink and reeling disoriented about the square. Berwin goes out very little, has no visitors or servants in residence, and lives in a couple of rooms tastefully furnished with beautiful furniture.

Blinders, the bobby stationed at the entrance to the square, has seen shadows on Berwin's living room blind before observing Berwin coming home alone as usual. This adds to local talk of ghosts and hauntings at number l3. Then one evening Denzil meets Berwin coming into Geneva Square by its only entrance a few minutes after observing similar shadows. Berwin tells him he is mistaken and insists Denzil go all over the house to show there is no possibility of anyone being there.

Well, someone is there eventually because not long afterwards Berwin is found stabbed to death in his room on Christmas Day morning. Constable Blinders saw nobody (no jokes please) and having tried number l3's doors and windows as is the habit of British bobbies on the beat knows they were all locked the night before. Enter Gordon Link, the detective in charge of the case. Berwin is identified by Mrs Vrain as her husband, Mark Vrain, who left her some ten months before and whose whereabouts were hitherto unknown. Diana, Vrain's daughter by his first wife, is in Australia, but four months after her father's death returns to London to enlist Denzil's aid in convicting those responsible for her father's murder, for she believes her stepmother and the latter's former lover, the Italian Count Ferruci, are the culprits. But how to prove it? And how did they, or agents acting for them, get into and out of the locked house without being detected?

The reader is led down false trails with Denzil and Link as they repeatedly wind up in investigative cul de sacs, despite a number of convincing theories and promising clues pointing to one person or another. The cast list increases to include sharp-tongued servant Rhoda Stanley, venomous gossip Bella Tyler, Dr Jorce, who owns of a private asylum, and a mysterious lodger named Wrent who lives in the house behind number l3, among others.

My verdict: The Silent House features a complicated although slow paced plot, which rattles along well enough to maintain interest until what appears to be a somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion, for the crime is ultimately solved by confession -- but with a final twist I think will be unforeseen by most! The solution to the locked house puzzle, while pedestrian, fits the circumstances and characters to a T.

Etext: The Silent House by Fergus Hume.

Review: The Opal Serpent by Fergus Hume

by Mary

After falling out with his boorish country gentleman father, Paul Beecot ups and goes to London to make his way as a writer. There he rents a Bloomsbury garret and while not setting the literary world ablaze manages to get along although only just this side of falling into debt. Then he finds himself caught up in evil events.

It all starts when one afternoon he happens to meet his old public schoolmate Grexon Hay in Oxford Street. Hay is turned out like the proverbial dog's dinner but condescends to share Paul's supper of plump sausages. During their conversation over the bangers, Paul talks about his beloved, Sylvia Norman, whose father Aaron runs a second-hand book shop with a bit of pawnbroking on the side, or rather in the cellar. Alas, Paul and Sylvia cannot marry until he can support a wife and they have said nothing to her father for fear he will forbid Paul to visit.

Apparently Aaron Norman has "the manner of a frightened rabbit" and seems to be always looking over his shoulder with his one good eye. Obviously something fishy is going on there, but what?

Even stranger, when he sees the titular opal, diamond, and gold brooch, Aaron faints. Shown the brooch during their dinner, Hay makes an offer for it, but Paul refuses because it is his mother's and he prefers to pawn it so he can hopefully redeem it in due course.

We now meet the memorable Deborah Junk, servant of the Norman household and devoted to Sylvia. By far the most colourful person in the novel, her unique style of conversation would not disgrace a working class character created by Dickens, and when she is on-stage she dominates the scene.

But there's plenty going on when she's engaged elsewhere. Why did Aaron Norman faint when he saw the serpent brooch? Who is the man who warns Beecot against Hay, describing the latter as "a man on the market", and what does the curious phrase mean? Why did an Indian visitor to Aaron Norman's book emporium leave a pile of sugar on the counter? Does a truly ghastly guttersnipe born to hang know more than he lets on?

My verdict: The Opal Serpent contains some surprisingly strong content, such as certain comments made by the murderer, which would be disturbing even in this day and age, while the method used to kill the victim in full view of others is so awful I was surprised to find it in a novel of this vintage. Plus the use to which the brooch is put is equally grim.

This novel trots along at a steady pace with as many twists and turns as a serpent as it slithers its way to a rip-roaring denouement, and I must say the plot certainly underlines the traditional belief opals are unlucky! Recommended.

Etext: The Opal Serpent by Fergus Hume