Review: The Eye in the Museum by J. J. Connington

by Mary

As this novel opens, Leslie Seaforth and his fiancee Joyce Hazlemere are visiting the Struan Museum. Its eccentric collection includes examples of the taxidermist's art in the forms of a stuffed five-legged calf and a crocodile, jars of water from great rivers, somewhat suspect pottery, and the titular glass eye which replaced one Mr Struan lost in a childhood accident. In fact, the museum possesses two ocular items, the other being its camera obscura.

Under the terms of Joyce's father's will, she must live with her aunt Mrs Evelyn Fenton at The Cedars until she is 25, otherwise her inheritance will go to her aunt. It is a strained relationship to say the least since Mrs Fenton is vindictive and spiteful towards her niece, going so far as to blame her for her heart troubles, perhaps hoping to drive Joyce out of the house and so receive her inheritance. It would be welcome indeed given Mrs Fenton is addicted to betting. Dr Simon Hyndford, an intimate friend who often visits her, also likes to bet but neither is very successful at it. However, Simon shares a house with his brother Richard, who after years spent in Japan returned a rich man and is generous with loans to him.

Mrs Fenton is found dead in her home and the jury returns a verdict of wilful murder by a person or persons unknown.

Enter Superintendent Ross with a mixed bag of suspects. Was the culprit Mrs Fenton's husband John, who left her and the town after they separated? He wishes to marry his mistress but his wife refuses to divorce him. Now the couple are free to marry and since the Fentons are childless the money he settled on his departed wife when they wed will be returned to him. Furthermore, he was seen back in town not long before Mrs Fenton was murdered.

Then there's Joyce. Her aunt's death frees her from domestic tyranny and she will be able to claim her inheritance. She tells her fiance Leslie Mrs Fenton's treatment has brought her to the end of her tether so might the young couple have collaborated in a deadly plot? What about Mr Wachet, who manages properties Mrs Fenton owned? She intends to consult her solicitor unless he immediately pays her the rents collected on her behalf. If the culprit was Mr Wachet, Mrs Fenton's death would certainly be convenient.

My verdict: Superintendent Ross untangles a case that comes to include graphology, the puzzle of The Cedars' locked French window, IOUs worth thousands of pounds, a tumbler of a certain design, missing betting books, financial shenanigans, an overheard conversation suggesting plans for murder, and the dynamics of the Hyndford family. His summing up of evidence for the prosecution, including providing the names of those who will be able to confirm his reasoning, is a welcome feature in explaining a complicated case.

My verdict: Readers may deduce at least part of the solution but the full explanation of the affair is shocking and completely blindsided me. I award it an A, with a rueful smile at missing what was so obvious in hindsight.

E-text: The Eye in the Museum by J. J. Connington

Review: The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles by Percy James Brebner

by Mary

Detective Murray Wigan relates a number of cases solved with the assistance of Charles Quarles, professor of philosophy.

A ghastly discovery opens The Strange Case of Sir Grenville Rusholm: the coffin with the titular character's remains has been replaced with one containing lead. Who did it and why? And where is the baronet's body?

A ransom note is received following The Kidnapping of Eva Wilkinson, who has become involved with a suitor of whom her guardian strongly disapproves. A connection between these events seems strongly indicated.

Wigan takes up an old case dubbed The Delverton Affair, in which a banker was found dead in his office. He had been poisoned but there were no traces of any in the tumbler beside him.

A man is strangled in a locked room in The Mysterious House in Manleigh Road. Involvement of the supernatural is hinted when Wigan sees a re-enactment of the death in the room's mirror.

Murder strikes a troupe of seaside pierrots **and Wigan must solve The Difficulty of Brother Pythagoras, the victim. Members of the company claim they liked him but their expressions say otherwise.

A Member of Parliament suspected of treason is murdered after dining at home with an Italian and a German. A mysterious woman calls about her forgotten bag as Wigan investigates The Tragedy In Duke's Mansions.

A man working on a top secret project does not wish to miss a dance his beloved will attend and so leaves what becomes The Stolen Aeroplane Model at home. Only a handful know of the model's existence, so the field of suspects is narrow.

As usual a servant is the first to be suspected of theft in The Affair of the Contessa's Pearls. She denies all knowledge of the missing jewelry but could her brother be the culprit?

The arts, in this case a painting and two sculptures, play an important part in solving The Disappearance of Madame Vatrotski, current toast of the theatrical world.

Wigan visits a casual acquaintance the very night the latter is murdered. Solving The Mystery of The Man at Warburton's includes establishing why two letters sent to the murdered man a couple of years before were never opened.

A servant confesses to shooting his master as they return home aboard a ship bound for Liverpool. However, the dead man died from a knife wound, one of the oddest features in The Strange Case of Daniel Hardiman.

The Crime In The Yellow Taxi is the murder of Lady Tavener on a foggy London night. Investigation reveals neither she nor her husband were where they were supposed to be that night, nor were they together.

The blasphemous theft from a church of the gift of an elderly woman kicks off The Affair of the Jeweled Chalice. In the course of their investigation Quarles and Wigan visit a boys' club and follow a likely suspect.

Echoes of the chalice case continue in The Adventure of the Forty-Ton Yawl, which opens with Wigan taking a holiday in Folkestone after a breakdown. He goes sailing with a fellow guest and finds all is not as it seems.

A spate of burglaries has broken out. A local householder shoots and kills an apparent burglar in the early hours of the morning. The Solution of The Grange Park Mystery is not as simple as it seems. For a start, who is the dead man?

My verdict: I fear I must mark this collection with a B, as some stories are not quite fair to the reader. But still worth a glance if you have half an hour to spare for the clever explanations of how Quarles reasoned his way to a solution.

Etext: The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles

Review: The Case With Nine Solutions by J. J. Connington (1928)

by Mary

Dr Ringwood, serving as locum tenens for an old friend recovering from appendicitis, returns to his lodgings in a pea-souper so thick he can't even see the pavement. He is looking forward to a cosy evening by the fire with a cigar and the latest issue of the British Medical Journal but alas, it is not to be. Dr Trevor Markfield, a friend who lives locally, drops in for a chat and engages in a bit of gossip, hinting the marriage of Dr Silverdale, under whom he works at the Croft-Thornton Research Institute, is not all it should be. It seems Dr Silverdale's French wife Yvonne has taken up with Ronald Hassendean, an idler who works as little as possible at the Institute and is widely known as her permanent dancing-partner. Naturally there is scuttlebutt. At this point, Ringwood receives a call from a maid anxious about her fellow servant's worsening illness, given the family employing them is out for the evening. Markfield identifies the address she gives as Silverdale's house and guides Ringwood there through worsening fog before leaving for home. Ringwood discovers the house silent, lights on, and the front door unlocked. Venturing inside, he finds a young man shot twice bleeding to death. Then he realises he is in the wrong house. Silverdale's home is next door. The police are summoned and Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield arrives with Inspector Flamborough to investigate the matter. The deceased is identified as Ronald Hassendean, his dancing days done. Then the Hassendean's maid is found strangled and the other maid can't be interviewed as she is delirious with a bad attack of scarlatina.

Where to begin? Well, next morning Driffield receives a telegram advising him to visit the bungalow used as a summer residence by the Hassendean family. And what do they find there but Mrs Silverdale, lying dead in an armchair.

In talking to Flamborough about the case, Driffield notes three possibilities to explain these events: accident, suicide, or murder, various permutations of which total eight.

A rich stew of suspects forms. What about motives? Has Silverdale grown tired of his wife's open flirtation with young Hassendean? We might also note Silverdale beat Markfield for the post of head of department. Two other workers at the Institute also come under suspicion: Miss Hailsham, Hassendean's bitter and vindictive ex-fiancee, and Miss Deepcar, due to hints of mutual attraction between her and Silverdale

Then there's Mrs Silverdale's brother Mr Menard, who's attempting to get her to change her will to what he views as a fairer distribution of her recent inheritance. Meaning more should be left to him. But what if she becomes angry at his pressing her on the matter and leaves him nothing under a new will? After all, a small bequest is better than none. Nor should we overlook Spratton, a money lender holding an insurance policy on Hassendean's life as security for his loans to the dead man. Murder rather than suicide or accident would net Spratton a substantial amount.

Investigations are aided by subsequent tips received from the sender of the telegram -- but only if Driffield and Flamborough are able to decipher their informant's coded advertisements in the local papers.

My verdict: I raced through and enjoyed this novel. At times it assumes the polite air of a restrained police procedural during an investigation also featuring forgery, possible blackmail, burglary, impersonation, and a method of murder I believe most readers will find unique. Connington's title states the case has nine solutions and when the ninth is revealed it features a clever double twist. All in all, then, I award The Case With Nine Solutions an A.

E-text: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72816

REVIEW: Murder in the Maze by J. J. Connington (1927)

by Mary

Being particularly fond of mazes, this title naturally leapt out at me and indeed a maze plays a major part in the plot given at one time or another almost every character spends time in or near it for various reasons.

The reader first meets the Shandon brothers, an unlikely trio. There's King’s Counsel Neville, currently prosecuting an important breach of contract case, and his twin Roger, who's rich enough to own Whistlefield with its maze and tennis court. The source of his wealth is obscure and a man from his past is attempting to blackmail him. And then there's their younger brother, Ernest, basically a parasite living at Whistlefield on an income composed of an allowance from Roger plus a bit of betting on the side.

Also in residence: the brothers' niece Sylvia and nephew Arthur Hawkhurst. The latter is recuperating from encephalitis and spends much of his time playing the piano. Very badly. Roger's private secretary Ivor Stenness lives in Whistlefield as well and on this particular day there are a couple of visitors -- Vera Forrest, a friend of Sylvia's, and Howard Torrance, a decent young fellow fond of Vera.

As the novel opens Roger expresses fears Hackleton, the defendant in the case mentioned, will have Neville attacked but his brother dismisses the possibility. Meantime Arthur's dreadful piano-playing is so annoying Neville decides to go over his notes on the case by seeking solitude in the maze. Unusually, by the way, it has two centres. Later Roger decides to make his way to the other centre as he is sleepy and, given the distance of the maze from the house, it will be quiet and out of ear shot of that awful piano playing.

Much of the action takes place in or near the maze, described as covering about half an acre with thick twelve feet high hedges, more than one entrance, and a complex layout said to far exceed those at Hatfield House and Hampton Court. Then Howard and Vera make a bet on who would reach one of the centres first. As they blunder around the labyrinth out of sight of each other, ominous sounds are heard and Howard suddenly shouts "Murder!". Since he cannot reach Vera he instructs her to leave the maze as soon as possible.

There follows a tense sequence describing Vera's attempt to escape while expecting to turn a corner and meet a murderer any minute. Instead she finds Roger Shandon's body. Howard, meantime, cannot find his way out but by sheer chance Vera manages it and races off to the house to get people to rescue him, search for the intruder, and call the police.

Once rescued, Howard, accompanied by secretary Stenness and a gardener -- both armed and familiar with the layout of the maze -- return to it to guard the body until the police arrive. In the course of navigating their way to the dead man, they capture a suspicious stranger. The corpse they reach is identified by Stenness as Roger and they realise the first body was actually Neville's.

Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield soon arrives to investigate the matter and the reader is off to the races.

My verdict: Murder In The Maze rattles along well. I particularly enjoyed the description of Vera's terrified escape from the maze. The murder weapon is a novel pairing of two fairly common methods -- in detective fiction at least. All in all, an engaging read I award a B plus. Next on my TBR: Mr Connington's The Case With Nine Solutions, another tempting title!

E-text Murder in the Maze