“I cannot understand why Mr. Bechcombe apparently offered no resistance. His hand-bell, his speaking-tube, the telephone—all were close at hand. It looks as though he had recognized his assassin and had no fear of him.”
The corner house of Crow’s Inn Square was the most dignified set of solicitors’ chambers imaginable. But this monument to law and order nonetheless becomes the scene of murder – when the distinguished lawyer Mr. Bechcombe, despite giving strict instructions not to be disturbed, is strangled in his own office.
Inspector Furnival of Scotland Yard has to wrestle with fiendish clues, unearth priceless gems and tangle with a dangerous gang before he can solve this case, his third and final golden age mystery. Originally published in 1927, this new edition is the first printed in over 80 years, and features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
My thoughts:
I hadn’t heard of Annie Haynes (1865 – 1929), but she was a contemporary of Agatha Christie and wrote a series of detective novels between 1923 and 1930. She was born in Ashby de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, growing up with her mother and younger brother when her parents separated, in her grandparents’ cottage at Coleorton Hall, the seat of the Beaumont baronets. After her mother’s death in 1905, she moved to London and lived with her friend Ada Heather-Bigg, a journalist, philanthropist and feminist. In 1914, at the age of 50, she began suffering from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis that left her in constant pain. She died of heart failure, aged 64, on 30 March 1929. According to crime fiction historian Curtis Evans in his Introduction, it was reported in the press that ‘many people well-known in the literary world’ attended her funeral at St Michael and All Angels in Paddington‘. But by the time Ada Heather-Bigg died in 1944 her mysteries were forgotten until the Dean Street Press republished them.
The Crow’s Inn Tragedy was her third Inspector Furnival Mystery. As you can tell from the description above this is a complicated murder mystery. When solicitor Luke Bechombe is found murdered in his office Inspector Furnival is called in. With the help of Mr Steadman, a barrister and cousin of Luke’s wife they investigate his death. It is far from simple. The Reverend James Collyer, Luke’s brother-in-law, had called to see him about his son, Tony, wanting to raise money to pay his debts. Luke tells him that the emeralds on the family heirloom, the Collyer cross are fake and that there is a regular gang in London stealing jewels, known as the Yellow Gang, under the leadership of the Yellow Dog. Luke’s chief clerk, Amos Thompson, and a mysterious visitor to the office are the chief suspects. Also involved in the mystery are Luke’s secretary Cecily Hoyle, who is in love with Tony and who is obviously hiding some secret, an American couple, Cyril B Carnthwaite and his wife, Luke’s nephew Aubrey Todmarsh, who is a conscientious objector, and who runs a settlement for ex-prisoners called the Community of St Philip .
I thought the setting in the aftermath of the First World War was well done, with details of the hardships and poverty of the returning service men. Tony, for example, who was gassed and wounded during the War had not been able to find a job, and the League of Nations is mentioned scathingly by Luke Bechombe:
“Damn the League of Nations!’ uttered the solicitor, banging his fist upon the writing-pad with an energy that rattled his inkstand. … I look to a largely augmented Air force with plenty of practice in bomb-throwing as my hope for the future. It will be worth fifty of that rotten League of Nations. (page 7)
I enjoyed it for the most part but I think the ending was a bit of a let down becoming too melodramatic and far-fetched for my liking. It reminded me of Agatha Christie’s The Big Four, (also published in 1927) in that it involves a gang of international criminals, and brings in some of the elements of the sensation novel. Inspector Furnival and Mr Steadman find themselves in danger of certain death as they try to track down the Yellow Gang in an unconvincing twist (to me at any rate) as the book comes to a fast paced conclusion.
Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!
This month’s theme is Giftable – Books you would give or would like to receive as a gift. I’ve chosen a medley of crime fiction novels for people new to crime fiction. These are by some of my favourite crime fiction authors and all are books I’ve really enjoyed.
D is for A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, a pseudonym for Ruth Rendell. This is psychological crime fiction, you know right from the beginning who the murderer is, but not why or how the murder was committed. It’s not even clear immediately who the victim is.
E is for The Evidence is Against You by Gillian McAllister. A brilliant psychological thriller, this is a character-driven story of conflict, of broken lives, of the destruction of families, and of devastating trauma as secrets from the past come to the surface; a story full of twists and turns.
C is for Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie, one of the best of her books. In her Foreword she states that it is not the sort of detective story where the least likely person is the one to have committed the crime. This story has just four suspects and any one of them ‘given the right circumstances‘ might have committed the crime. She goes on to explain that there are four distinct types, the motives are peculiar to each person and each would employ a different method. It kept me guessing until the end
E is for Exit Lines by Reginald Hill, a Dalziel and Pascoe crime novel. There are three deaths in one night. All three victims were elderly and died violently and a drunken Dalziel is a suspect in one, as it seems he was driving the car that hit an elderly cyclist. The third victim was found dying, having fallen whilst crossing the recreation ground. The plot is intricate, with the separate cases all linked in one way or another.
M is for Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac, a Golden Age mystery featuring Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, a shrewd detective, not easily ruffled or fooled. It’s set in London in 1945. A murder takes place in Regents Park in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim?
B is for The Blackhouse by Peter May, the first in the Lewis trilogy, set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. There’s a murder and a mystery. Detective Fin Macleod is seconded from the Edinburgh police force to help with the investigation into the murder. As the story unfolds, the narrative splits in two – one, set in the present day, following the murder investigation and the other, as Fin recalls the events of his childhood on the island.
E is for Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin, book 20 in the Inspector Rebus series. He is on his second retirement, when DI Siobhan Clarke asks him to act in a ‘consultative capacity’. Clarke’s been investigating the death of a senior lawyer whose body was found along with a threatening note. Then Big Ger Cafferty, Rebus’s long-time nemesis, receives an identical note and a bullet through his window. This is a complex book, with more deaths, and many twists and turns.
R is for Raven Black by Ann Cleeves, first book in the Shetland series. A teenage girl’s body is found dead in the snow strangled with her own scarf, ravens circling above. Inspector Jimmy Perez, originally from Fair Isle, is part of the investigation team. It has a strong sense of location and a terrific atmosphere – the landscape, the sea, the weather, the circling ravens and the spectacle of Up Helly Aa (the Fire Festival), all anchor the story and bring the book to life.
The next link up will be on January 3, 2026 when the theme will be: New – interpret as you will (new releases, new to you, etc)
Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Readerwhere you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.
One of the books I’m currently reading is The Crow’s Inn Tragedy by Annie Haynes, the third Inspector Furnival Mystery. Originally published in 1927 and republished by Dean Street Press in 2015.
The book begins:
The offices of Messrs Babcombe and Turner took up the whole of the first floor of the corner house of Crow’s Inn Square. Babcome and Turner was one of the oldest firms in London. Their offices were dingy, not to say grimy-looking.
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
Page 56:
‘By the way, I come into some more money when Aunt Madeleine dies. You will be expecting me to murder her next! You had something left you too. You may have done it to get that!
Description from Amazon UK
“I cannot understand why Mr. Bechcombe apparently offered no resistance. His hand-bell, his speaking-tube, the telephone—all were close at hand. It looks as though he had recognized his assassin and had no fear of him.” The corner house of Crow’s Inn Square was the most dignified set of solicitors’ chambers imaginable. But this monument to law and order nonetheless becomes the scene of murder – when the distinguished lawyer Mr. Bechcombe, despite giving strict instructions not to be disturbed, is strangled in his own office.
Inspector Furnival of Scotland Yard has to wrestle with fiendish clues, unearth priceless gems and tangle with a dangerous gang before he can solve this case, his third and final golden age mystery. Originally published in 1927, this new edition is the first printed in over 80 years, and features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
Today I’m linking up with Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blogfor Throwback Thursday. It takes place on the Thursday before the first Saturday of every month (i.e., the Thursday before the monthly #6Degrees post). The idea is to highlight one of your previously published book reviews and then link back to Davida’s blog.
I enjoyed Elly Griffiths’ first DS Harbinder Kaur book, The Stranger Diaries, so I was keen to read the second book, The Postscript Murders. It’s very different, in a much lighter style and I think Elly Griffiths was enjoying herself writing this poking fun at crime fiction writers and the book world, with book bloggers and a literary festival. I really enjoyed it. It’s very readable, cleverly plotted, with interesting and well defined characters
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog
Today the topic is a Freebie and I’ve chosen books Books Set in the 1950s.
Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd. The first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.
After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit and set her sights on the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. Why there? Why now? Instinct tells her it’s better not to reveal her reasons straight away. She takes a room at Gulls Nest guest house and settles in to watch and listen.
I enjoyed this. It’s quirky with some odd characters. At times it feels like a cosy crime mystery, but it’s also rather dark and foreboding, whereas at other times there’s some humour and also a hint of a romance. The setting is good in a fictional 1950s British seaside town.
Fludd by Hilary Mantel. I enjoyed this immensely – partly about religion and superstition, but also a fantasy, a fairy tale, told with wit and humour and with brilliant characterisation. It’s one of her earlier novels, set in Fetherhoughton, a drab, dreary town somewhere in a magical, half-real 1950s north England, a preserve of ignorance and superstition. The story centres on Fludd, a young priest who comes to the Church of St Thomas Aquinas to help Father Angwin, a cynical priest who has lost his faith. The Bishop, a modern man, is concerned about Father Angwin and wants to bring him and the Catholic community up to date – so the statues in the church have to go. This has a most disturbing effect on all concerned – not just the church and Father Angwin, but also the the nuns in the convent, and the school, both under the stern eye of Mother Perpetua.
An Air That Kills by Andrew Taylor, the first book in his Lydmouth crime series. The setting is Lydmouth, a small market town on the Welsh/English border in the early 1950s, just after the end of the Second World War. It begins as journalist, Jill Francis arrives to stay with her friends, Philip and Charlotte in Lydmouth, to recover from a bad experience. Also new to the town is Inspector Richard Thornhill, who is finding it difficult to adjust to working in the local police force. Workmen digging out a drain discover a wooden box containing baby’s bones, an old brooch and some scraps of yellowed newspaper. When Major Harcutt, the local historian is consulted he found that there could be a connection to an old murder trial.
Vengeance by Benjamin Black (a pseudonym used by John Banville), number five in Black’s Quirke Mysteries series set in Ireland in the 1950s. It begins with a suicide, that of Victor Delahaye, a business man who takes his boat out to sea and shoots himself. He had taken his partner’s son, Davy Clancy out to sea with him. The Delahayes and Clancys are interviewed – Mona Delahaye, the dead man’s young and very beautiful wife; James and Jonas Delahaye, his identical twin sons; Marguerite his sister; Jack Clancy, his ambitious, womanizing partner and Sylvia, Jack’s long-suffering wife. Then there is a second death. Why did Victor kill himself and who is the murderer, wreaking vengeance on the families?
The setting is excellent, both in location and time, with the characters wreathed in cigarette smoke, and having to find public telephones for example.
Death Has Deep Roots: a Second World War Mystery by Michael Gilbert. Set in 1950 it’s a mix of courtroom drama, spy novel and an adventure thriller. Victoria Lamartine, a hotel worker, and an ex-French Resistance fighter is on trial for the murder of Major Eric Thoseby, her supposed lover, and alleged father of her dead child. She is the obvious suspect – she was found standing over Thoseby’s dead body in his room at the Family Hotel in Soho, a room that was only accessed by one staircase – making this a variation on a locked room murder mystery. It was written not long after the end of the Second World War and it conveys a vivid impression of what life was like in both France and England, with memories of the war still fresh on people’s minds.
An Awfully Big Adventure, a semi-autobiographical novel set in 1950, based on Beryl Bainbridge’s own experience as an assistant stage manager in a Liverpool. A Liverpool repertory theatre company are rehearsing its Christmas production of Peter Pan. The story centres around Stella, the assistant stage manager. On the face of it this is a straight forward story of the theatre company but underneath it’s packed with emotion, pathos and drama. And it’s firmly grounded in a grim post-war 1950s England, food rationing still in operation and bombed buildings still in ruins overgrown with weeds.
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie, a Poirot mystery, first published in 1955. It’s set in a crowded London house, owned by Mrs Nicolstis, a Greek and full of a mixed group of young students from a variety of backgrounds and cultures – from America, West Africa and India as well as an assortment from the British Isles.Items have gone missing and then one of the students commits suicide – or is it murder? And more deaths follow.
Agatha Christie reveals contemporary attitudes (1950s) to race and politics, as the characters’ prejudices come out in their discussions. There are some interesting reflections on crime and the psychology of behaviour.
Fresh from the Country by Miss Read, set in the 1950s, thisis a stand-alone novel telling the story of Anna Lacey, a newly qualified teacher, as she spends her first year teaching in Elm Hill, a new suburb in London. It highlights the differences between life in the country and the suburbs, which transported me back to the 1950s, when children were taught in large classes and the pace of life was slower than today. It was a bit disconcerting to read that Anna enjoyed smoking, but then the dangers of cigarettes were not emphasised in those days and many people did smoke.
The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths, the third book in the DI Stephens and Max Mephisto series. Known as the ‘Magic Men’ they had been part of a top-secret espionage unit during the War. This book captures the atmosphere of 1953 – a time of great change and optimism. Britain is looking forward with eager anticipation to the new Queen’s coronation. The newspapers and newsreels are full of it and more than half the homes in the country have bought a television in order to watch the coronation live- it was the first British coronation to be broadcast on television, a momentous occasion. But there are fears that an anarchist group is plotting to disrupt the coronation.
I enjoyed the insight into the history of television as Max is sceptical about performing magic on TV thinking the ‘smug grey box’ will be the death of the days of music hall, that magic tricks needed to be performed on stage not in close up with a camera over his shoulder. But he is persuaded to take part in a new show after the coronation.
BooksPlease 