‘Death On A May Morning’ by Max Dalman

Published by Oreon, The Oleander Press,
28 September 2022.
ISBN: 978-0-91-547517-6 (PB)

Death on May Morning (originally published in 1938) appears in the increasingly impressive Oreon Golden Age series. Max Dalman (1905-1951) wrote 15 detective stories of which this is the fourth. He was also a journalist and publisher.

The novel starts on May Morning at the top of Magdalen College tower in Oxford, where the red-haired student son of a South American dictator is shot dead. Journalist Philip Hardman, visiting a student friend, witnesses the incident and starts to investigate. In this he is helped by his easy access to the student community, but before long he is joined by Chief Inspector Osborne (a pipe smoker, needless to say) who uses him as a foil. ‘I’d like to talk things over with someone who can offer constructive criticism and suggestions,’ Osborne says to Hardman well into the investigation. ‘What I’d like to do if you could bear it is to go through the list of suspects as I see them. You can tell me if there’s anything wrong.’

There is a second murder which increases the speculation as to whether the May Morning shooting was of the intended victim. The rather repressive university rules of the time concerning when students were allowed to come and go from their place of residence play a central part. Although the story takes place in Oxford (the riverbank is a favoured location), the spectre of South America lurks in the background, and transatlantic activity takes an increasingly important role in the investigation. Towards the end it appears that all suspects have been ruled out, but this only leads to what is a particularly bloody and tragic denouement for a Golden Age story.

There are touches of humour. ‘I’m not an expert in crime,’ says a university proctor, ‘but I’ve read a good many detective novels.’ Osborne counters by responding ‘So, perhaps, had the murderer.’ Just before the finish Hardman says, ‘If there’s one point in the whole case in which the murderer was considerate, it was giving us a pub to have a drink in at the end.’

I felt the novel takes a little time to get going, and one minor irritation for me is that three of the main characters have names beginning with ‘H’. Unless I’ve missed something, there is no particular reason for this – but I suppose I should just get over it! However, once I did get over these two small barriers, the novel is a typical and enjoyable contribution to the Golden Age and Oxford genres.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Max Dalman (1905-1951) was born Max Dalman Binns in Scarborough, and is the son of the equally forgotten British mystery writer Ottwell Binns (1872-1935). 

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.