‘Bloodshed in Bayswater’ by John Rowland

Published by Galileo,
2 May 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-91553030-1 (PB)

First published in 1935, the novel begins as Margery Latimer is awakened in the night by a scream. Rushing to her window she sees a man hurrying away from the car in which a man has been murdered. She tells the police, in the shape of Rowland’s regular detective Henry Shelley, what she witnessed. Asked if she would recognize the man were she to see him again, she says she would. Latimer is a young woman who is employed as a secretary at her former guardian’s legal practice. The next morning, she is surprised when this man, Mr Bellingham, tells her that he intends to retire but suggests there is a more lucrative job available with the National Anti-Speed Association. When Latimer is introduced to her new employer, John Cook, founder of the association, she is alarmed to discover that he is the man she saw the previous night. For reasons of her own she does not reveal this to anyone, even though Cook later tells her that she should have done.

Before long another two murders are committed, with all three victims connected to the motor industry. Worse for Latimer is that John Cook, to whom she has clearly taken a shine (as Shelley notes in due course), was in the immediate neighbourhood each time the crimes took place. He is apparently the only real suspect for most of the story. Bellingham suggests that the police are not doing enough, so he suggests to Latimer that they employ a private investigator. Strange things continue to happen: Cook disappears for periods; Latimer is tied up but is unable to see by whom whilst Cook’s office is searched, as is his house later; unidentifiable people answer telephone calls; Latimer is blackmailed, but her blackmailer is found murdered shortly afterwards; she is abducted and drugged; she is perplexed at times by the odd behaviour of both Cook and Bellingham.

Latimer inadvertently leads Shelley to the perpetrator of the murders. It seems even to this reviewer (not one given to worrying too much about the plot if a book is sufficiently entertaining) that the unmasking of the villain is a bit of a contrivance, but I admit in hindsight that there have been hints even if the twist remains improbably unconvincing. All loose ends are certainly tied up. I think it fair to observe that the characters are not as memorable as in some Golden Age tales (although Shelley does a nice line in observation), but this is still a solid addition to the welcome list of Galileo’s republishing project.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

John Rowland (1907-1984) was born in Bodmin, Cornwall and was brought up as a Methodist. He was, however, rather a rebellious Methodist, and quickly became interested in science.  He attended Bodmin Grammar School and Plymouth College, then the University of Bristol, where he studied physics and chemistry, receiving a BSc in 1929. He then earned a diploma in education and taught science in a Protestant grammar school in County Donegal. He disliked teaching, however, and became a freelance writer in London, as there were not enough opportunities in Bristol for him to earn a living. He became an editorial assistant for C Frederick Watts, a London publisher closely associated with the Rationalist Press Association, and became editor of The Free Thinker's Digest. He was a rationalist who attacked conventional theology, but felt reverence towards a universal mystery, and felt that rationalism ought to appeal to the emotions as well as to reason.

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 East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.