‘The Voice of the Corpse’ by Max Murray

Published by Galileo,  
2 May 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-91553031-8 (PB)

This novel (first published in 1947) was the first of the 12 written by Murray, all but one having ‘corpse’ in the title. Angela Pewsey is worse than the village gossip; she spends all her time observing and spying on her fellow inhabitants and uses all the information she gleans in malevolent ways, including threatening letters, so the village is grateful when she is murdered in mid-afternoon by a blow to the head. Indeed, it is said that it was ‘the first time in many years that someone had done something in her vicinity about which she was not thoroughly informed.’

The murder is committed whilst the comely Celia Sim is returning by train from London with her family solicitor Firth Prentice. He is aggrieved to be cast into the role of reluctant investigator and decides not to hand over some written evidence he has been given by a pair of local boys (they are a recurring double act and vital to the plot) when his help is declined by the local police in the guise of the stolid Sergeant Porter. The latter is convinced the murder was committed by a tramp; a view not shared by anyone else. The lack of progress in the investigation leads inevitably to the arrival of Scotland Yard in the person of Inspector Fowler. He soon discovers that the villagers are not keen to help him solve the case.

And so, begins a sequence of events and discoveries. There are a number of liaisons going on which complicate matters. Celia’s lover Graham Ward appears to have things to hide, as do the local doctor and the wife of a local drunk. The doctor’s receptionist is clearly holding a torch for her employer. It transpires that the wife of one of the suspects – who is not all he seems - has gone missing. Given that the novel was published just after the Second World War, it is not surprising that there is also a degree of topicality.

I enjoyed Murray’s entertainingly wry style very much. The village is called Inching Round, for a start. Describing the village, the author states that ‘it would be unfair to Inching Round to say that its inhabitants enjoyed the aftermath of Angela Mason Pewsey. On the other hand, there was a background of excitement to the whole business that made quite a nice change .... without doubt there was a trace of buoyancy in the air.’ Later Inspector Fowler enjoys a beer and ‘took a swallow that showed a nice balance between thirst and appreciation.’

The characters are well drawn. Celia’s mother, for instance, seems at first to be completely dotty but it soon transpires that she is anything but. The local boys have already been mentioned. For most of the novel there is only a small number of credible suspects, but vital evidence surfaces towards the end (the boys are again involved). After all, seems done and dusted, Firth Prentice discovers the real truth. It is a satisfyingly rounded denouement.

There is much to savour in this tale. If you have a taste for Golden Age mysteries, you will not be disappointed.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Max Alexander Murray  (1901-1956) began life in Australia as a bush boy. His first job was that of a reporter on a Sydney paper but after a year he set out to work his way round the world. He spent eight months in the US and later worked for the News Chronicle where he was sent to Moscow, Siberia, China, Japan, The Philippines and Australia. During the Second World War he wrote scripts for, and edited Radio Newsreel for the BBC Overseas Programme. After the war, with intervals for travel, he devoted himself primarily to writing fiction.

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.

‘Sherlock Holmes and the Mycroft Incident’ by Linda Stratmann

Published by Sapere Books,
10 May 2024
ISBN: 978-0-85495345-5 (PB)

These early adventures of the young Sherlock Holmes are recounted in the memoirs of Arthur Stamford, the student doctor who shared Holmes’ adventures and acted as his biographer before Holmes met Doctor Watson.

This story recounts the events that occurred following the first time Stamford meets Sherlock Holmes’ elder brother. Mycroft Holmes who works for the government, although he has not yet risen to the heights he later achieves when Doctor Watson was Holmes’ biographer.

Stamford is a self-deprecating young man who already feels great awe for Holmes’ superior brain power, and he is amazed when Holmes tells him that Mycroft possesses greater powers of observation and reasoning than he himself has. Stamford meets Mycroft when he visits his brother to request his aid in a very sensitive matter. A government official, Mr Anthony Cloudsdale, has vanished after delivering some confidential government documents and there are several suspicious aspects to his disappearance, including the fact that on his way back to his office Cloudsdale had narrowly avoided being injured, or even killed, in an incident that may not have been as accidental as it appeared. Cloudsdale has a reputation as a very reliable and honest man and his government employers believe that it is unlikely that he should have done anything dishonourable, so the assumption is that he has come to harm. Mycroft is concerned about the security aspects of Cloudsdale’s disappearance but his main reason for getting involved and asking Holmes to investigate is the fear that Joshua Emmett, a close, long-time friend of Mycroft’s is under suspicion. Mycroft is adamant that Emmett is not capable of violence or treason, however, it is true that he could make good use of extra money. He lives with his mother in a very modest manner and is saving to accumulate enough money to marry his devoted sweetheart, a very beautiful young woman.

The torso of a man’s body is recovered from the River Thames and, even though there are no identifying marks, and another woman claims it belongs to her husband, certain personal possessions found nearby cause the partial body to be identified as Cloudsdale, Despite the best efforts of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, the evidence against Emmett grows more overwhelming. Surprisingly it is Stamford’s simple and straightforward way of looking at things that puts Holmes onto the track that reveals the truth in a case of treason and cruelty that radically changes the lives of both Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes and the Mycroft Incident is the seventh book in the series that recounts the adventures in The Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. It is a novel which has excellent characterisation and a complex, cleverly constructed plot, which is far darker in tone than the earlier books in this series. This is an interesting, immaculately researched novel, which I recommend.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Linda Stratmann was born in Leicester in 1948 and first started scribbling stories and poems at the age of six. She became interested in true crime when watching Edgar Lustgarten on TV in the 1950s. Linda attended Wyggeston Girls Grammar School, trained to be a chemist’s dispenser, and later studied at Newcastle University where she obtained a first in Psychology. She then spent 27 years in the civil service before leaving to devote her time to writing. Linda loves spending time in libraries and archives and really enjoys giving talks on her subject.

 www.lindastratmann.com

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book  The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com

To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title

Death and the Dancing Snowman 

Book Club Mysteries

CAHOON, Lynn	2022	The Tuesday Night Survivors' Club
	2022	Secrets in the Stacks
CHASE, Erika	2022	Death in the Romance Aisle
	2012	A Killer Read
	2012	Read and Buried
	2013	Cover Story
	2014	Book Fair and Foul
	2015	Law and Author
	2019	Murder on Cape Cod
	2021	Murder at the Taffy Shop
	2021	Murder at the Lobstah Shack
	2022	Murder in a Cape Cottage
CONROY, Vivian	2017	Dead to Begin With (2017)
	2017	Grand Prize: Murder! (2017)
	2017	Written into the Grave (2017)
DAY, Maddie	2019	Murder on Cape Cod (2019)
	2021	Murder at the Taffy Shop
	2021	Murder at the Lobstah Shack
	2022	Murder in a Cape Cottage
	2023	Murder at a CapeBookstore
	2024	Murder at the Rusty Anchor
GALBRAITH, Gillian	2019	The End of The Line
GERBER, Daryl Wood	2013	Fina Sentence
	2014	Inherit the Word
	2014	Stirring the Plot
	2015	Fudging the Books
	2016	Grilling the Subject
	2018	Pressing the Issue
	2018	Wreath Between the Lines
	2019	Sifting Through Clues
	2020	Shredding the Evidence
	2021	Wining and Dying
	2022	Simmering with Resentment
HANANIA, Denise Nickell	2007	A Talent to Deceive
HUTTON, Callie	2020	A Study in Murder (2020)
	2022	The Sign of Death
	2022	The Mystery of Albert E. Finch (2022)
	2022	Death and Deception (2022)
	2023	Homicide at the Vicarage (2023)
JAMES, Cee Cee	2020	Tall Tails Secret Book Club
	2021	Pawsibly Guilty
	2021	Catastrophe in the Library
	2021	Poisonous Paws
	2022	Clawful Scandal
WARGA, Wayne	1990	Fatal Impressions
	1991	Singapore Transfer
WARREN, Nancy	2020	The Vampire Book Club
	2020	Chapter and Curse
	2020	A Spelling Mistake
	2021	Crossing the Lines
	2022	A Poisonous Review
WHITING, J.A.	2022	Murder in the Moonlight
	2022	Murder Long Ago
	2023	Murder on Main Street

BLOODY SCOTAND REVEALS FIVE HEADLINERS AHEAD OF 2024 PROGRAMME LAUNCH NEXT WEEK

In a first for Bloody Scotland the festival reveals five headliners ahead of the programme launch at The Golden Lion in Stirling next week.

Authors released as part of the festival’s inaugural ‘sneaky peek’ include:

Richard Armitage  – Headlining the opening night on Friday 13^th September, one of the UK’s most popular actors will be at The Albert Halls in Stirling to talk about his debut thriller, Geneva. His string of acting credits include The Hobbit, North and South, Into the Storm and Spooks.

Ann Cleeves  – The creator of three outstanding crime series, two much-loved television dramas in Vera and Shetland and 26 novels translated into over 20 languages will be in conversation with one of the co-founders of Bloody Scotland, Lin Anderson. Her event will be on the afternoon of Saturday 14^th.
Peter May  – Launching the much-anticipated fourth book in the Lewis series, one of Scotland’s favourite crime writers will be back on the Stirling stage for the first time since 2014 in conversation with one of the founding directors of the festival, local author, Craig Robertson. He will be at the Albert Halls on Saturday evening.

Louise Minchin  –  The BBC Breakfast TV presenter will be in Stirling at noon on Sunday 15^th September to talk about her debut novel, Isolation Island. The book draws heavily on her TV experience.

Ruth Ware  – The international bestselling crime writer – hot from being the guest programmer at Harrogate - will be in conversation with Louise discussing her new blockbuster, One Perfect Couple, chaired by TV and radio presenter, Bryan Burnett.

Tickets will go on sale at noon on Thursday 13 June.

 See www.bloodyscotland.com for more information.

Bloody Scotland is Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival, providing a showcase for the best crime writing from Scotland and the world, unique in that it was set up by a group of Scottish crime writers in 2012.
 
The Bloody Scotland 2024 programme – featuring many other HUGE names in the world of crime fiction - will be launched at The Golden Lion in Stirling on Thursday 20 June followed by an event with Val McDermid. Tickets are deliberately being offered at only £6 (£5 for concessions) to encourage locals who wouldn’t normally attend the festival to give it a go. 
 
The 2024 festival will begin at 3pm on Friday 13 September and the final event will conclude at 2.30pm on Sunday 15 September.
The festival takes place in various venues (including The Albert Halls, Trinity Church and the social hub of the festival, The Golden Lion Hotel) in the historic city of Stirling. 

‘A Bullet For Rhino’ by Clifford Witting

Published by Galileo Publishers,
25 April 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-915530-27-1 (PB)

First published in 1950, A Bullet for Rhino features a regular in Witting’s novels, Detective Inspector Harry Charlton, but he does not lead the investigation officially. He has been invited to a reunion at Mereworth School. Also present is Colonel Bernard Garstang VC, DSO, MC, a renowned but distinctly unappealing old boy who goes under the moniker of ‘Rhino’. He gained this name ‘not just because he was large and solid with a big head, but also because of his tendency to charge into everything, physically and mentally.’ His service record was similarly exuberant, and at the time the story starts he has returned to England from his posting as a district officer in Port Douglas, Nigeria, to persuade his daughter (an only child who lives with his estranged wife) to accompany him back to act as his hostess now that he has been offered the Residency.

Garstang is painted in a very unpleasant light. When he worked in South America he was known locally as el Chancho Colerado (‘the red pig’) and ‘was the most detested European within a hundred miles’. In Nigeria he treated the natives ‘like dirt and they hated his guts’. Charlton calls him ‘the black man’s burden’, and at another point says, ‘it’s no good appealing to Rhino’s finer feelings, because he hasn’t any’. As if all this were not bad enough, Garstang has ‘always been far too fond of the bottle’ and is remembered from some years ago as having ‘a very ruddy complexion and a thick neck of the same colour’. He has a hot and easily roused temper. It is not surprising, then, that he becomes a victim of murder, as the novel’s title makes clear.

Yet Garstang does not meet his end until well through the story. Until that point, we are treated to the lives of the supporting cast and relationships between individuals. If Diana Garstang is to go to Nigeria with her father, her devoted admirer Gordon Hollander is determined to go with her, even though he has a medical condition that could prove fatal in such a climate. Gordon’s sister Margot falls in with Mark Longdon, an apparently unsympathetic figure whose past gradually catches up with him. Sir James Hollander, father to Gordon and Margot, doesn’t want Gordon to go to Nigeria or Margot to consort with Longdon. Garstang’s wife, Muriel (Sir James calls her ‘a bit neurotic’) also doesn’t want Diana to go to Nigeria. There are enough people who would be happy if Garstang were out of the way.

Indeed, an attempt is made on Garstang’s life earlier in the novel. A package is left at his hotel which he suspects is a bomb. This brings in Detective-inspector Paul Le Maire of the Special Branch. He appears foppish but is no fool, and his insolent whimsy when dealing with his local superiors adds much to the book. Realising that Garstang is in danger (one or two suspicious people have also been seen around the hotel), he assigns a detective to shadow him. When, despite this protection, Garstang finally meets his maker, it appears to be an open and shut case. We should know better. The local chief inspector, Prout, is summoned. He is ‘a tall, striking figure in his uniform and peaked cap, out of which formal attire he was seldom seen’; indeed, he is rumoured to sleep in it. He is also puritanical, in contrast to Le Maire. There are tensions between the detectives. When the pompous Prout announces he has solved the case (a suicide proves convenient), he says to Charlton ‘the country copper is not always such a damned fool as the C.I.D. would like to make out.’ Yet it is left to Charlton at the very end to reveal the real murderer after his shadowing of the case. Prout never knows the truth.

This is a very enjoyable tale, typical of its time, with the boys at the school adding much to the ambience. Witting writes in a pleasantly entertaining and wry style (‘Very good, sir,’ says one of the junior officers when dismissed from his presence by Prout, ‘his tone robbing the words of every vestige of docile acquiescence’). I am happy to recommend it.
-------
Reviewer: David Whittle

Clifford Witting (1907-1968) was born in Lewisham, England. He was educated at Eltham College, London, between 1916 and 1924. During World War II he served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, 1942-44, and as a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1944-46. He married Ellen Marjorie Steward in 1934 and they had one daughter. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a clerk in Lloyds bank from 1924 to 1942. He was Honorary Editor of The Old Elthamian magazine, London. from 1947 up to his death. His first novel Murder in Blue was published in 1937 and his series characters were Sergeant (later Inspector) Peter Bradford and Inspector Harry Charlton. Unusually, he didn’t join The Detection Club until 1958 by which time he had written 12 detective novels.

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.