FFB: Stormy Night - Christopher Hale

THE STORY: It was a dark and stormy night… Isn’t it always at some point in a crime novel? During this particular storm in upstate Michigan Dr. Lawrence Shuler is desperate to find his sister who went wandering off into the night. Problem is his sister is severely disturbed. A neurotic who shuns all socializing, avoids any people if she can Florence is known for taking solitary walks on her own but she always returns home well before dark. Dr. Shuler gets the unwanted assistance of Ann York who insists on helping him look for the woman. Together they find poor Florence dead at the edge of the swimming pool on the property of wealthy Curtis Graham. But only a few feet away Graham is also found dead. Both have been shot, apparently by each other. Ballistic studies prove the gun near Florence fired the bullet in Graham’s body and the gun by the man’s body matches the bullet in Florence. But there is a very peculiar find when State Trooper Bill French has the state medical examiner do a thorough autopsy. Two bullets turn up in the single bullet wound in Florence’s body! That’s only the beginning of multiple mysteries in this bafflingly complex tale.

THE CHARACTERS: In his second outing Bill French shows up early in this story and has to sort out the mess started by the incompetent Sheriff Ben Harper who decides to conduct the inquest rather than letting the equally inept coroner do the job. Harper tries to turn the inquest into a theatrical grandstanding opportunity calling witnesses out of traditional order to heighten the drama and reveal secrets and probe into private lives. Most of what he does is utterly irrelevant . in one of the best scenes in the is sections Harper is called out for his protracted questioning of witnesses by the foreman of the inquest’s jury who expected the event to be over in a couple of hours. He needs to get back to running his business and he berates the sheriff for not getting to the point. Eventually Harper blows the whole thing when his attempt at dramatic tactics fail and he has to call for an adjournment. French who has watched the entire inquest from a corner in the back of the hall took copious notes, smiling to himself and drawing attention from most of the women. French, you see, is startlingly handsome, dresses like a movie star in attractive tailor made suits, and drives a Rolls Royce. He’s hardly your average lieutenant with the Michigan State Police. Or any state police for that matter.

As soon as French takes over the double murder of Florence and Curtis Graham starts to be treated with seriousness. He tries his best to find the connection between the two people and uncovers one unexpected fact after another. Among the many suspects he must question and odd incidents he must take into considerations are:

Mathilde York – Ann’s imperious aunt with a habit of spying on neighbors with her binoculars form her bedroom where she spends most of her invalid life.

Amelia Winslow – Aunt Mathilde’s taciturn secretary/companion with a “mellifluous voice” and officious manner. She watches everything and everyone silently and always seem a bit too eager to carry out the old woman’s every whim.

Walter & Dorothy Preston – The York’s neighbors who on the night of the murders suffered severe food poisoning leaving them both bedridden and ill for most of the night

Gordon & Kitty Cuthbert – country club friends of the Grahams who are known to be spongers and loafers. They’ve been invited to stay with the Grahams after losing their house for non-payment of rent. Gordon was coincidentally present on the grounds when Ann and Dr Shuler found the two corpses making him suspect number one in Ann’s eyes. But what would be his motive?

Maria Graham – Curtis’ neurotic wife. With her weak heart she manipulates everyone in the house to get what she needs and throw tantrums when she doesn’t want to talk to police. Heavily protected by Vera, her mannish nurse with the “unusually deep voice”

Jimmy HaverfordAnother ridiculously handsome man in the tale. He’s in his late 20s, rumors circulate of his working in Hollywood movie business. He has every woman in town wrapped around his finger. He uses his good looks and easy-going charm to exploit most of the women and a few men.

Nicholas Post – Wannabe private investigator who brags about working for Graham on a secret project. Keeps dropping hints that he knows exactly who killed Florence and his former employer and more importantly knows why. Says the motive will astound and shock everyone. "Just wait and see!" is his manatra.

Lola – the Preston’s maid whose difficulty in getting some towels cleaned properly leads to her firing., Did she accidentally find out something she shouldn’t have while doing the laundry?

The mysterious man in the trench coat and fedora – overheard talking to Curtis Graham the night he was killed and seen walking around the grounds by some servants just before the bodies were found.

Click to enlarge this map of Riverdale, Michigan

 As the investigation continues two more deaths occur making the connection between Florence and Curtis even more clouded. One of those victims is introduced late in the book, materializing rather conveniently out of Florence's past, has a brief scene where he is questioned by French only to turn up dead four of five pages later. Hale has overloaded the story with gripping incidents at the expense of cohesion. The plot is perhaps much more complicated than need be. An abundance of red herrings are cleverly laid out to distract the reader from a rather obvious culprit. Only the motive is too obscure to uncover on one’s own until French supplies us with the killer’s reasoning. Too much emphasis on melodrama in the first half, some outrageous coincidences (Florence and Mrs. Graham worked as chorus girls together many years ago and a photograph turns up in which they look like twins), and some dipping into the trunk of hoary old clichés make this outing with French less than satisfying. But it’s never boring. On the contrary, despite its flaws I thought it highly entertaining and often very funny.

INNOVATIONS: I liked the contrast between an inept sheriff and the methodical State Police, an organization Hale goes to great lengths to extol. The personal motives of elected officials like the coroner and sheriff, two men not so much concerned with the legalities of their job as how they are perceived in town, are satirized as rural narrow-mindedness and self-interest. At one point a Michigan law is discussed that states all cases of violent death outside the cities must be reported at once by the local sheriff to the State Homicide Bureau. Walter Preston then elaborates that if the sheriff “isn’t well on the way to solution forty-eight hours after the death has occurred, he’s supposed to request the state to take charge.” Ann bemoans this as a “silly law” and wishes Harper hadn’t the chance to “mess it up” for nearly two days. She is fearful he will “ruin all the clues.” And he nearly does. French steps in just in time when Harper embarrasses himself at the inquest.

Enlargement of compass on the map
Poison bottles and pistols!

 

The two bullets in a single wound was a touch I’ve rarely encountered in detective fiction, or any crime fiction for that matter. It’s another way that Hale gets to show the ineptitude of rural elected officials. The local coroner couldn’t be bothered to do a thorough autopsy. Only the state medical examiner found the second bullet (the one fired first and embedded deeper in the wound) which was the actual cause of Florence’s death. To the surprise of all ballistics proves it did not come from Graham's gun.

One of the most fascinating bits doesn’t come until the finale when French recreates a rather confusing gizmo. It’s a way in which the murderer managed to create the illusion of being inside when in fact was outside killing the two victims. The gizmo reminded me of the kind of intricately designed machinery that John Rhode employed as bizarre murder means. This however, was supposedly a simple clockwork device to provide an alibi. An ingenious idea as it is presented in the context of the story, too glibly explained and almost dismissed by French. I’m not so sure if its actual function could be pulled off in real life.

QUOTES:   Mrs. Cuthbert looked very attractive in molded curls and a flowered chiffon frock. She faced him with the bland confidence of the accomplished liar and when her voice came out it was like thick golden honey pouring plausibility over everything she said.

By the fire, in a chintz-covered chair, in an eddy of lavender silk and Mechlin lace, sat [Mathilde York]. She looked as if she had been drawn by Arthur Rackham from her beaky nose to her brilliant eyes. Distributed about her person with the main idea of getting the most on, was a quantity of out-of-date diamond jewelry.

As Bill mounted the steps he glanced at Miss Winslow. The light striking across her glasses hid her eyes, but her mouth was rigidly curved upward. Her smooth brow was serene. Bill wondered why, as he followed her, he had the same sensation as when he watched men balancing in chairs on the parapets of high buildings.

French: “Well, why was Graham being blackmailed? What had he done?”
Post: “I have no idea. [Graham] refused to discuss it with me.”
Bill's opinion of Curtis Graham moved up a notch.

Post: “Have you discovered that Graham was married before?”
French: “Is that so? Are you positive of that?”
“Yes. Well… that is… I deduced it.”
Bill knew by this time that in Nicholas Post’s mind "deduce" was a synonym for "guess," but he made no objections.

I’m on a roll with Christopher Hale -- a great discovery of a writer.  I’m sort of angry with myself for not having read these books earlier. I had at least three Hale mysteries sitting in boxes for years and only just started digging into them. Aptly I chose those with the titles that reflected the bad weather we've been experiencing here in Chicago. I’m sure I’ll find a few more books in her total output that will live up to what she delivered in the very good Dead of Winter.