IN BRIEF: The Cock's Tail Murder - Hugh Austin

A wealthy bachelor who breeds and rents his prize cock-fighting rooter is found shot to death, a bullet in his head, in the doorway to the coop where several chickens are missing, including Bolivar of Reynor, the prize cock. In a surreal touch a brightly colored tail feather is draped along the outside of his ear.  ANd so The Cock's Tail Murder (1938) begins.

If the reader is expecting to learn a lot about the exotic breed of fowl (Oriental Anseel as Austin calls them in the book, but actually known as Aseel or Asil these days) or the now outlawed practice of cockfighting he will be a sadly disappointed. All facts related to fowl all info dumped very quickly in the second chapter and rarely talked about again. Instead we get another one of Hugh Austin's fair play methodical, police procedurals which does more for furthering the world of cynical policemen than it does anything else.

Lt. Peter D. Quint is in his sixth case in The Cock's Tail Murder.  Savvy readers will notice his initials spell out PDQ, a nickname he's earned from his fellow cops for his no-nonsense, efficient approach to police work.  Thankfully he's less than the annoying ass he was in his debut, It Couldn't Be Murder! (1935), the only other Austin novel I've read out of the small collection of Austin books I've acquired. Quint's most notable trait is his irascible nature and for this penultimate crime solving adventure he's been considerably toned down. When faced with lazy thinking cops or witnesses and suspects who toy with him Quint tends to lose his temper. This quote sums up Peter Quint succinctly: "When [he] stepped from the car his pointless irritability had changed to a sharp impatience with anything that delayed him from getting down to business as quickly as possible."

Numerous police sergeants and lower level cops appear throughout the story. Very quickly we get to know the crime scene photographer, a fingerprint expert who is squeamish at bloody murder scenes, and a rookie cop eager to prove he is first rate detective material by noticing key evidence before any of his more experienced colleagues.  There is also a robotic, insensitive slob of a Medical Examiner who makes a quip about the death being a suicide revealing he's also lazy and likes to write off obvious murders to close the case speedily and move on the next. Quint deals with this sarcasm impatiently as expected. The M.E. wants to know when the victim ate his last meal and wants that info soon so as to make his required autopsy go easily and quickly.  Every time we meet another law enforcement agent or cop (with the exception of the excitable rookie) they turn out to be jaded and blasé.  Interesting that a pre-WW2 era American writer had picked up on this aspect of police work so early in the genre. I thought the jaded cop in fiction grew out of the 1960s and 1970s.

But even with the unusual background of a womanizing chicken fancier and the art of rooster breeding the unfolding of the action is routine and a bit plodding. The majority of the book is devoted to Q&A style investigative work.  While Austin has fun with narrative tricks like alternating POV, and prose summaries of interviews rather than dialogue, they don't improve the flow or amp up the excitement. On occasion he creates a highly dramatic scene so artfully done it comes as a real shock. An example: a Q&A with a husband and wife who Quint finds playing croquet in their front c garden. Walter Atwood and his wife are clearly not getting on very well. Acerbic dialogue reveals this but the manner in how the two play their game is even more revealing.  Walt swings his mallet like a golf club and when his wife complains about his violent method he counters that he's on vacation and he wanted to be on the golf course. Mrs. Atwood delivers barbs and implies she was seeing Victor Reynor, the murder victim, as more than just a neighbor.  Immediately after that comment Walt sends his wife's croquet ball sailing across the yard, bouncing off the curb and rolling down the street along the gutter.  She leaves the yard and silently chases after the ball as Quint leaves completely put off by their behavior.

Austin likes to alternate the point of view by leaving Quint and his team of policemen to follow the action with other characters.  This is an attempt to create suspense and dramatic irony.  Suspects have confabs about their lying and cover-ups prior to Lt. Quint discovering those lies. It doesn't really work effectively because those scenes are inserted into sections of the story where they actually impede the action.

One more thing that makes Austin's books novelty items is his announcement that they are fair play mystery novels. In fact this claim is emblazoned on the endpapers of most of his books which were published by Doubleday Doran's "Crime Club".  The most interesting aspect of this book is not really the murder and whodunit, but the mystery of who stole the chickens and what became of them. That part of the novel is legitimately clued rather cleverly and the fate of the chickens is perhaps the most surprising feature in the entire book.