People Will Talk - E. C. R. Lorac

THE STORY:  Anne Wordhead is concerned about the disappearance of her sister Elizabeth Ryan, a well known writer of sensational novels. She goes to the police and rather sternly accuses Colonel Ryan, her brother-in-law, of murdering her sister. Police are reluctant to intervene in what appears to be two people who decided to end their marriage unofficially and go their separate ways.  The Ryans were recently in Italy and Ryan is sure is wife went onto Germany without him. But days later the police discover a body in a car wreck. The corpse turns out to be Colonel Philip Ryan. He has been poisoned and it looks to be suicide of a guilt ridden man. But there are too many odd events and whispered rumors that force Supt. Kempson and his police colleagues to investigate the Colonel's death while simultaneously trying to  discover what happened to Mrs. Ryan.

THE STRUCTURE:  I prefer the US title People Will Talk (1958), much more suitable for this story of gossip and malicious rumormongering that leads to several deaths.  The original UK title is Death in Triplicate as you might have guessed from the DJ cover illustrating this post (I was unable to find a DJ of the US edition). But that title unfortunately gets the reader thinking about three deaths and so the plot is slightly ruined as it will be obvious well before the midpoint that Mrs. Ryan will eventually turn up dead. But who is the third victim? That will come as no surprise to anyone. It is easily predicted based on the behavior of that doomed individual.

 For the most part this is a straight forward police procedural style mystery novel. There are shifting viewpoints at times to liven up the middling Q&A narrative. But Lorac throws in enough unexpected surprises to keep the pages turning. The highlight of the book comes when the action shifts from the police investigation to an amateur sleuthing adventure initiated by the Colonel's nephew, Jim.  He heads off to Italy with his old college pal Benito Conti, English born to Italian immigrants and fluent in the language,  where they hop to prove that Uncle Phil could not have killed his wife while they were in Italy. Benito carefully questions a variety of hotel porters, train station employees and a hotel chauffeur among other service people and learn that Mrs. Ryan had an eventful trip apart form her husband visiting four different cities on her way to Lake Como. This was truly the most entertaining and inventive portion of the novel.

THE CHARACTERS:  The suspects and victims are listed below:

Jim Ryan - The Colonel's nephew and sole heir to his estate which increases dramatically should Mrs. Ryan prove to be dead as well. He is convinced that his uncle is innocent of any crime.

Anne Wordhead - An imperious, highly opinionated and meddlesome woman who is sure her sister died at the hands of Colonel Ryan.  She inveigles her way into the investigation riling Kempson who does his best not to show how irritated she makes him.

Emma & Ted Baydock - Sister and brother servants who worked for the Ryans. Emma is a horrid gossip mainly responsible for furthering Miss Wordhead's suspicions and enhancing them with nasty innuendo. Ted is a gardener/handyman and pretty much of a dullard.

Dr. and Lois Verron - The second duo of amateur sleuths though they do so in the privacy of their home.  Literal armchair detectives this husband and wife offer up their opinions to each other of what happened to the Ryans and who did in who. Intriguingly, Kempson at one point confronts Dr. Verron naming him a suspect pointing out in a surprise moment the physician's unusual motive that makes him a suspect. The chapters with the Verrons are equally entertaining.

Mrs. Culley - another gossip who claims to have seen Mrs. Ryan in her car driving in a nearby village days before the Colonel was found dead. Is Mrs. Ryan actually in England hiding out somewhere?

Another Mrs. Ryan (!) - This one is Ji'ms mother. She lives in Bristol.  Kempson sends one fo the constables to visit her. During this visits he learns of a letter that Col. Ryan sent to Jim.  He asks to open it with Mrs. Ryan's permission. The two of them find an enclosure with the letter -- Philip Ryan's will.

Edith Caroline Rivett, AKA E. C. R. Lorac
and Carol Carnac

INNOVATIONS: While the police Q&A sections tend to be routine and rather dull, the amateur sleuth chapters with the Verrons and later Jim & Ben are engaging often invigorated with Lorac's wit and humor. In addition to the unexpected discovery of Uncle Phil's will there are other traditional detective novel  conventions like poison pen letters, blackmail, a missing manuscript of Elizabeth Ryan's latest novel, something stolen from the Ryan safe, and poison samples turning up in unusual locations. Several of these plot twists turn out to be utter red herrings and in one case I was a bit disappointed that one red herring leaves one mystery unexplained.  

In the end however, the culprit is something of an eyebrow raising surprise if not a gasp inducing one. And the third murder is truly a gruesome surprise! The motive for all murders is cleverly hidden but fair play as it was mentioned very early in the story. 

EASY TO FIND?  Lorac is hit or miss for me. This one though at first seemingly very familiar transforms into a clever, often ingenious, mix of police procedural and amateur sleuth novel.  It comes recommended should you be lucky to find a copy.  It's extremely scarce in the US edition -- mine was amazingly found at the main branch of the Chicago Public Library. There are copies for sale of the UK edition under the title Death in Triplicate. Also, I uncovered a few in French translation offered for sale online. Still as one of Lorac's rather scarce titles, I think libraries are your best bet for this book.