IN BRIEF: Ebenezer Investigates - Nicholas Brady

The locals of Dowerby would like a new parish hall and they turn to the charismatic Reverend Ebenezer Buckle who in the past has been quite talented in getting multiple fundraising projects going. Among the many ideas that bring in money are raffles, whist drives, benefit concerts, and -- as their last straw attempt -- door-to-door collections.  The entire congregation decides to hold a full-out church fete and bazaar to get the final couple of thousand for a down payment for the architect.

During a treasure hunt which takes participants on a scramble throughout the village by following clues in riddle form Rev. Buckle discovers the body of Constance Bell. The young lady had just visited his booth where he was selling a variety of wildflowers grown in his garden. She cannot have been dead for long. Constance is found face down in a creek near a foot bridge and has been stabbed in the throat. Suspicion immediately falls on the young man she was seen with earlier at the fete. Investigation leads police to believe that Constance was promiscuous and had a variety of men paying attention to her. Rev. Buckle disbelieves these assumptions and sets about to clear Constance's name and uncover the truth behind her violent death.

Buckle comes across more like Father Brown in this book than in any other. This is the mystery novel as morality play with a decidedly modern twist. Theology takes center stage as Buckle is seen preaching from the pulpit several times a facet of his life absent from the other two books I read in the series. Thankfully, the preaching is never heavy handed. The murder investigation soon focuses on adultery and promiscuity in the lives of two key women characters. Forgiveness and compassion are the ultimate lessons Buckle attempts to teach by the end of the novel. 

Detection for the most part is very good with an emphasis on human nature observations rather than physical evidence. Buckle must do a lot of inductive reasoning and a bit of guesswork . Several times over the course of the book he points out that the killer seems to have made the crime a lot more difficult than it should have been. Constance's belongings, for example, are strewn throughout the fields near the scene of the murder. It takes days to locate all the items she was seen carrying away from the church bazaar. Why did the killer do this, Buckle wonders?  Why not just leave where she was? Buckle is convinced he is dealing with a murderer who is too smart for his own good. But with little real evidence at hand and conceited and overly self-assured murderer, Buckle finds himself forced to do what any law officer would find unethical. He manufactures evidence and lays a trap which he hopes will trick the murderer into revealing himself and thereby confessing to the crime.

There is a good bit of misdirection in the story as well. The sex aspect of the book seems very advanced for a detective novel of the early 1930s.  Readers of the time were probably easily fooled by Brady's clever way of making the case appear to be about one person when in fact all the clues really point to another, but a contemporary reader will probably catch on to the trick fairly quickly. It is difficult to see this book in the light of the 1930s because of the fallen woman cliche that crops up repeatedly in the story. Two of the women are portrayed as "wicked" who out of loneliness turn to the arms of attractive and virile men, ironically the real weaklings and cowards of the book. But like the murder victim in Murder Among Friends reviewed here last week it is hard not to feel some sympathy for the Constance and her mother in this book.

Chances are you will not be able to locate a copy of Ebenezer Investigates (1934) very easily.  It took me almost 15 years to find mine. It purchased it from an online UK bookseller and I paid close to $85 including shipping to get it over here. Currently, there are no copies for sale on the internet. Good luck in your search. I'm still trying to find a copy of Week-end Murder and Coupons for Death, the the last two books featuring Reverend Buckle. But I fear I may never find either book.

Previously reviewed books by Nicholas Brady are The House of Strange Guests and Fair Murder.

FFB: Fair Murder - Nicholas Brady



U.S. edition with a title change
(Henry Holt & Co., 1933)

Reverend Ebenezer Buckle solves his second case in this detective novel that shares a lot with the weird menace pulps of the 1930s American newsstands. Buckle is a lively amateur sleuth who reminds me of Dr. Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale. He's a brilliant man with lots of knowledge of criminal behavior, is well read in psychology and is an avid amateur botanist and gardener. In fact it is usually while doing some gardening task or examining a certain species of flower that he gets his "Eureka!" moment and all the pieces of the puzzling crime fall into place.

This is considered one of the most outlandish and gruesome of the Brady novels all of which tend to incorporate the bizarre. A murder is committed at the freak show midway of a traveling carnival. Sandra, the fat lady, is found stabbed in the neck in a tent surrounded by muddy ground. No footprints anywhere outside the tent or near her body indicating a possible assailant and the only approach seemed to be by someone on his knees stabbing upward. But how the murderer got into the tent is a mystery. One of the freaks in the sideshow is considered as a primary suspect because of his skill in throwing knives -- with his teeth since he has no arms! This is one Harry Stephen Keeler might have written.

Also worth mentioning is the seemingly miraculous transformation of the previously shapely Martha into the immensely fat Sandra. How and why did that happen? The unveiling of the culprit and the reasons for Sandra's transformation are part of the horrifying elements of what is definitely a nightmarish crime novel. I was reminded of The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck, a science fiction/horror novel by American writer Alexander Laing.

I have been lucky to find three of the five books John V. Turner wrote as "Nicholas Brady." Only two were published in the US and the remaining three were available only in UK editions. Four of those five Brady mystery novels feature Rev. Buckle as the detective hero. Strangely, I have found all of my copies in the UK editions. Currently, there are no copies of this book for sale anywhere that I could find. You might try interlibrary loan. See the list below for other reviews of the mystery novels in this brief series. For more on Ebenezer Buckle visit this page on an excellent website devoted to clerical mysteries.

UPDATE: As of 2018, the Nicholas Brady books have been made available by a fly-by-night "reprint publisher" called Black Heath Classic Crime who puts out their editions as digital books only. You can find them at the UK version of amazon. Click here for the whole list. Be warned that due to the legal restrictions placed on digital books that US readers may not be able to purchase them.

The Rev. Ebenezer Buckle series
The House of Strange Guests (1932)
Fair Murder (US title: The Carnival Murder) (1933)
Week-end Murder (1933)
Ebenezer Investigates (1934)

The House of Strange Guests - Nicholas Brady (1932)

The house of the title is the home of Maurice Mostyn and the strange guests are the various people who he invites there to discuss private business.  All of the guests show up under aliases, and according to the butler Summers often forget their name and sign checks under different names.  The book opens with the report of the death of Mr. Mostyn who is found dead in his bath in a gas-filled bathroom.  Suicide is almost immediately ruled out based on the position of his body and the discovery of rubber gloves the maid used in a place where they shouldn't be.  Interrogation of the suspects reveals that they are all glad the man is dead. After some prodding from Inspector Hallows and Rev. Buckle (who was among the guests in disguise) we learn that all the guests were victims of an intricate blackmail scheme.  The autopsy reveals that Mostyn was poisoned with a rare toxin called strophanthin and that it was administered in his toothpaste.  After some routine grilling of the suspects the story takes an interesting turn when Buckle starts his own investigations.

Die Fremden Gäste (The Strange Guests)
German ed., (Wilhelm Goldmann, 1938)

He is fascinated with the household accounts, the manner in which the bills are paid, and three hidden safes in the Mostyn home.  One of these safes is custom made and its odd combination lock requiring two separate combinations (one with letters, one with numbers ) as well as a key piques Buckle's interest.  He tracks down the safe maker and learns several interesting things that only confirm Buckle's suspicions and eventually lead to the discovery of the murderer.  If the denouement unveils one of mysterydom's most groan inducing clichés the writing and the story are lively enough to forgive Brady's lack of invention.

John V Turner (aka Nicholas Brady)

Reverend Buckle is one of the more interesting least known detectives in the genre.  He has an almost macabre interest in the criminal mind but is also an avid gardener and will often be found perusing the latest gardening catalogue which he always seems to have ready in one of his many pockets.  He reminds me of Gideon Fell.  In fact the last two chapters in which he more or less lectures to Inspector Hallows explaining the solution in detail and also eliminates all but one of the suspects proving that only person left has to be the killer is very reminiscent of the kind of lecture that Dr. Fell delivered in Carr's books.  This seems to be more run-of-the-mill than other Brady detective novels featuring Rev. Buckle all of which tend to have an element of the bizarre in the plot.