Let X Be the Murderer - Clifford Witting

Lookee here-- It's a book that was recently reprinted and one that you can actually purchase without having to take out a second mortgage! I did promise a few books that were much easier (and affordable) to find this week.

I have an interesting history with Let X Be the Murderer (1947).  I bought a first edition with the unusual illustrated dust jacket (bonus points to anyone who knows what is on the cover on that old edition over on the left.  I'll reveal it later in the post) but never received it.  It was one of two very expensive books that was lost or never delivered or --most likely-- destroyed in mountain of mail that went "missing" in my neighborhood of Rogers Park back at the height of the pandemic.  That loss was one of the most gut wrenching lessons I learned and I stopped buying books from the UK and all sellers overseas for two full years because of the combined loss and the general collapse of the Chicago mail delivery service between March 2020 and the summer of 2021.

This year, a few weeks before Galileo released their new reprint paperback edition, a relatively affordable copy of Let X... turned up in the catalog of a US seller I used to buy from regularly. I snapped it up and it arrived back in May.  Then out of the blue Galileo sent me a review copy!  It was completely unexpected and a delightful surprise.  When I opened the package and saw what it was I did remember that Robert Hyde, one of their publicists, had promised me that I'd get the last couple of Witting books that were planned for release as they came out.  I am also supposed to get copies of the other two Joan Cockin books that they have in the works.  

All these years I was under the impression that Let X Be the Murderer had something to do with mathematics. Anyone would think so based on the title.  Then when you open the book and see that the books is divided into four sections -- Theorem, Hypothesis, Construction, Proof -- once again most readers would be expecting an academic mystery perhaps about a murdered calculus or geometry professor. However, Inspector Charlton does not meet anyone involved in mathematics or geometry or even physics.  Instead it's almost as if he travels back to the 19th century because this detective novel turns out to be very much a homage to the Victorian sensation novel.  As a bonus, adding to the anachronistic atmosphere, Witting throws in eerie occult dabbling and explorations into the world of spiritualism and paranormal events.

Inspector Henry Charlton, Witting's usual protagonist detective, is paired up with the flippant Cockney copper, Det-Sgt Martin this time and they make an amusing pair.  Yet another surprise -- Peter Bradfield (who appears in several other Witting detective novels as a constable and in Subject-Murder as one of the lead characters) pops up in the last couple of chapters to help Charlton carry out some sneaky police business by gathering crucial evidence that might never have been collected. Bradfield eventually makes it to the rank of Chief Inspector, I think, and he becomes the lead detective in Witting's novels that were written and published in the 1950s and 1960s.

In essence this could be seen as Wilkie Collins redux.  The machinations of Mrs. Gulliver, a scheming housekeeper, and the Harlers, a devilish husband and wife, reminded me of the diabolical trio of Count Fosco, Lady Fosco and Percival Glyde in The Woman in White.  Mr & Mrs Harler in Let X Be The Murderer are intent on sending a poor old man to the madhouse just as those other three set their sinister designs on Laura Fairlie. Similarly, the bulk of the novel involves a highly convoluted history of philandering, adultery and questionable parentage. The often dizzying explanations of who was jumping into whose beds and who fathered what child got to be rather head spinning.  The climax of the book involves...well, can't really mention it without ruining a genuine shock.  But I must tell you that event is something that occurred in two other books I recently read and made me not only raise my eyebrows in surprise but burst out laughing.  Not so much because it's both absurd and so utterly unexpected but because who could believe that I would read three different books from three different decades over a period of three months that all featured the same bizarre revelation?  It was beyond surreal!

It's not just the slew of dastardly villains all of whom get what they deserve in the end that make this such an engaging page-turner.  Cast in the role of the apparent victim of the Harler's "Gaslighting" plot is elderly Sir Victor Warringham, head of the household at the dilapidated estate known as Elmsdale. Sir Victor had recently lost his wife and daughter in a wartime bombing and he's been devastated by their deaths. He turns to spiritualism for solace and has been acting increasingly eccentric. Someone caught him playing at witchcraft spells and black magic in the kitchen, he's written a book on haunted houses, and is currently involved in researching folklore and legends.  When Charlton interviews him Sir Vincent reveals what all his experiments have been about. It was a clever bit of misdirection very early in a novel teeming with reversals, upsets and topsy-turvy perceptions.

Perhaps the only drawback to this mystery novel is Witting's tendency to have his characters indulge in long monologues to fill in backstory or to explain themselves.  It's another aspect of the book that recalls a Victorian sensibility; an insistence that characters speak at length about their motivations or to dissemble and mislead.  Clement Harler, in particular, talks voluminously and pompously.  He also calls the lead detective Clayton for much of the book and it's only when Charlton has finally got Harler to come clean and stop lying that he humiliates Harler by sternly correcting him.

Oh yes, about that illustration on the DJ.  It's supposed to depict two different colored flex cords from a bedside table lamp.  The cords are used as a murder weapon in one of the many crimes that occur in the book.  A paper knife is also involved but is oddly not part of the drawing.  Down there in the lower right corner you can see what I think its meant to be the electrical plug.  But there's no way I think anyone would be able to name the objects depicted without having read the book. Anyone guess correctly?

Night's Candles - Anne Hocking

I must give credit where credit is due.  One of my frequent readers who also often buys books from me (yes, I still do that on the side. Feel free to email me!) got me interested in the work of Anne Hocking.  I reviewed one of three books I owned by Hocking way back in 2014 but never returned to  her. Kacper, the blog fan, asked me back in the spring of this year if I had any of her books for sale. Though I enjoyed that lone Hocking book so far reviewed on this blog I never bothered reading the other two books I owned.  Guess now is the time to check them out, I thought.

And so I went hunting for them and uncovered Deadly Is the Evil Tongue (aka Old Miss Fitzgerald as published in the original UK edition) and whipped through it a few days before selling it to Kacper.  It was just as intriguing as Poison Is a Bitter Brew though it seemed all too similar in the story.  All I had to say was that she was excellent in her character renditions and dialogue.  Her writing is literate, witty, and she often has something to say other than merely "whodunnit".  Anne Hocking can hold my interest for hours on end.  Though neither of those books were baffling (in fact, a bit too easy to figure out) that is no discredit to her talent as an engaging and innovative writer.  Kacper assured me that she does indeed have a few cleverly plotted, genuine detective novels in her output. I thought she would be better at the inverted detective novel form as those two other books I read seemed to me more indebted to that form even if they followed the format of the traditional detective novel.   

Well, I found my first "traditional" Hocking a few weeks ago in Night's Candles (1941).  Anne Hocking had plenty of unexpected plotting in store for me.

Modern photo of the same tunnel that
appears on UK 1st edition DJ.

Without her series detective Inspector William Austen, set in a foreign country, literally and metaphorically far away from her favorite topic of embittered wealthy families battling over a dead person's estate Night's Candles may be all the better for departing from the usual Hocking formulae.  Set in Cyprus during September 1939 a few weeks after Germany invaded Poland we find a motley group of travelers on board a ship originally headed for what is now known as Israel who are re-routed and forced to disembark in the coastal town of Famagusta.  Among the persons displaced are Ernest Mannington, an archeologist who was headed to Syria to investigate some ruins there; Arthur Henfield, his mild mannered assistant; Emmeline Moscrop, a garrulously rambling spinster obsessed with the life of St. Paul and the holy sites he visited; a Royal Navy man named Hugh Nesbit serving his time in the reserves; and Tamar Trent, wealthy daughter of an aristocrat recently dumped by her fiance and traveling to forget her troubles.  Of the lot Tamar is by far the most lively and interesting character.  She and Miss Moscrop become friends of sorts and their scenes are highlighted with the best witty dialogue, sometimes hilariously so, and elevate the book out of what could have been yet another weak satire of British people on holiday.

The Pillars of St. Paul, a "must see" for Miss Moscrop

 Cyprus is under British rule at this point in history and must follow all the wartime rules of UK.  And so when they are ordered to blackout all windows of businesses that face the coastline and turn off all street lights the tourists take the opportunity to do a night time stroll of the city to see it as it was in "ancient times," so to speak.  One of their number does not return to the hotel where they were all staying.  It's Mr. Mannington who has apparently fallen to his death in a freak accident in a hidden tunnel at one of the popular ruins.  It is also discovered that he has been robbed of £100, a signet ring, and his valuable antique pocket watch.  Was it a horrible mugging that led to his death?  Or was the robbery an opportunistic crime that occurred hours after the man fell?

Randall Bryant is the local Commandant who takes over the police investigation at the request of British officials.  His wife, Mallory Stewart, happens to be a mystery novelist.  At key points in the narrative Randall consults with his wife who offers up several unusual ideas about what actually happened. Ultimately, her keen insight into human nature combined with her unique ability to imagine how people commit murder leads her to the correct solution but she never tells a soul. She writes down a single sentence on a slip of paper, puts the paper into a sealed envelope and tells her husband to look at it after he conducts his final interview with a key eyewitness.  He opens the envelope in the final paragraph of the book and the one sentence serves as the final words. Mallory was, of course, 100% correct.

"Othello's Tower" in Famagusta, circa 1940s

According to a bio I found on the DJ of a Hocking book I just purchased the author lived for a several years in Cyprus and is clearly well acquainted with the country and its customs. She fills the story with archeological lore, historical facts and utterly fascinating stories about Turkish occupation, the class problems with the local farmers and shepherds, and the never ending  stream of tourists looking to escape the war.  A brief subplot tells of one person on board the ship, a German Jew fleeing his country in hopes of settling in Jerusalem. That he is able to disembark in Cyprus makes him even more happy just as Britain is about to enter the war.

Night's Candles is an excellent novel overall as well as a clever detective novel that just misses being brilliant due to a couple of nasty tricks Hocking pulls in the finale. At one point Mallory Stewart makes this quip: "Besides, I'm Dr. Priestley, the infallible, and I never tell until the last chapter." That line may allude to John Rhode, but I have to say this detective novel owes more to Anthony Berkeley.  For most of the book the narrative structure follows that of a well-plotted detective novel and we are given ample “fair play” style clues. The multiple mysteries and several crimes and attempted crimes keep the reader busy sorting out all the premeditated crime from opportunistic crime and the suspects keep being shuffled around and eventually eliminated as possible culprits. Yet in that final chapter she mimics Berkeley by resorting to a gimmick that he used far too often in his mystery books. I would have been forgiving had she done it once, but she gives us a double whammy and I was greatly disappointed. I don't feel she completely ruined the book because Tamar, Mallory and Miss Moscrop made it a lively and fun read. However, I certainly hope she doesn't do this again.

More Hocking coming in later this month and for the rest of the year.  Hope she rises above this kind of tomfoolery!