Strictly speaking this isn't one of the British Mystery Club books because they don't have a version of this book, but I bought it because of the other Berkeley books I blogged about and so am including it here. It's the first Roger Sheringham mystery and was published in 1925. It's a typical Stately Home murder mystery and, also typical for 1925, is very bloodless. The murder victim dies quickly and painlessly, there is no gore and we are only told about a body being found by characters who are too quickly overcome to provide details. As with so many stately home murder mysteries, we have assembled a truly oddball collection of people, each of whom could be the murderer. And, also typical for stately home murders, none of these people know each other well--and all those being honest admit that they didn't even like the (now dead) host. So why are they there? And why do obscenely wealthy people pepper their ridiculously oversized homes with people who do not know or like each other? And why do they hire far too few staff to serve a proper meal?
Victor Stanworth, host turned corpse within very few pages of the book, seemed to be an ebulliant person that everyone loved and admired--until he died and his REAL personality is uncovered and then we find that everyone hates him with a passion: he's a ruthless blackmailer who likes to assemble his victims so he can, one at a time, call them to his study, open his safe, show them "the goods" he has on them, and then tell them his price. Sometimes, just to be extra sinister, he adds certain juicy tasks to his demands, as when he requires good looking women to hook up with certain "friends" of his and "do what it takes" to raise the necessary funds. Unsurprisingly, once this fact emerges, we find that everyone in the house has a strong motive to kill him. But how? He was killed in the middle of the night when all professed to be asleep (all except Roger who was working on his latest novel as he does all his best creative thinking in the wee hours--in fact, now that I think of it, I don't think he slept for the entire novel, which took place across at least five days). Also, of course, the study door was locked on the inside with the key in the lock, all the windows were bolted shut, there were no secret hiding places, no priest's holes and no secret chambers behind any book cases. AND there was a perfunctory suicide note. But the note was typed and the signature scribbled so no one really believes it is genuine--except the police detective in charge of the case who couldn't declare the location a non-crime scene fast enough.
So who are our suspects?
(1) Major Jefferson: Jefferson is Stanworth's personal assistant/secretary. He's former military and so efficient, but the work is beneath him and it's clear he hates it. He's secretive but is not clear if that is a result of an overdeveloped sense duty or because he has real secrets that need to stay hidden.
(2) Lady Stanworth: Victor's sister-in-law, she was married to Victor's now deceased brother. Since Victor inherited the family home, she moved into the household after her husband's death. She isn't remotely bothered by her brother-in-law's death and spends her time up in her room "lying down" or sighing peevishly when asked questions about anything. She clearly did not like her brother-in-law, but did she hate him enough to kill him?
(3) Mrs. Plant: She's the ubiquitous cryer and fainter, always bursting into tears, unable to go on or answer any questions, always nervously twisting up her hanky and insisting that, really, she has nothing more to say so why doesn't everyone just leave her alone? But her perfume is noteworthy (jasmine) and one arm of the couch in the study where Victor was killed smells strongly of her scent.
(4) The Butler: He is a massive, brutish ex-boxer who clearly knows nothing about being a butler. He also never talks and really doesn't seem to do all that much except hover in the background, looking menacingly at everyone. Is he protection for his blackmailing boss or is he, too, a victim of Victor's threats?
(5) Barbara: A pretty young woman who features in chapter 1 only to disappear entirely a few pages later. She strides up to Alec, Roger's pal (more about him below), only to announce that she is calling off their engagement. She does this on a bright beautiful morning just before breakfast is going to be served as Mr. Stanworth lay dead in his study but before his body has been discovered. Alec is unsurprisingly stunned and very disappointed and asks for a reason. Barbara won't say, she just insists that "it has to be that way" and begs him to not asks questions. Alec, as well-bred as any 20 something Englishman in the 1920s, says he understands and mentions it never again. The last we hear of Barbara is a few pages later when Alec returns from the train station after helping her with her luggage. So what was THAT about? Does Victor have something on Barbara, too, and was it so bad that she killed him and did a runner? But if that's the case, then why isn't she happier since her blackmailer is now dead?
(6) Alec Grierson: Roger's pal from somewhere, presumably a private school they attended together some time in the past. Alec is, according to Roger, very smart and sensible--more level-headed than Roger is, as Roger has a tendency to get bees in his bonnets and race off in ten directions at once. But Alec seems increasingly obtuse: Roger sends him on simple errands yet Alec bungles every one; Roger asked him to check for footprints in the mud and he clomps all over them, effectively erasing them entirely. Soon Roger suspects that his friend is actually sabatoging Roger's investigation. But why? Was HE being blackmailed and so killed Victor? Or does Alec think Barbara was being blackmailed and so killed Victor for her?
Roger Sheringham--not a suspect: We've met Roger in Jumping Jenny and The Poisoned Chocolates. This book is obviously Roger's first rodeo: he is clumsy, foolish and always annoying the people he is trying to sweet talk into giving him important evidence. The story-telling is adequate, but not amazing. There really is no tension and the characters are too two-dimensional to really get invested in. BUT, as usual, the mystery really is mysterious and even in this early effort, there is the classic double-twist that Berkeley becomes famous for. So how does Berkeley's writing develop between this novel and his later one? First, the characters in his later novels are unforgettably weird and horrible: the murder victim in Jumping Jenny is extremely vividly protrayed to the point that reading scenes with her in it caused me to feel physically uncomfortable--she's a little bit "too real" to be bearable. It was a genuine relief when she finally died. Second, Roger shifts from a clunky investigator always underneath everyone's feet to a brooding outsider who stealthily enters rooms and observes the messy human interactions of others unobserved. He notices everything but says nothing until he presents his solution to the police at the end. Third, the social commentary in later books is many levels above what we see in this novel. Here, social criticism stops at Roger making it clear that he is far more interested in solving the murder mystery than he is in bringing the murderer to justice--indeed, as far as he is concerned, the murderer did "bring about justice" when they shot Victor smack in the middle of his noggin. While refusing to turn over the guilty party to the police is slightly off center in the 1920s, it's hardly shocking to think that someone who kills a blackmailer who arranges for pretty young ladies to prostitute themselves out to rich men is a morally better person than the murder victim. But in later novels, Roger sees everyone's foibles: every couple is one fight shy of divorce, every suspect has many deeply seedy secrets, and money truly is the root of all evil. The question is: did Berkely grow up or did he, as he wrote edgier and edgier novels, push his public to grow up?
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