So what about this novel? In short, it's pretty good but not amazing. It has all the right elements: a very odd beginning, a mysterious death that the police put down as caused by suicide, followed by another death the police call an "accident," and a trio of amateur investigators who are certain that both deaths were murder and that another might soon occur as well. The trio are: Mr. Digby, a justice of the peace (not sure that that is, now that I think about it), who is, I'd guess, in his 40s and has a lot of permanent bachelor sort of hobbies: he collects underappreciated landscape paintings that increase in value eventually, he likes to go on walking holidays, and he stuffs his pockets with an extremely odd assortment of items that always end up being useful (compass, string, pocket knife--you get the idea); Mr. Digby's nephew, Jim, who is (I would guess) in his late 20s as he is a physician/surgeon but "junior" to a senior surgeon who dumps the weekend and middle-of-the-night cases onto Jim; Diana, eventual love interest for Jim (of course) and daughter of local powerful and much resented politician, Sir Richard Mottram. (So the cover: that's Jim and Diana in front, Mr. Digby in the upper center and the first corpse in the middle right.)
Ok, backstory: Sir Richard has a son, unimaginitively named Richard. Richard jr had "an issue" (never explained in detail) with a woman and so killed her. If convicted of murder he would be executed. To avoid that (because he loved Richard jr? Probably not. But certainly to avoid scandal that would ruin his political career) Sir Richard intervenes behind the scenes and convinces people that Richard is "insane" and so cannot be arrested. He can be, however, locked up in an insane asylum for the rest of his life. However THAT could incur another sort of scandal so what Sir Richard did was set up a story that Richard jr got a bad case of wanderlust and went off to Africa or somewhere where no one cares whether or not murderous white people go there, legally changed Richard jr.'s name to Neville Monkbarns (!) and then had "Neville" institutionalized in a hospital the next town over. Ok, that was years ago--who cares now? Well...
So here is how the novel starts: Mr. Digby is on a walking holiday and soon to be joined by his nephew, Jim, for part of it (not longer because Jim can't get time off from work). He's renting a room owned by a bookseller and his wife in a little town up north. The bookstore is below the house and Mr. Digby has a small but comfortable room on the second floor in the back. He is fed bacon and eggs every day for breakfast. One day Mrs. Lavender (that's the book store owner's wife) tells him that they would desperately love to go to the funeral of an old dear friend, but they daren't leave the store unattended. Mr. Digby instantly steps in and says he'll do it for fun. They set off just before lunch and Mr. Digby gets comfortable in the bookstore, browsing for a book that appeals. A few people step in looking for cheap novels to read while on busses and such, nothing complicated. Around 4:00, a lean and mean looking man comes in and marches straight up to Mr. Digby and asks if he has a copy of The Mysterious Mr. Badman by John Bunyan. Mr. Digby has never heard of it and they search the shelves together, not finding it. Mr. Digby explains he's just an interim bookstore employee and promises to ask Mr. Lavender to see if he can find a copy. The guy grumbles and leaves. An hour later in comes a fat, red-faced sneering sort of fellow. He makes a show of looking around but then approaches the counter and asks, as if he's not really interested, "Do you have The Mysterious Mr. Badman by John Bunyan?" Amazed, Digby says he knows they do not as another person just asked for it and they couldn't find it. This news seems to alarm the guy and he does a quick 180 and trots out of the store. Then, some time after that, a happy go-lucky guy dressed as a chauffer comes in, pulls out a note, and reads, "Do you have a copy of The Mysterious Mr. Badman--" "By John Bunyan," interupts Digby. Astonished and amused, the chauffer says, "Yeah! That's right, guv!" By now Digby has moved beyond amasement to mystification and asks, "Why does everyone suddenly want this book?" Of course the chauffer has no idea, he was sent on an errand by his boss.
THEN not 30 minutes later a young kid comes in with a stack of books and asks if he can have money for them. And, to no one's surprise but Digby's, there among the stack is a copy of The Mysterious Mr. Badman by John Bunyan. Digby pays far more than the books are worth out of his own pocket and finds out from the boy that a Miss Diana, up from the Mottram house, is cleaning stuff out and told him he could keep whatever he could get for the books. Ok, fair enough, thinks Digby. He looks through the book, reads a bit, but can see NOTHING remotely interesting about the printing, cover, or the story.
All right a few days go by and Jim is on his way. Digby is gearing up to hit the trails with him and while he waits, he walks around the edge of town a bit--and runs into an extremely distraught Diana. She says she's seen a body and--oops, she's weak with faint. Digby goes to where she points and finds a man--the same lean and mean looking guy who asked for a copy of Mr. Badman--dead as a doornail. The local doctor isn't around so Jim, who has shown up to town by now, offers to help the coronor and local police. He examines the body--yes, it could be suicide but it also could be murder (he was shot plumb in the middle of his forehead) but since the gun is loosely placed in his hand, the police go with suicide. Anyway, there is only one set of tracks (excusing Digby's of course--and, no, the tracks that are there aren't Diana's). So Digby and Jim spend the day going over what they both know, but can't make any sense of it. They examine the book again and THIS time find that two pages have been glued together just at the edges. Once separated, a small, handwritten note pops out--and it's a confession by Richard jr! What does it all mean?
At this point, Digby suggests meeting up with Diana--the daughter of Sir Richard, remember--to ask what it could be about. And they do. And Jim and Diana lock eyes. And she tells the story of her brother. And the three decide that somehow three men hell bent on blackmailing Sir Richard found out about the note (but how?). And then they decide to do a Scooby Doo and solve the murder mystery. Barely are the words out of their mouths when they find out that Fat Angry man was "accidentally" hit by a car and died of his serious wounds after being taken to a hospital. Well, if they had doubts before, they don't now.
The story at that point gets incredibly complicated with our three heroes running off into three different directions to gather clues, meet up at various inns and cafes to have coffee and catch each other up, get kidnapped by a Bad Guy, escape, plot revenge, get kidnapped again but this time by the Bad Guy's henchman, escape, plot some more...THEN Digby runs into a very angry man running across some boggy park area and, taking a leap of faith, asks if he is Richard jr. He is!! Say what??? Well, not only did Bad Guy intend to blackmail Sir Richard for facilitating his son from escaping the hangman's noose, but Bad Man arranged an "escape" for Richard jr with the idea that Bad Man would then notify the plice, Richard Jr would get caught, and then (finally) have to face the consequences of his (by now) many crimes. (Why does Bad Guy hate Sir Richard so much? And why did the other two hate Sir Richard? Well, one guy was the poor murdered girl's father and the other a greedy blackmailer--it wasn't personal. Why did the third guy hate Sir Richard? Never explained.)
How are we to get out of this mess? Don't worry, Mr. Digby uses reason and common sense and all is set right--and Bad Guy has an "unfortunate accident" which means the police never need find out what crime(s) he, or Sir Richard, committed. And then Jim and Diana get engaged to be married and Mr. Digby gets excited at the thought of teaching Jim's future sons all his (Mr. Digby's) knowledge about fishing, walking tours and landscape paintings.
In many ways the book is absolutely typical: murders, uninterested local police, brilliant amateurs at hand, evil plotting, ingenious escapes, love, marriage...blah, blah. But none of the bad people are punished for their crimes--indeed, the criminal justice system is entirely irrelevant to the story. But, like a good Greek tragedy, bad schemes are punished--unless you are Sir Richard who suffers no harm whatsoever (unless having a murderous son IS the punishment) and, we find out at the very end of the book, goes on to win the next election by a landslide.
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