The Crime-Book Society No. 8
This is the last of the Crime-Society paperbacks I read on holiday; actually, I finished this on the plane coming home. Andrew Soutar (1879-1941) was born Edward Andrew Stagg in Swindon. He married Elspeth Soutar Swinton in 1907, adopting her second Christian name as his authorial surname. In the Great War he made a fine record as an aviator, and after the Armistice served with the British forces in northern Russia. He was a newspaper correspondent, but is better known today (if at all!) for his novels, which were often serialised in newspapers. He also wrote pulp adventure stories for magazines. At least 24 of his novels were used as bases for movies - nearly all in the silent era. His novel writing spanned from 1910 until his death in St. Austell, Cornwall in November 1941. The vast majority were written before 1933, when the first of the Phineas Spinnet books - The Hanging Sword - was published. The last one - A Study in Suspense - completed the 14 book run. Night of Horror (1934) was the second in the series.
A Reviewer of The Hanging Sword quoted Soutar as saying that he wrote mystery novels as a relaxation from the strain of writing long and serious novels. He regarded this mystery work as a tonic! The book introduced the reader to Phineas Spinnet, a private investigator with an immense ego and vanity. He hires an assortment of ex-cons to help him in his investigation agency and even has a former prisoner, Timson, as his butler and manservant. There is more than just a shade of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion and his factotum, Magersfontein Lugg. Campion, in turn was meant to be a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey. Such an incestuous literary lot! I find Campion hard to stomach; so too does Spinnet's inordinate boasting irritate. Perhaps his endless cutting remarks and sarcastic barbs is a reminder, as one critic suggests, of that wonderful acerbic Don Rickles of the late 20th century chat show and Dean Martin Roasts fame.
Night of Horror commences one evening when a Charles Barton comes to Spinnet's house to ask him to locate his sister, bride of Lord Dargot, of Stoney Ridge, a country house in Sussex. Barton believes his sister is in some danger, but Spinnet feels the man is insane (in fact, he had recently passed a couple of years in a mental institution). Barton leaves, but is found dead just twenty yards outside Spinnet's house having been injected with poison. Spinnet is told this by Janith O'Mallory, an Irish girl, one of the youngest, but possibly the most trusted of his servants. Janith also inform Spinnet that she is going to be married to an out of work Irish engineer, Dennis O'Brien. Spinnet disapproves of this strongly; in fact of her marrying anyone. He then leaves to view Barton's body at the local mortuary. While he is gone, Lord Dargot arrives - he was a man of between forty and fifty years of age. His hair was already grey, and the corners of the eyes were rutted...he had the eyes of the dreamer; the features were delicately cut; only the teeth robbed him of distinction, for he appeared not to give them any attention, and they were discouraged, even yellow. Unmistakably a villain, then. Dargot takes one look at Janith and faints! Spinnet returns to find Dargot has recovered, but Janith gone. Timson then brings in a cigar box from the post, which Spinnet opens. In doing so he ran his thumb against one of the tiny nails by which the lid was fastened. It causes a small wound. Dargot leaves; Spinnet collapses; he has also be poisoned! A huge dose of whisky saves him, but it is clear some Dick Dastardly character is trying to get rid of him.
Very early one, the author make it clear that Lord Dargot is a homicidal maniac, so the novel turns out to be a thriller rather than a detective story. Is Lady Dargot even alive; why does Lord Dargot try to get hold of Janith (I got the clue right from the start, when he fainted) - in fact, he succeeds in employing her as his Secretary at his gloomy mansion. What does the black-bearded landlord of the Smugglers' Arms near Stoney Ridge know; why is he so nervous - is he a deluded 'goodie' or an out and out 'baddie'?; what are Lord Dargot's main plans, apart from keeping secret the whereabouts of his wife and the obvious intention of superseding her with Janith? What part does Goby, Dargot's dumb servant play. The Night of HOrror inevitably takes place in the House of Horror - Stoney Ridge. Much of the plot is preposterous, but this is palliated by the touches of humour and amusing characteristics of the participants, such as Janith and the lugubrious ex-jailbird Timson. There is a long-running gag which focuses on the latter's drinking most of Spinnet's Napoleon brandy - hidden in the most unlikely places but always tracked down by by the butler.
I see Soutar has contributed another book to the Crime-Book Society paperback series - No. 19 Kharduni. I shall look out for it!
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