Crime-Book Society paperback edition - 1936?
Unlike the last few Crime-Book Society books I have read, this felt like a 'proper' novel, as opposed to a well-knit story. As much a psychological study as a thriller or detective yarn, it needs the reader to concentrate far more. The first five chapters have as their titles the names of the main participants. The first deals with Peter Bryden - the face of Peter Bryden presented a clash of qualities, so that any student of character, observing obvious traits tending to exclude each other, was concerned with the question of what sap and kernel remained, the process of elimination ended. He was handsome, with the old-fashioned, large-moulded distinction of an earlier age than our own - the solid and massive dignity that stares from the faces of early Georgian portraits...purpose marked Bryden's square features, and the countenance as a whole spoke of a self-controlled and continent but very strong-willed man. He now runs North Wood farm on the edge of Dartmoor. His father has been dead ten years and his elder brother, Lawrence, after making a poor show of running the steading, has handed over everything and left for Canada. More than that, Peter has also 'inherited' Lawrence's girl, Avis Ullathorne (sounds like a Hardy or Trollope surname!). Peter had triumphed, and the love of the woman was responsible for all that he had done since he first met her.
Then had come the woman, upset all his values and challenged his quality. She had probed unsuspected depths and revealed possibilities that Peter himself never guessed at..."'Till I met you, Avis, I just calculated the chances and didn't feel no very tremendous pull to living; and I certainly never guessed that love of a woman could turn the scales so sharp."...a contract existed between Avis and Peter Bryden: that they should never speak of incidents concerned with the past, either to other people or themselves. It soon becomes clear why this is so.
Into this seemingly idyllic position comes the sound of a motor-car... There appeared a man of forty years old, who looked younger He was neat and trim, rather under-sized and thin, but firmly knit. He is looking for Lawrence Bryden and his name is Midwinter. Greatly surprised to hear the latter has sailed for Canada, he is slightly rebuffed when he asks for more details; but Peter suggests he goes on to the nearby little hamlet of Little Silver and talk to a friend of the Brydens, a publican John White who runs the Woolpack Inn. So, off Midwinter goes and learns far more detail about Noah Bryden, the father, and his two very different sons. "Neither boy was quite the man their father was, yet both had character...but, though a likeable enough chap, Lawrence always had a screw loose on the matter of farming." Silly mistakes were made and Peter left in despair. He only returned when Lawrence sent a frantic message that, if he didn't come home, all was lost. When he returned, it was to find Avis and her widowed mother ensconced in a cottage on the farm land. "And then a fearful thing fell out, for Peter found himself struck to the heart with Avis Ullathorne". After initially deciding he would help Peter go to Canada, Lawrence changes his mind and decides to emigrate himself. So, that's the official story Midwinter hears down at the pub.
Then all hell breaks loose. Billy Archer, who resembled a large and shabby, but acute and active rat, had been about to steal watercress on the other side of the Moor to sell in Plymouth. From the midst of the growing stuff an unexpected object confronted him. It was a solitary human hand...a strong male hand, lacerated from some cause, but still intact. I immediately guessed it would be Lawrence on the end of the hand. And so it proved to be. The local lord, then the police (Inspector Budlake etc.) sprang into action. And so did Vincent Midwinter. And that is why he has visited Peter and Avis - telling them of Lawrence's demise only after listening to their tale of his departure for Canada - and set up base at the Woolpack. It soon becomes obvious that Midwinter increasingly suspects the two of them. At one stage, I thought it was beginning to read like a typical Lieutenant Columbo - "Just one more thing..." - as Midwinter knew they had done the murder and they knew he knew etc. However, although he gets close, he can't actually pin anything on them and Chapter XIV is headed Exit Midwinter. The detective returns to London, admitting failure.
However, the 'meat' of a compelling story is just about to begin. Not for nothing is the next chapter entitled The Rift. Over the next ninety-odd pages the two very different characters of Peter and Avis ensure an unravelling of their seeming success. The rational, atheistic wife is simply unable to stem her husband's growing unease and feelings of guilt. Page after page deals with the disintegration of the man's character, even his soul. He starts to attend church with her mother and the awfulness of what he has done (he had, with Avis, poisoned his brother) sinks in, deeper and deeper. Avis, on a very different character and mental plane, realises she cannot stop this. Chapter XXI Death of Peter, however, shows how he has retained enough sense to ensure his end looks like a horrific accident. Avis has long realised his death would be best for both of them; even for their yet-to-be-born child. The final chapter, The Fisherman, sees Midwinter return (I hadn't seen that coming) to fish and meet up with Avis, who confesses the whole story. She leaves her fate in his hands. Two months after the day on which Vincent Midwinter left Avis Bryden, a more vital problem than she challenged him, and there opened the Great War. He fell in France before the year was ended.
Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960)
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