Crime-Book Society paperback edition No. 81 - 1940
Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Belloc Lowndes was the older sister of Hilaire Belloc. She wrote over 40 novels, mainly mysteries with some of them based on real life crimes. Although I regularly see her books advertised for sale in my 19th and early 20th century book catalogues, I have never read, let alone purchased, any of her works until this Crime-Book Society's volume.
She doesn't disappoint. The Prologue introduces us not only to the second footman at Blackmere Castle, Cuthbert Gell, but also his employers, Lady Flora and Sir Thomas Clarkson. When Lady Flora tells Cuthbert to take a cup of tea to her husband, we follow the second footman into the latter's study. The room was in darkness, but Cuthbert could make out Sir Thomas apparently asleep, leaning prone over the wide, brass-inlaid writing-table. Cuthbert switches on the electric light: Sir Thomas Clarkson was not asleep. Sir Thomas Clarkson was dead. Half of his head had been blown off. The shotgun nearby suggests it is suicide.
Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947)
Shock, horror. As well as Lady Flora and Cuthbert, there are in the castle Colonel Richard Wroxton, a long-time friend of Flora's deceased father. the Marquis of Lindore, recently owner of Blackmere Castle and Flora's friend, Mrs. Klint. Twenty-five year-old Sir Thomas was purse-proud, hectoring, and at times very rude to those in his employment. This compared badly with Lady Flora's character - she was not yet twenty. Sweetly pretty she was, and so kind, so unassuming, and so gentle in her manner. But, however unpleasant Sir Thomas was, who would want him dead? The first Chapter ends and now we go back eighteen months before that New Year's Day - this back story takes the reader from page 19 to 134.
We learn that Lady Flora Cheyne (as she was then) had a sweetheart - Chase Bigland, the only child of the local vicar. Chase is determined to become a successful lawyer; already a barrister, he has accepted a post in India, because he believed it would help him in his profession, and partly because the amount of the fee offered had dazzled him. Of no private means, he knows Flora's father would forbid any marriage to a poor suitor. Blackmere Castle is actually in hoc to creditors, thanks mainly to the Marquis' spendthrift ways. However, Chase and Flora plan to persuade her father after he 'makes it' in India and move to a posh address in Mayfair, London. To no avail. Flora is actually sent to London to 'come out', in the charge of Mrs. Ada Durham (who had been lover of the Marquis years ago, and they both still held candles for each other!). Both the Marquis and Ada feel Flora must marry someone with money. Their choice alights on the sulky millionaire Clarkson. Flora is forced to write to Chase to break off their relationship (in fact, they were secretly engaged). The author spends several pages constructing a (psychological) history of Clarkson - an only child of a successful business man (who regarded Thomas as a half-wit) and a possessive, philistine mother. He was now, aged 23, an exceedingly rich orphan. His wealth was just what the Marquis realised would put the Blackmere Castle estate to solvency again.
Lindore needed money; Sir Thomas wanted the kudos of high society. Unfortunate, arrogant, and ignorant young man! He felt he had now entered a kingdom of which he had never yet caught a glimpse - that is the Kingdom of Romance. The Marquis of Lindore, Lady Flora Cheyne, and the grey stone castle which formed their background, stirred something in his sluggish imagination... Thus, everything is set up for an Agatha Christie-like novel. The marriage proves a disaster. The Marquis dies. Colonel Wroxton becomes increasingly the 'uncle' on which Flora lays her head (in fact, we find out he would like more). Mrs. Doris Klint (36 years-old, genuinely poor, good-humoured, good-looking, and attractive to men) becomes the shoulder for Sir Thomas to moan on. They all end up at the Castle for that fateful Christmas and New Year. Chase, who has not got over Flora's behaviour, is back from India early and meets her by chance in the castle grounds, the day before Sir Thomas' demise. In fact, Dr. Raven, the local coroner has proved it was not suicide but murder. (As an aside, I found the ensuing relationship between Raven and Mrs. Klint rather forced, unlikely and not really adding to the story). Doris Klint sends an anonymous letter revealing Chase and Flora had met up. Things look black for poor Chase. So black is it that not only is he put on trial for the murder, but found guilty and sentenced to death. Only then does the true murderer reveal himself/herself. Actually, I had guessed who it was from the first few pages! However, the plotting was clever; the narrative drive sustained; and the characters stood up to scrutiny.
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