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A review by saareman
Murder of a Lady: A Scottish Mystery by Martin Edwards, Anthony Wynne
3.0
A Scottish Locked Room
Review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook edition (February 2, 2016) of the British Library Crime Classics (BLCC) paperback (January 1, 2015) of the Hutchinson hardcover original (1931).
Murder of a Lady was yet another Kindle Deal of the Day which I took a chance on. The author [a:Anthony Wynne|4373819|Anthony Wynne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1451980468p2/4373819.jpg] (penname of Robert McNair Wilson 1882-1963) was previously unknown to me, as was the 28 book series of his amateur sleuth Dr. Eustace Hailey (1925-1950). I did check the list at [b:The Book of Forgotten Authors|34100964|The Book of Forgotten Authors|Christopher Fowler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486027349l/34100964._SY75_.jpg|55122706], but even there he appears to be doubly forgotten, as he didn't make the cut.
Still, the editor Martin Edwards of the British Library Crime Classics series did select this book #12 of Hailey series to reprint. It is in the 'locked room' aka 'impossible crime' sub-genre of mysteries where a murder has been committed in a room where no one beyond the victim appears to have entered or exited and all the windows and doors are shut and locked when the crime is discovered.
In this case, Lady Gregor, the sister of the laird, has been apparently stabbed to death in her locked room. The weapon has disappeared. The brother, the nephew and his wife, a local doctor, various housemaids and servants (Note: the family piper Angus is not considered to be a servant) are suspects for various reasons. The misdirection carries on at length and the actual solution seems to come out of nowhere at the very end with little apparent investigation to provide earlier clues towards it.
There is a further misdirection that after each murder (there are more than one) a splash can be heard in the waters below the manor house and an apparent swimmer or fish is seen to drift away downstream. This introduces a possible supernatural / horror explanation of a sea creature taking vengeance for a past slight (It did make me think of Lovecraft's [b:The Shadow over Innsmouth|13175692|The Shadow over Innsmouth|H.P. Lovecraft|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1323356703l/13175692._SX50_.jpg|26213512], coincidentally also from 1931).
Really the only good clue for the early reader would have been the cover image in the original edition.
Cover image of the 1931 Hutchinson original hardcover. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Dr. Hailey figures it out in the end, but it ends very abruptly and doesn't provide a reader the satisfaction of having followed his thinking along the way. This doesn't earn an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert tag, but the resolution was just too out of the blue to be entirely enjoyable. A 3-star "Like" is fairly generous.
Trivia and Links
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.
Review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook edition (February 2, 2016) of the British Library Crime Classics (BLCC) paperback (January 1, 2015) of the Hutchinson hardcover original (1931).
Murder of a Lady was yet another Kindle Deal of the Day which I took a chance on. The author [a:Anthony Wynne|4373819|Anthony Wynne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1451980468p2/4373819.jpg] (penname of Robert McNair Wilson 1882-1963) was previously unknown to me, as was the 28 book series of his amateur sleuth Dr. Eustace Hailey (1925-1950). I did check the list at [b:The Book of Forgotten Authors|34100964|The Book of Forgotten Authors|Christopher Fowler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486027349l/34100964._SY75_.jpg|55122706], but even there he appears to be doubly forgotten, as he didn't make the cut.
Still, the editor Martin Edwards of the British Library Crime Classics series did select this book #12 of Hailey series to reprint. It is in the 'locked room' aka 'impossible crime' sub-genre of mysteries where a murder has been committed in a room where no one beyond the victim appears to have entered or exited and all the windows and doors are shut and locked when the crime is discovered.
In this case, Lady Gregor, the sister of the laird, has been apparently stabbed to death in her locked room. The weapon has disappeared. The brother, the nephew and his wife, a local doctor, various housemaids and servants (Note: the family piper Angus is not considered to be a servant) are suspects for various reasons. The misdirection carries on at length and the actual solution seems to come out of nowhere at the very end with little apparent investigation to provide earlier clues towards it.
There is a further misdirection that after each murder (there are more than one) a splash can be heard in the waters below the manor house and an apparent swimmer or fish is seen to drift away downstream. This introduces a possible supernatural / horror explanation of a sea creature taking vengeance for a past slight (It did make me think of Lovecraft's [b:The Shadow over Innsmouth|13175692|The Shadow over Innsmouth|H.P. Lovecraft|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1323356703l/13175692._SX50_.jpg|26213512], coincidentally also from 1931).
Really the only good clue for the early reader would have been the cover image in the original edition.
Cover image of the 1931 Hutchinson original hardcover. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Dr. Hailey figures it out in the end, but it ends very abruptly and doesn't provide a reader the satisfaction of having followed his thinking along the way. This doesn't earn an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert tag, but the resolution was just too out of the blue to be entirely enjoyable. A 3-star "Like" is fairly generous.
Trivia and Links
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.