This English mystery delivers family secrets, a disappearing body, and a pleasant dose of good natured humour to a couple on vacation.
Cyril Hare was a staple of classic mystery writing whose real name was Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, a barrister and judge who incorporated court cases into his novels. His 1942 novel, Tragedy At Law, has never been out of print, considered one of the best detective stories set in the legal world. Untimely Death (1958) was his final novel and the fifth to star barrister Francis Pettigrew.
Francis and his wife Eleanor are on holiday to Exmoor, where he vacationed as a boy. While she stops to see a friend, he walks across the fields toward Bolter's Tussock, site of a scary day in his childhood when he came across the dead body of a man. Terrified, he left the scene and was always curious what came of it. This present day, he comes across a wandering pony, perhaps from the hunt taking place nearby. He nearly falls off as he mounts it, as his face careens across the field, passing directly into the face of a dead man's body! Back in town he raises the alarm, but when they return to the spot - there is no body to be found.
Of course, there is no one to believe him. Was it a hallucination caused by his past trauma?
The couple is staying at a local inn run by Mrs. Gorman, indeed the whole town is full of the Gorman family. The wealthy patriarch Gilbert Gorman has just passed away and questions arise on the line of inheritance - for his son, Mrs. Gorman's husband Jack, has just been found on the roadside, struck dead by a motor vehicle.
An involved court case ensues over the next few months, with Pettigrew as witness to his strange discovery - who is the dead man, and who will receive the Gorman estate - how could they be connected? And if Mrs. Gorman and Jack have been separated for over a year, how is she now pregnant? It's a nest of secrets, but as a rule in golden age mysteries, if you pay attention, you can spot the clues.
Eleanor is a great character, full of amiable humour and clever asides - as is Francis - I thought at first it was a mystery spoof or comedy. Also on scene is Inspector Mallett, co-star of three other Pettigrew novels, now retired from being Supervisor, and three three of them hash out what happened. It does devolve into a lot of English legalese, but this is a short mystery, so I stayed a spectator and listened at the back of the courtroom for the finale.
Clever and entertaining.
This was first published He Should Have Died Hereafter.
1958 / Tradeback / 189 pages
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