Martin Edwards's Blog, page 264

Forgotten Book - Death in a Deck-Chair

I've written several times in this blog of my admiration for Anthony Berkeley, and I've also mentioned his contemporary and Detection Club colleague Milward Kennedy, whose approach to the genre reminds me of Berkeley's. Kennedy was another who liked to mix detection with humour, and he was also keen on experimentation.

My choice for today's Forgotten Book is a novel Kennedy published in 1930, Death in a Deck-Chair. It opens with a brief but very interesting introduction, in which Kennedy discusses the nature of detective fiction with a friend. He then describes how the conversation gave him the idea of taking the essential features of an actual case and reinventing it for fictional purposes, making use of his personal knowledge of police procedure, gained while working in Military Intelligence in the First World War.

Kennedy acknowledges at the outset that "complete realism" is out of the question – "is a novel pursued each possible clue to its final conclusion, it would run into volumes". This is the dilemma that succeeding generations of crime writers have grappled with. Unfortunately, it has to be said that this pioneering novel struggles to maintain a balance between plausibility and entertainment.

The body of the man who is found stabbed in a deck-chair at a seaside resort turns out to belong to a blackmailer who dies unmourned. The investigation moves slowly, and although Kennedy tries to compensate with humorous dialogue, for a modern reader the material simply isn't amusing enough to justify the lack of pace. In the latter stages of the book, things move more quickly, but overall the quality of the story does not remotely match that of books such as The Murder at the Vicarage, which was published in the same year. Yet Kennedy deserves a good deal of credit, I think, for his attempts to move the detective story forward from the straightforward puzzle. Unfortunately, in this book at least, the idea was stronger than the implementation.

John Curran

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, a wonderful book which has a follow-up volume due out later this year. He is currently researching detective fiction written in the period between 1930 1950, and his knowledge of the genre is encyclopaedic. Not surprisingly, he was one of the contestants in this year's Crimefest Mastermind.

On the Saturday of the convention, John and I had lunch together and talked endlessly about Golden Age detective fiction, a subject close to both our hearts. So endlessly, in fact, that when the cafeteria at Bristol Cathedral closed, we continued our conversation in the delightful Cathedral garden, where I took this photo of John. And when the garden closed, we carried on the discussion, walking along the very pleasant Bristol waterfront in the sunshine.

John has been researching the Golden Age in the copyright library at Trinity College, Dublin, and has come across all manner of rare books. He told me, for instance, about an Australian book called Murder Pie which was inspired by the Detection Club's The Floating Admiral, and which I'm tempted to try to track down. Because of work commitments, I wasn't able to join the party which John took around Agatha Christie's former home Greenway, much to my regret. Next year, perhaps! In the meantime, the chance to spend a few hours with a fellow enthusiast for long forgotten detective fiction (as well as for the unforgettable Agatha Christie) remains one of the memories I'll take away from this year's Crimefest.

The Hanging Wood

A quick post to say that the cover artwork for the UK edition of The Hanging Wood has just been finalised. Here it is, in the new series style.

I was very encouraged the other day to receive an email from a leading American reviewer telling me how much he'd enjoyed the book. This reaction helps to put a writer in good heart as one awaits the domestic reaction. Always a slightly nervous time!

Having said that, I guess that - within reason! - any reaction is better than none. Too many good books are widely overlooked, which is one of the reasons why I like to cover other modern writers in this blog as well as Golden Age favourites, films and telly.

Sorry, Wrong Number

Sorry, Wrong Number is a 1948 film starring Barbara Stanwyck as the rich and spoiled invalid wife of Burt Lancaster. Alone at home, she overhears a phone call which seems to be about a murder plot. It's a classic set-up and I enjoyed the movie, which is dark both in photography and plot.

The 'overheard conversation' is a staple of a good many crime stories, one example being Philip Macdonald's The Nursemaid Who Disappeared, which predates Lucille Fletcher's very successful radio play on which the film is based. In the movie, the main story is told through a series of flashbacks, but this doesn't stop the tension mounting, thanks to Stanwyck's performance, at her highly-strung best.

The story involves a fraudulent scheme featuring a dodgy guy called Morano – played by William Conrad, who later played Frank Cannon, the rather obese TV gumshoe. Lancaster is in moody, and pretty effective, form, but the film belongs to Stanwyck.

Fletcher turned her story into a novel, and she wrote a number of others, none of which I've read. As an aspiring radio writer, she met a young composer, who became her first husband. His name was Bernard Herrmann, and he became one of the best composers for crime films of all time. But his great scores for Hitchcock came after the marriage ended.

Scott & Bailey - review

Scott & Bailey is a brand-new ITV crime drama, following hot on the heels of Vera. As with Vera, the focus is on women detectives, but there are more differences than similarities – starting with the fact that this series is not based on novels: the scripts by Sally Wainwright are original to television. Each episode is half length of a Vera screenplay, the setting is urban (Manchester) rather than rural and the two lead characters are detective constables rather than more senior officers.

The first episode opens with a romantic dinner between DC Rachel Scott and her smooth but sleazy barrister boyfriend which turns into a disaster when he dumps her. Soon she and DC Janet Bailey are investigating the suspicious death of young pregnant Turkish woman – it is an apparent suicide which turns out to be murder.

Close parallels develop between the case and Rachel's disastrous relationship. Strangely enough, the plotting of the criminal investigation part of the story struck me as more credible than the fact that Rachel (potentially a very likeable character) would commit more than one crime herself in the course of extracting revenge on her ex. By the end, it wasn't easy to keep sympathy with her, which I can't imagine the writer intended.

The cast is good, with Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as the title characters, and the excellent Amelia Bullimore as their boss. The writing is pacy, if at times uneven, and the Mancunian setting realistic although verging on the bleak. All in all, a reasonable start to a new series, and I'll probably watch it again next week.

Murder Mystery Events

Murder mystery events continue to gain in popularity. I really enjoy presenting my Victorian mystery, 'Who Killed George Hargrave?', and the event will have another outing at Douglas on the Isle of Man on 25 June. The idea of an event was suggested to me years ago by Ann Cleeves, who did a very good event called 'Body in the Library', and like Ann I've presented the show a good many times. The interactive nature of the event does generate a 'feelgood' factor in the audience, I think.

I was prompted to mention murder mystery events because I've been asked to mention a forthcoming event at the Natural History Museum, and although I don't normally advertise other events on this blog, (especially events featuring live maggots - eeek!) I'm happy to make an exception this time for what seems like an interesting occasion. Because museums, like libraries, deserve a lot of support in the current economic climate. I set out below an extract from their promo material.

'Join us for a unique, immersive event at the Natural History Museum and put your detective skills to the test as a scenes of crime officer. On Friday 24 June you will have the opportunity to meet three of the Museum's very own forensic experts. Learn how they use their knowledge to assist the police and solve crimes. They'll teach you the tricks of their trade so that you can comb the crime scene, collect the evidence and process the clues. Then you'll take your evidence to trial where real barristers, police officers and a judge will demonstrate just how important forensic evidence is to a verdict.

The event includes:

· collecting insect evidence in the garden crime scene with scientists Martin Hall and Cameron Richards, and hundreds of live maggots

· fingerprint collection and identification workshop

· victim identification masterclass in the Attenborough Studio with Heather Bonney: learn how to identify sex, age and height by studying skeletal remains

· a mock court case in the Museum's theatre

Arrive from 18.30 for a 19.00 start. Tickets cost £40 per person and must be booked in advance by calling 020 7942 5792 or 020 7942 5589.'

Forgotten Authors

No forgotten book today, but I did enjoy moderating the Crimefest panel on Forgotten Authors. The subjects included Adam Diment, Peter van Greenaway (who sounded most intriguing), Leslie Charteris and William Shipway.

My fellow panellists, Peter Guttridge, Caroline Todd, Sarah Rayne and Adrian Magson are all delightful people and it was a real pleasure to be with them. I must thank Ali Karim for the photo. His kindness is as unfailing as his support for crime writers.

And I've been asked to moderate another Forgotten Authors panel at next year's Crimefest....

The Man Who Could Not Sleep

Michael Gilbert's versatility continues to astonish me, the more I think about what he achieved as a crime writer whilst also working as a partner in a major law firm. I'm a long-time fan of his writing, and so I was delighted to lay my hand on another posthumous collection edited and introduced by John Cooper and published by Robert Hale.

The Man Who Could Not Sleep and other mysteries is remarkable because it contains not short stories but two lengthy radio plays, plus two synopses for radio plays that Gilbert never managed to bring to fruition. Cooper lists the work that Gilbert did for radio and TV, and it's a CV that would be impressive even if he'd never written all those fine novels and short stories.

The 'man who could not sleep' is, as anyone who has read Gilbert's splendid Smallbone Deceased will know, the lawyer Henry Bohun. I've always felt that Bohun was one of Gilbert's best characters, and it's a pity he is not better known, and did not appear more often.

I was intrigued that one of the synopses was for a play about football. It's not easy to write fiction about sport, though I've written a couple of short stories with football themes. My first ever full length novel was about football, too. It was never published, just as Gilbert's play was never broadcast. In my case, it was just as well!

More on Crimefest

I'm working away from home for a couple of days, so just a few more brief thoughts on Crimefest for the time being.

I enjoyed moderating two panels, the first being Forgotten Authors, with some great panellists - Adrian Magson, Peter Guttridge, Caroline Todd and Sarah Rayne. There was so much to say about our chosen authors of the past - the only problem was that we could have talked for hours! I've been asked by the organisers to moderate the same panel again next year.

I also moderated an interesting panel which featured the very witty Caro Ramsay, along with M.R. Hall, Yrsa Sigursdottir and John Lawton. A varied group and a discussion which I felt was full of thought-provoking contributions. I was glad to meet John and Yrsa for the first time.

Two of the people I enjoyed chatting with at different times during the weekend deserve particular congratulations. Len Tyler won the Last Laugh award, and Paul Johnston, despite much modest self deprecation, won Mastermind in the face of formidable competition. Both Len and Paul have new books out shortly and I look forward to reading both of them. A word of appreciation too for Maxim Jakubowski, an extremely able quizmaster and question setter.

Crimefest

Crimefest 2011 was thoroughly enjoyable, and for me it offered a chance to relax from the frenetic activity at work following our recent business merger. I spent much more time chatting to friends old and new than attending panels, though I did enjoy all those I did attend. And happily I found time to do a bit of work on and thinking about my plans for the next Lake District Mystery.

Our pub quiz team, the International Bloggers, included Karen Meek of Eurocrime, Dorte from Denmark and Kerrie Smith from Mysteries in Paradise. We didn't make a great start, and shamefully I managed not to recognise Jane Marple from Peter Guttridge's cleverly selective description, but we did have productive rounds involving anagrams and Hitchcock movies, and were rewarded with some freebie books and audio books. It was a great pleasure to meet Dorte and Kerrie and their husbands. As always, Peter did a great job with the quiz questions.

Karen kindly sent me the photo of the quiz team. And Pauline Rowson (who also blogs splendidly) sent me the other two photos, taken by her husband Bob. Pauline and I first met a few years back at a TV studio. The full story is less glamorous, we agreed, than it sounds, but it was great to see her and Bob again. One photo shows me with Pauline, the other was taken at the Severn House drinks reception, and features Peter Guttridge, Ann Cleeves, Michael Walters (someone else I was delighted to have the chance to chat to at some length) and Maureen Carter.

I'll post a bit more about Crimefest - when I get my breath back!