The Silecroft Case
A review of The Silecroft Case by J C Lenehan – 230711
It always pays a writer to keep their options open. The Tunnel Mystery ends on an enigmatic note allowing J C Lenehan to add a sequel in the form of this novel originally published two years later in 1931. In some ways it completes a lot of unfinished business that remained from the first book but is a complete murder mystery in its own right.
There is an air of inevitability about a gang of jewel thieves falling out over the distribution of the loot although the relevance of the first book to the plot only emerges as the book is well into its stride. Initially, it seems to have legs of its own, a young girl, Peggy Marsden, returns to her lodgings one evening and is astonished to find the body of a dead man in her room. She panics and runs out to summon a policeman, even thought there is a telephone in the house. By the time the party return to the house, the body has gone. A body is subsequently fished out of a river some distance away, the victim having been killed before being thrown into the river.
He is identified as the brother of Mr Thorpe, Peggy’s landlord, and there are no tears shed over his fate. He had earned the enmity of the Thorpes by driving Thorpe’s favourite sister to commit suicide. A usurious moneylender, an avaricious opportunist, and a less than honest fence for jewels, there are several who had motive enough and opportunity to do away with the man, more than enough to keep Inspector Kilby of the Yard and, of course, the reader on their toes. It is only some way into the investigation that Kilby realises that two of the key protagonists were people who had evaded his grasp when he was investigating the Hyde heist and who he had thought had perished dramatically when their car toppled over the cliff into the sea.
One of the curious aspects of the book is the relationship between Kilby and the key suspects, Kilby, Pennington, and the Thorpes. There is an unhealthy respect between them all and Kilby seems to be so keen to play fair and be seen to be a gentleman that he loses sight of the fact that likeable as they might be they are criminals, some of whom have committed murder. Silecroft, although the victim, is despised and the poor lovelorn girl, Gwen Stafford, who shoots Pennington in a dramatic finale which ends up with not one confession but two is hardly given a second thought after she is whisked away to a secure unit. There is a difference between having a healthy respect for one’s opponent and playing the supreme arbiter as to whether they should feel or escape the force of justice.
One of Kilby’s tactics that would have the modern HR manager going into a tailspin was his introduction of young aspiring copper, George Brent, on to the case. In The Tunnel Mystery Brent falls in love with the girl that is now known as Peggy Marsden, that bond giving the enigmatic twist to that story, and he is used to confirm the girl’s identity whilst inevitably falling back in love again, a feeling more than reciprocated by Peggy. It is partly to resolve the moral dilemma caused by this love match that induces Kilby to take a less than professional approach to the resolution of the cases before him.
The book, which started out confidently, has its own crisis of identity, not quite sure whether it is a romantic thriller or a murder mystery with a bit of love interest. In the end it falls between two stools and is a less impressive and rewarding read than its prequel, as sequels often are. To get full value out of The Silecroft Case, you really need to read the Tunnel Mystery first.
