Malice In Wonderland
A review of Malice in Wonderland by Nicholas Blake – 230926
This is another wonderful book from the pen of Nicholas Blake, the nom de plume of Cecil Day-Lewis, which also goes under the titles of The Summer Camp Mystery and The Malice with Murder. Originally published in 1940 and the sixth in his Nigel Strangeways series, the setting is Wonderland, a holiday camp that promises a superior experience for all the family. It allows Blake to draw in characters from different backgrounds, have a multitude of potential suspects and poke fun at the newest of holiday experiences. While the week at Wonderland might not have been the fun experience that the holidaymakers anticipated, it provides the reader with a glorious romp.
There are some wonderful characters, not least the rather pompous and sententious Mr Thistlethwaite, the sort of person who tends to make himself the de facto leader and fount of all wisdom in a mixed crowd and his daughter, the lively Sally, who develops an on-off love relationship with Paul Perry, who is a Mass Observer detailed with analysing the thoughts and preferences of the happy campers, but whose role takes on a more mysterious and darker hue. The principal staff members are the bureaucratic Mortimer Wise, his athletic brother, Teddy, and the very efficient and beautiful secretary, Esmerelda Jones. Blake’s characterisations are sharp and to the point, his protagonists coming to life on the page.
It would be wrong to characterise this book as a murder mystery. There is, of course, a murder but it is rather a side issue and dealt with relatively quickly, explaining the mysterious behaviour of an old, bearded hermit seen in the woods, who has so terrified Sally, and whose presence, near a naval base, allows the prospect of a war and hostile espionage to intrude into the book. The focus is more on the behaviour of the Mad Hatter, a practical joker who unsettles guests and staff alike with a series of pranks. Several guests, including Sally, are pulled underwater, tennis balls are smeared with treacle, a concert is ruined when treacle is poured over the strings of a piano, a dog in the much publicised but ill-used animal facility open to the furry friends of guests is poisoned and dies.
The atmosphere in the camp changes, rumours circulate, guests are suspicious of each other, and the staff fear that the joker is leading up to a more serious crime. Strangely, Mortimer Wise, the camp’s manager, is reluctant to call in the police, fearing, or so he says, the consequence of adverse publicity, even though reports of the incidents at the camp have been leaked to the press. On Thistlethwaite’s recommendation, Nigel Strangeways is called in to investigate.
Incidents continue to occur. A guest develops blisters on her arms, not unlike those caused by exposure to mustard gas, and someone takes a pot shot that grazes Mortimer Digby’s ear. Strangeways begins to see a pattern and cold and calm analysis of each of the incidents shows that there can only be one source of the mischief. The motivation is a little harder for the reader to deduce and, frankly, it is the least convincing aspect of the book. Strangeways realises that the outlier, the shot fired at Digby, is not the work of the Mad Hatter but an entirely separate incident with a separate culprit. So, we get three sets of “crimes” for our money.
Blake delights in the opportunities that the name of the holiday camp gives him and there are several Lewis Carroll references to spot. It might not be a complex plot, but is a whole lot of fun, a book to be read on your sun lounger, sipping something long and cold and thanking your lucky stars that you are not at Wonderland.
