This Way Out
A review of This Way Out by James Ronald – 2405
Originally published in 1939 this is the main course of volume three of James Ronald’s work reissued by Moonstone Press. It is a deeply affecting novel, a mix of inverted murder mystery and a deep dive into the psychology of a murder. There is a cinematic quality about the writing and there is no surprise that it provided the base for Charles Laughton’s 1944 film, The Suspect. It is a study of loneliness leading to entrapment and how individuals in a desperate search for a way out often make the wrong choices, making their predicament even worse.
The book starts with an encounter between the main protagonist, Philip Marshall, and a drunken failed writer, Simmons, where they discuss how to commit the perfect murder, a subject that is to have important implications for both of them. Marshall is trapped in a loveless and suffocating marriage to Cora, a slovenly, lazy woman, who refuses to release him from his living hell. His situation is made worse when he meets Mary, initially as a friend both needing shoulders to cry on but then something more develops, especially when Philip learns that she is with child. It is not his but the looming arrival of a child is Mary’s own trap and marriage is the only way out.
When Cora discovers the affair and adamantly refuses to allow Philip a divorce, there is only one option available – to murder her. She falls down the stairs and to make sure, Philip hits her over the head. Although the police are convinced whodunit, they appear not to have sufficient evidence to charge Philip with murder and he is able to marry Mary, but his troubles are not over. Philip sees his only son, John, making the same disastrous choices as he did, about to enter what would be a loveless marriage, and persuades him to break off the engagement. Then Simmons reappears and threatens blackmail. In a set of scenes laced with black humour, Philip is forced to remove his would-be tormentor.
But Philip is a reluctant murderer with a conscience and when he learns that an innocent is suspected of Simmons’ murder, he embarks upon another desperate escape strategy, with surprising consequences.
The strength of the novel is in Ronald’s characterization. He introduces layer upon layer of mundane detail so that we understand the desperation of the situation that the main characters find themselves in and we understand their thought processes and how an astonishingly back choice can seem appealing and offering a solution to their pain. Yes, Philip is a murderer, a somewhat cack-handed one if the truth be known, but the reader’s sympathy is with him. The chapter, late in the novel which gives Philip’s reminiscences of his upbringing, is a master stroke, giving an extra layer of understanding to his predicament. He has known little else but disappointment and struggle.
This is no cosy country house mystery murder. This is urban living with all its grim reality and is a fine book which will live with me for some time. The Moonstone Press reissue comes with two “bonus” stories, a long short story featuring gangsters and a diamond heist written in a penny dreadful style, and a poignant short story with an amusing twist about how water ruined a man. This Way Out, though, is worth the cover price in itself.
