A Bullet For Rhino
A review of A Bullet for Rhino by Clifford Witting – 240615
I was reading A Bullet for Rhino, originally published in 1950 and reissued by Galileo Publishers, while I was pondering whether to accept an invitation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my matriculation at college. Did I really want to spend an evening in a hall, albeit a splendid one, with a load of senescent men? Any sense of foreboding I might have had was reinforced by Witting’s rather patchy novel.
The Old Mereworthians’ Association are gathering for the school’s Old Boys’ Day, among whose members are Inspector Charlton, Witting’s series detective, and a larger than life character, Colonel Bernard “Rhino” Garstang. Garstang has had an exemplary military career, picking up the VC, MC, and DSO, but is also a dipsomanic, armed, rude, and brusque, and in his career in foreign parts has got himself into scrapes and cultivated enemies.
The first half of the book is spent introducing a range of characters and exploring the relationship between some of them and Garstang. The Charltons are staying with Sir James Hollander whose eldest son, Gordon, is in love with Garstang’s daughter, Diana. Garstang wants his daughter to return with him to Nigeria. Diana is keen but her mother, Muriel, Garstang’s estranged wife, is reluctant to see her go. If she goes, Gordon decides he will go, to the horror of his father who believes that his health will not stand the tropics. Meanwhile, Hollander’s daughter is consorting with Mark Longdon, a character known to Charlton for professional reasons, and about whom Garstang knows some dirt and a couple of shady characters seem more than a little interested in the Colonel’s whereabouts.
Witting shows a distinct reluctance to kill off his principal character, preferring to meander along showing all the facets of his monstrous personality and how others react to him. He also spends time describing domestic scenes chez Hollander that together with a lengthy account of the annual cricket match between the School XI and the Old Boys show the deep bond between Sir James and his youngest son, David, a relationship that could have been tested to the limits as the story reaches its conclusion.
Eventually, about two-thirds into the book, a tanked up Longdon and an equally inebriated Rhino have a tussle, a gun goes off and Garstang is shot dead between the eyes. Amusingly, his Special Branch guard, DC Briggs, is late on the scene after answering a call of nature.
Charlton is more than a little anxious to keep out of the formal investigations, preferring to enjoy his weekend off and leave matters in the hands of the local police headed up by the local Chief Inspector, Prout, and the rather mannered Special Branch officer, Inspector Le Maire. However, he is in possession of some important evidence that is suggestive of another gun and uses Briggs as his means of imparting the information. That the police choose to draw the wrong conclusions from the new facts that emerge, aided by an unfortunate and unnecessary suicide, reinforces Charlton’s decision to put friendship ahead of duty.
Witting has chosen to write a murder mystery while stripping out all the mystery to the murder. Key bits of information are telegraphed in the story and the timeline keeps going back and forth so that even the most inattentive reader cannot fail to grasp the importance of what has just been imparted, a consequence, perhaps, of having too many characters and too many sleuths involved. Nevertheless, there is much to be enjoyed in the book and Witting imbues it with his usual humour and there some delightful observations and turns of phrase.
It has convinced me to join the reunion. After all, there might be a Rhino amongst our ranks!
