The Worm Of Death
A review of The Worm of Death by Nicholas Blake – 241017
Originally published in 1961, the fourteenth novel in Blake’s Nigel Strangeways series which, while retaining the elements of a whodunit, is more of a psychological study of members of a troubled and distinctly odd family.
None of the Loudron family are likeable. Paterfamilias, Dr Piers Loudron, has in various ways earned the enmity of his children, James and Rebecca for the treatment of their mother, although it emerges he had some justification, and in Rebecca’s case for also forbidding her relationship with a volatile painter called Walter Barn, Harold, “something in the City”, for refusing to bail him out in his hour of need, and his adopted son, Graham, whom Piers sired but treated his mother, at least in his eyes, abominably. There are motives enough for murder most foul.
Blake, the nom de plume of the poet Cecil Day Lewis, applies his customary elegance to the structure of the novel, opening with an extract of a diary that Piers has penned, indicating that he fears someone is out to kill him and that he will meet his fate willingly but might hasten the end by taking his own life, and ending it with a fuller rendition of the diary, the perfect ring composition. There is more than a tip of the hat to the Roman writer and courtier, Petronius, whose elegant suicide, after writing an account spilling the beans on the reign of the emperor Nero, earned him a place in the pages of history.
Piers Loudron’s body is recovered from the Thames and while his legs are severed, there are two slashes across his wrists of equal depth, making it highly unlikely that he committed suicide. But why was the body dumped into the sea and who killed him and why? Was there a solo killer or did several have a hand in it? His death means that the financial worries of each of the family members are eased. Is this a motive, a strong one in the case of Harold, or is it a question of revenge for Piers’ past indiscretions?
Strangeways, ostensibly brought in to protect the interests of the family, had a brief acquaintance with them, having dined in the company of his long-time girlfriend, the sculptress Clare Massinger whom we first met in The Whisper in the Gloom, shortly before Piers’ death. He is fascinated by the family dynamics and the psychological make-up of each of the principal characters. This is a novel where Clare plays an important part, not only making helpful suggestions as Strangeways’ investigations develop but also playing a major part in preventing Nigel from becoming the murderer’s third victim – they had also done away with Harold’s nymphomaniac and drug addict wife, Sharon, along the way – in a dramatic finale where the tables are turned and the culprit dances an unofficial hemp jig.
Clare also contributes to the book’s title by referring to Strangeways’ modus operandi as worm-like, burrowing and insinuating himself into the confidence of his suspects, the better to understand their actions and motives and, ultimately, to bring one or more to justice. This perfectly describes Strangeways’ behaviour in this novel, in which he is not beyond betraying his position of trust to play tricks to get nearer to the truth.
The plot resembles a Greek Tragedy, as Piers acknowledges in his diary, with his hamartia, his original indiscretion or sin, inexorably sets in train a series of actions and events which lead to disaster. While the culprit is relatively easy to identify, the mechanics of the murder and the disposal of the body are less so.
Blake uses his own house in Greenwich as the setting for the Loudon’s home and exhibits a fine sense of place, with moody, atmospheric passages of the river, the river traffic and the fog. There is also a splash of humour, the grim brutality of Sharon’s murder leavened by the drunken Dutch sailor who falls into the river.
I always find much to admire in Blake’s work but this is one of his lesser novels.
