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Reggie Fortune
Case for Mister Fortune
Eight mystery cases for this relatively obscure '30s sleuth.
- GenresShort Stories
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
About the author
H.C. Bailey
125 books18 followersHenry Christopher Bailey (1878 – 1961) was an English author of detective fiction. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically-qualified detective called Reggie Fortune. Fortune's mannerisms and speech put him into the same class as Lord Peter Wimsey but the stories are much darker, and often involve murderous obsession, police corruption, financial skulduggery, child abuse and miscarriages of justice. Although Mr Fortune is seen at his best in short stories, he also appears in several novels.
A second series character, Josiah Clunk, is a sanctimonious lawyer who exposes corruption and blackmail in local politics, and who manages to profit from the crimes. He appears in eleven novels published between 1930 and 1950, including The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935), widely regarded as Bailey's magnum opus.
A second series character, Josiah Clunk, is a sanctimonious lawyer who exposes corruption and blackmail in local politics, and who manages to profit from the crimes. He appears in eleven novels published between 1930 and 1950, including The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935), widely regarded as Bailey's magnum opus.
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January 11, 2025
Though he also wrote a good deal of historical fiction, Henry Christopher Bailey (1878-1961) was one of the more popular British writers of mysteries in the genre's "Golden Age" between the World Wars, and even afterwards. (He retired from writing in 1950.) Since his death, he's been largely --and unjustly, IMO-- forgotten by genre fans. (One Goodreads reviewer attributed this eclipse in popularity, at least in part, to unspecified issues with his literary estate, which hindered reprinting of his work; but I don't know much about that.) His most popular series sleuth was Reginald "Reggie" Fortune, who appears in a number of short stories (published, during Bailey's lifetime, in a dozen partial collections, of which this is one), beginning in 1920, as well as nine novels. This is the only one of the author's books I've read, and until very recently his name wasn't on my radar.
It turns out, however, that I read at least the lead story here, "The Greek Play," as a tween kid. I say "at least," because I'm not sure if I read the entire book, for which I'd forgotten author/title information. Late last year, I tracked it down with the aid of the helpful Goodreads group What's the Name of that Book???, but the process took years because my only memories of it were of that first story, and I misremembered that as a novel. On the reread, I found that I could remember a number of lines of dialogue from that selection, but nothing of any of the others. That leads me to suspect that I quit reading on my original read after the first story. If that's the case, it would have been because Bailey's prose style proved too confusing and off-putting for my pre-teen self. It's very English, with a lot of period British slang, a considerable amount of very dry and cynical humor that would have been over my head at the time, and a seasoning of extreme tongue-in-cheek statements in dialogue that aren't intended to be taken literally. Fortunately, in the intervening 60 or so years, my ability to understand this kind of thing has vastly improved. :-)
This book provides eight stories, mostly about 40 pages long, and which I'd guess are probably fairly representative of the Fortune corpus. A very round and well-realized character, Reggie's a medically-qualified surgeon (he's addressed as Mr. rather than Dr. in keeping with traditional British usage; originally, surgeons in England did not generally have M.D degrees). In the earliest stories, he filled in some in his father's medical practice; but by the time the stories here were written, his income is mainly from consulting for Scotland Yard on criminal cases, and he's acquired quite a reputation in that field, due to being very observant and thorough, scrupulously logical-minded, and very good at reading people. Crime fighting wasn't his choice for a specialization (his first love is medical research); but he's good at it, and has a deep sympathy for the victimized and downtrodden and a principled desire to see justice done. Like Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, to whom he's been compared (though he's much less athletic, and part of the monied commoner gentry rather than the aristocracy), he's also well-read, has some knowledge of a wide variety of subjects, an interest in mental challenges, and an appreciation for creature comforts. (Both men are also refreshingly free of class snobbery, and not very sympathetic to snobs.) He also came across to me as sort of a fictional version of Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Arthur Conan Doyle's real-life medical professors, who often assisted the police, and served as a model for Sherlock Holmes.
Of the eight stories here, six involve murders or attempted murder. All of the mysteries are challenging and tightly constructed, with a good deal of imaginative variety. Most of them feature the fictional head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation division, Sidney Lomas, and his right-hand man, Detective Superintendent Bell, who serve as foils for the protagonist; two stories also let us get to know Reggie's much-loved wife Joan, and another features his (also smart) sister, who's married to a pompous Anglican bishop. These continuing characters were undoubtedly introduced in earlier collections; all of them, and the various characters unique to each story, are drawn as vividly as the short format allows. (Unlike some male writers of his day, Bailey doesn't depict his female characters as ineffectual morons; several are intelligent, capable women who play real roles in the stories.) England is the setting for seven of the stories.
To consider some of the individual stories, "The Mountain Meadow" is the one story set in rural France, where the Fortunes are vacationing (but crime doesn't necessarily take vacations). "The Sported Oak" is set in the milieu of British higher education, at fictional "Oxbridge Univ." (its rival school is "Camford Univ;" anyone familiar with England's academia will recognize the real-life analogues :-) ). Reggie's love for animals is on particular display in "The Little Dog," in which the title four-legged character will be instrumental in unmasking a culprit. My only criticisms of "The Walrus Ivory" are that I don't think a visual examination would allow one to distinguish walrus ivory from, say, elephant ivory; and having actually seen persons of Slavic ethnicity in real life and on TV, I'm pretty sure that they can't be distinguished from Anglo-Saxons by their facial features. (One villainess in that story also uses the n-word in a conversation, but Reggie doesn't.) But those are minor quibbles. I didn't really have a favorite story as such; they were all really well done, and a pleasure to read.
It's a pity the old PBS Mystery! series never adapted any of these (or any other) of the Fortune stories, an omission possibly related to the above-mentioned problems with Bailey's literary estate. Even now, if any TV or movie producers would produce a quality adaptation, I'd definitely watch it if I had a chance to! And while I don't plan to follow the series at this time, if I found a good second-hand copy of any of the other Fortune books, I'd snap it up.
It turns out, however, that I read at least the lead story here, "The Greek Play," as a tween kid. I say "at least," because I'm not sure if I read the entire book, for which I'd forgotten author/title information. Late last year, I tracked it down with the aid of the helpful Goodreads group What's the Name of that Book???, but the process took years because my only memories of it were of that first story, and I misremembered that as a novel. On the reread, I found that I could remember a number of lines of dialogue from that selection, but nothing of any of the others. That leads me to suspect that I quit reading on my original read after the first story. If that's the case, it would have been because Bailey's prose style proved too confusing and off-putting for my pre-teen self. It's very English, with a lot of period British slang, a considerable amount of very dry and cynical humor that would have been over my head at the time, and a seasoning of extreme tongue-in-cheek statements in dialogue that aren't intended to be taken literally. Fortunately, in the intervening 60 or so years, my ability to understand this kind of thing has vastly improved. :-)
This book provides eight stories, mostly about 40 pages long, and which I'd guess are probably fairly representative of the Fortune corpus. A very round and well-realized character, Reggie's a medically-qualified surgeon (he's addressed as Mr. rather than Dr. in keeping with traditional British usage; originally, surgeons in England did not generally have M.D degrees). In the earliest stories, he filled in some in his father's medical practice; but by the time the stories here were written, his income is mainly from consulting for Scotland Yard on criminal cases, and he's acquired quite a reputation in that field, due to being very observant and thorough, scrupulously logical-minded, and very good at reading people. Crime fighting wasn't his choice for a specialization (his first love is medical research); but he's good at it, and has a deep sympathy for the victimized and downtrodden and a principled desire to see justice done. Like Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, to whom he's been compared (though he's much less athletic, and part of the monied commoner gentry rather than the aristocracy), he's also well-read, has some knowledge of a wide variety of subjects, an interest in mental challenges, and an appreciation for creature comforts. (Both men are also refreshingly free of class snobbery, and not very sympathetic to snobs.) He also came across to me as sort of a fictional version of Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Arthur Conan Doyle's real-life medical professors, who often assisted the police, and served as a model for Sherlock Holmes.
Of the eight stories here, six involve murders or attempted murder. All of the mysteries are challenging and tightly constructed, with a good deal of imaginative variety. Most of them feature the fictional head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation division, Sidney Lomas, and his right-hand man, Detective Superintendent Bell, who serve as foils for the protagonist; two stories also let us get to know Reggie's much-loved wife Joan, and another features his (also smart) sister, who's married to a pompous Anglican bishop. These continuing characters were undoubtedly introduced in earlier collections; all of them, and the various characters unique to each story, are drawn as vividly as the short format allows. (Unlike some male writers of his day, Bailey doesn't depict his female characters as ineffectual morons; several are intelligent, capable women who play real roles in the stories.) England is the setting for seven of the stories.
To consider some of the individual stories, "The Mountain Meadow" is the one story set in rural France, where the Fortunes are vacationing (but crime doesn't necessarily take vacations). "The Sported Oak" is set in the milieu of British higher education, at fictional "Oxbridge Univ." (its rival school is "Camford Univ;" anyone familiar with England's academia will recognize the real-life analogues :-) ). Reggie's love for animals is on particular display in "The Little Dog," in which the title four-legged character will be instrumental in unmasking a culprit. My only criticisms of "The Walrus Ivory" are that I don't think a visual examination would allow one to distinguish walrus ivory from, say, elephant ivory; and having actually seen persons of Slavic ethnicity in real life and on TV, I'm pretty sure that they can't be distinguished from Anglo-Saxons by their facial features. (One villainess in that story also uses the n-word in a conversation, but Reggie doesn't.) But those are minor quibbles. I didn't really have a favorite story as such; they were all really well done, and a pleasure to read.
It's a pity the old PBS Mystery! series never adapted any of these (or any other) of the Fortune stories, an omission possibly related to the above-mentioned problems with Bailey's literary estate. Even now, if any TV or movie producers would produce a quality adaptation, I'd definitely watch it if I had a chance to! And while I don't plan to follow the series at this time, if I found a good second-hand copy of any of the other Fortune books, I'd snap it up.
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