Unsolved

by Bruce Graeme

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Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Graham Montague Jeffries aka David Graeme, Peter Bourne, Roderic Hastings, Fielding Hope, and Jeffrey Montague father of Roderic Jeffries

He is the creator of:
1. ‘Blackshirt (Richard Verrell)’, a gentleman crook.
2. ‘Auguste Jantry’, an Inspector in 19th century Paris.
3. ‘Robert Mather’, a Detective Sergeant.
4. ‘William Stevens and Pierre Allain’, a Detective Superintendent and an Inspector.
5. ‘Theodore I. Terhune’, a bookseller and amateur sleuth.
6. ‘Lord Blackshirt (Anthony Verrell)’, a gentleman crook and son of Richard Verrell.
In 1952 his son Roderic Jeffries started writing Blackshirt stories under the pseudonym ‘Roderic Graeme’.

Reviews

[Bill Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fair to say that this book has been with me all my life, but now I have read it. Going through my father's house unearthed many things from my childhood and I remember the cover of this book vividly. It is inscribed Xmas 1949 from Pat. Pat was my mother's name, but I recently discovered my father had a girlfriend in Gravesend also called Pat, before my mother. He never threw out any letters. I have a feeling this was from her. My mother was 17 in 1949 and I don't think she knew him then. Anyway, was it worth the wait? No, definitely not. Bruce Graeme is now almost forgotten although there are 3 of his vast output (over 100 novels) in print, recently issued by Moonstone Press. I don't know if Unsolved is typical of his work or not. Written in 1932, part of the text suggests the dawning century, and so maybe set early 20th century. It is a country house murder mystery but it takes some time to get to the murder. It is not a detective story. There is a detective but he doesn't solve the case, hence the title. What is interesting is that Graeme tries to get inside the minds of those in the house who are effected by the murder and and the coroner's inquest. However, they all appear to think the same thing that nobody in the house could have done it because they are all such good people. It is so riddled with appalling class prejudice and of the good middle/upper classes against the beastly plebs and dialogue that is poor at best that it does amuse, but barely. It is very repetitious. It may explain why my father didn't marry his girlfriend in Gravesend.