Mr. Pinkerton Grows A Beard

Mr. Evan Pinkerton Mysteries #7

by David Frome

Originally published in 1934. (From back of the paperback reprinted in 1963) Also published as The Body In Bedford Square. It continues the series involving Mr. Pinkerton, average grey man, and Inspector Bull of Scotland Yard.

Carlotta Rathbone was awfully elegant, dreadfully chic and terribly dead- as Mr. Pinkerton discovered when he stumbled over her body in a dimly lighted London street

Her friends were bought; her enemies were legion, and paramount among them was Archibald Biddle, a social-climbing novelist who had used Carlotta and then tried to drop her. Biddle was Scotland Yard's prime suspect- until he panicked and began to tell too much about London's international set.

Then the killer struck again...

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

David Frome is the nom de plume of Zenith Jones Brown (or Zenith Brown), who also wrote as Leslie Ford.

She wrote several books under the pen-name David Frome while living in England, the most endearing of these featuring timid and elderly widower Evan Pinkerton. Her other series (also based in England) is the Major Gregory Lewis Mysteries.

Reviews

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read where true to form Mr. Pinkerton decides to have a day of adventure to go to the reading room at the British Museum to read about the history of Wales. Yup, he's raring to go. Next thing he's growing a beard, renting out a lavish Indian decorated apartment, then tripping over a dead woman. He gets the idea that something bad is going on but whenever he tries to get a hold of his friend Insp. Bull he's out! The second half of the book we follow Bull coming to investigate the murdered woman, and discovering that again Mr. Pinkerton in involved. This is a tighter story than others in this series, fun to read as usual.

[Alonzo Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the early years of the last century, a meek little man named Crippen murdered his Amazonian wife and buried her in the basement. In so doing, he became the inspiration for the hundreds of meek little twerps who wander through English fiction up until the 1940s or so. Most of these books don’t survive well. Whiny weak men aren’t endearing and the inevitable battle axe wife is as endearing as a mother in law joke.

So, when I open this one up and find that Mr. Pinkerton is a meek little man whose battle axe wife is deceased, I think “uh oh”. Turns out though that this Crippen look alike is nice and sweet and, though timid, is actually charming. He has a friend in Scotland Yard and through a series of accidents, they solve cases together. In this one, Pinkerton stumbles into a spy ring, and his friend Inspector Bull has to get him out of it. The plot is good — making use of the infamous London fog and the British Museum to establish that classic cozy feeling.

The ending is, like the rest of this, quite sweet. In the age of Trump, retreating into something like this is a welcome diversion.