Duck Season Death

by June Wright

June Wright wrote this lost gem in the mid-1950s, but consigned it to her bottom drawer after her publisher foolishly rejected it. Perhaps it was a little ahead of its time? Because while it’s a tour de force of the classic country-house murder mystery, it’s also a delightful romp, poking fun at the conventions of the genre. When someone takes advantage of a duck hunt to murder publisher Athol Sefton at a remote hunting inn, it soon turns out that virtually everyone, guests and staff alike, had a good reason for shooting him. Sefton’s nephew Charles thinks he can solve the crime by applying the “rules of the game” he’s absorbed from his years as a reviewer of detective fiction — only the killer evidently isn’t playing by those rules. Duck Season Death is a both a fiendishly clever whodunit and a marvelous entertainment.

Genres: Mystery, Australia, Historical Mystery, Crime

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2014

About the author

June Wright (1919-2012) was the Australian author of six detective stories (plus one posthumously published), the last three featuring Mother Paul. Born in Melbourne, where most of her books are set, she had begun her writing career by winning a competition run by a London publisher. This ensured the publication of her first book, Murder in the Telephone Exchange in 1948. She herself had been working in a telephone exchange for four years. She was the mother of six children. Her last novel was published in 1966. She then retired from writing to help her husband with his business.

Reviews

[Kerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the blurb above does not say is that the main reason this novel was "consigned to her bottom drawer" was that the author's usual publisher rejected this offering in the 1950s because of negative reviews by three of their pre-publishing readers.

I can understand what attracted scathing comments from these readers. First of all I think Wright meant this as a spoof on the genre. The murder victim is a publisher known for his scathing comments about would-be authors and the books they gave him to read, but also an unlikeable person who tried his invective out on most of those who came within range. The amateur sleuth who thinks the murder is not accidental is his nephew, but he didn't like Athol Sefton any more than most people. He just thinks the local doctor and policeman are bumbling idiots.

Enter an odd plot strand - the victim himself was under observation by the Victoria police for the murder of his wife, actually a cold case, with the second suspect being the nephew who used to send her boxes of chocolates.

The style in which all this is written is, at first, a bit hard to take. She writes as if she has swallowed the dictionary, a rather pompous version of English which I think was supposed to point the finger at more academic writers from the Golden Age- lots of five syllable words appear in the narrative. The style changes a little for the better in the latter half of the novel. I think it was supposed to imitate the thinking style of the voice of the narrator which did change from section to section of the novel, but was nearly always that of the nephew.

So there we have it - a country house murder set in the style of Agatha Christie (to whom there is the odd reference), located in rural Victoria in the 1950s. The location is near the Murray River at a hotel called The Duck and Dog Inn. The timing: the opening of theduck shooting season.

I spent some time considering whether I thought Wright intended this as a spoof or not, and therefore how I should rate it. I think she did, but her original readers misunderstood, or disapproved. Other bits of humour emerge, even a romantic element. So it may well have been "ahead of its time", but she doesn't quite pull it off.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

June Wright is one of the early writers who forged a way for the current vibrant Australian crime fiction scene. Reviewed at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/20...

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second book by Wright for me. This one was shorter, and there was a bit more humor in it. The victim in this case wrote criticism of written works, and the person thought to be guilty was involved in reviewing mystery writing reviews. This slap feels totally on purpose and probably made for a highly satisfying write for Wright.

A man, who pretty much is detested by many, is killed. And the only one believes he was murdered isn’t believed and later suspected. From there on out, the man needed to be a detective to save himself…. (He’s lucky other people help him out.)

The first half of the book is fighting against the apathy and disbelief that someone was murdered. But little by little, the tide swings and then things start to happen. It’s a decent story, not too long, humor and wit- it was buried by critics of Wright. Luckily it was reprinted so we can enjoy it now.

[Perry Middlemiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

June Wright is best known for her first novel, Murder in the Telephone Exchange (1948), and this was followed by another 5 novels in the period up to 1966. A couple of her manuscripts were rejected during her lifetime, this was one of them though the only one published posthumously. In the novel, Athol Sefton, the publisher of an Australian literary magazine called Culture and Critic, is fatally shot while duck hunting in northern Victoria. He and his nephew, and a slew of other characters, had gathered at The Duck and Dog Inn outside the small town of Dunbavin for the duck hunting season. The nephew is convinced the death was an act of murder, but none of the others will hear of it so he sets out to solve the crime on his own. Into the mix drops a police detective who had originally arrived to interview Sefton about the death of his late wife. As the novel progresses it becomes rather like a classic “country-house” mystery, in which all of the characters are a possible suspect. But without Sefton to interview the detective starts to narrow his focus on the nephew, pointing to him as the most probable perpetrator of both murders. So it becomes a race between the detective trying to pin the murder on the nephew, and the nephew trying to find the real killer. Amusing and enjoyable without being of the highest order. R: 3.2/5.0

[JoLynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this best of all out of her books.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

[Oanh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. June Wright writes most amusingly and whimsically, with a rollicking plot and fun characters. She's clearly poking fun at the genre, while following its form perfectly.

[Tamara]

Guessed the ending. Liked the book. Thought it was a nice twist on a typical country house mystery.