The Monster of Grammont

by George Goodchild

Ralph Wallace and Connie Conrad are touring France and encounter Monsieur Fallières and his daughter Yolande, who own the massive Château Grammont; where Connie was billeted during the war.

It turns out the château is also home of a 'monster' who appears periodically, breaking mirrors, and is suspected in the death of a servant a year ago. Monsieur Fallières goes missing, then is found murdered, soom the servant Monsieur Severin is murdered also.

Meanwhile, young Ralph Wallace is attracted to Yolande, while Connie is interested in parlour maid Bertha - who has a couple of seedy associates, Heinrich and Niels, whom she secretly allows access to the house. Both they - and the 'monster' - are after something, but what?

Genres: Mystery

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

George B. Goodchild (1888-1969) aka Alan Dare, Wallace Q. Reid, and Jesse Templeton, was an incredibly prolific successful British author. His career lasted over 60 years (1916-published after death, still reprinted); his works number around 210, most under his own name.

Little is known of his life. GR system bug adds January 1 to his birth date, but the actual date is unknown. Born in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1888, he married Dora Mary Hill and had one son and two daughters. He lived at The Great Quarry, Guildford. Before full-time writing, he had experience in journalism and publishing. He died at Aldershot in March 1969, aged 80.

Featured characters were Scotland Yard Inspector McLean, spy catcher Q33, Trooper O'Neill, cowboy Colorado Jim (Jack) and Nigel Rix. McLean appeared in The Weekly News even anonymously until 6 October 1979, ten years after Goodchild died, and inspired Dandy Inspector McLean Library published by D.C. Thomson. An early 1921 story in The Children's Newspaper was a rare contribution to the scifi genre. Only a handful of his books are still in print, recently some republished in large print. Colorado Jim is the only one on gutenberg.org as of Jan 2012.
(in-progress chronological list of works on aneyespy

Reviews

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Characters:

Ralph Wallace - visiting France
Julian "Connie" Conrad - war veteran
Monsieur Fallières - owner of Château Grammont
Yolande Fallières - his daughter
Monsieur Severin - servant at Château Grammont
Arnard Fouchard - of the police
Bertha. - the saucy maid
Heinrich - a lurking German
Niels- a lurking German

Locale: France

Synopsis: Ralph Wallace and Connie Conrad are touring France and encounter Monsieur Fallières and his daughter Yolande, who own the massive Château Grammont; where Connie was billeted during the war.

It turns out the château is also home of a 'monster' who appears periodically, breaking mirrors, and is suspected in the death of a servant a year ago. Monsieur Fallières goes missing, then is found murdered, soom the servant Monsieur Severin is murdered also.

Meanwhile, young Ralph Wallace is attracted to Yolande, while Connie is interested in parlour maid Bertha - who has a couple of seedy associates, Heinrich and Niels, whom she secretly allows access to the house. Both they - and the 'monster' - are after something, but what?

Review: What fun! This book has everything. A castle complete with towers, cellars, and secret passages. Servants who are not what they appear. A monster who roams the halls. Underground rooms. Dead bodies. Lurking Germans. Lights going out. Secret codes. Car chases. Kidnappings. Escape by yacht across the English channel complete with a man going overboard. And two, yes two, love interest subplots. It is definitely action-packed.

All through the book the Germans and The Monster are looking for "something" and what it is comes to a surprise. It wasn't what I expected. Everything resolves quite nicely although a few dead bodies have been scattered around in the process.

There are several loose ends left dangling. How did The Monster get a disfigured face? and why does The Monster break mirrors (perhaps so as not to see his own face?) and "despoil" (not sure I want to know more) the furniture?

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[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2.5. Reasonably entertaining. Definitely shows its age.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this actually 2 1/2 stars. Goodchild's early books are much more romantic in nature than the later ones, which was more in keeping with the popularity of subject matter for a mystery to contain. In this story 2 English gentlemen are touring France when they come upon the Grammont Estate. In this estate after the war the older Englishman stayed to recuperate. They decide to visit the estate and find that all is not well. There is a strange "ghost" or monster that haunts the place. After the man of the estate is killed the games afoot. Fouchard, a famous investigator, is sent to find out who did the crime and finds that there are several people who are trying to get into the main building... but no one can figure out why!

Regardless of the tragedies that occur love is in the air. The Englishmen and Fouchard work tirelessly to help solve this mystery which is truly bizarre but considering the time this happened, could actually be quite a probable mystery. An interesting book of its time. Later Goodchild wrote a series with McLean as the lead. This is not one of those!