1942 mystery. On the eve of the USA joining the Second World War,
self-important literary heir Hilary St. John Foulkes insists that
someone is trying to murder him, and there's certainly no shortage of
people who would profit by his death. Then he's found stabbed in the
back in a locked room… Originally published as by "H. H. Holmes".
As a mystery, this works well, though as an experienced reader I
had little trouble in working out what must be going on: it's clearly
signalled, and there's a distinct lack of red herrings to distract
one, to the point that even discussing details risks giving away the
plot. There's clearly some authorial hesitancy to use what was by now
the quite hackneyed device of the locked room and the impossible
crime, particularly after John Dickson Carr had laid it all out neatly
dissected in The Hollow Man (1935), and characters even comment on
just how distinctive and even self-defeating a style of murder it is.
But also, and the reason why this book would now be read by more
than just historical mystery buffs like me, it's a snapshot of the
California SF community on the eve of the Second World War; several of
the characters are very obviously drawn from the life, particularly
for me Robert and Ginny Heinlein (Austin and Bernice Carter), L. Ron
Hubbard (D. Vance Wimpole) and Jack Parsons (Hugo Chantrelle). These
are the days when SF is still primarily published in magazines, and
thoroughly despised by readers of "real" fiction like detective
stories (Boucher of course lived in both worlds), but these are also
the people who are trying to make SF its own form, to write something
better than just a horse opera with the names changed. There are the
fans, and the fanzines, and at least a passing mention of the
conventions, in a way that's historically valuable as well as
fascinating.
Yes, all right, the attractiveness of women is an intrinsic part of
their description, while men are just men. Yes, there's a
crime-solving nun who's clearly an homage to Father Brown. But if you
are able to tolerate that sort of thing there's also a good story and
an interesting and well-portrayed background.
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