Enderby is
a small English town, and local businessman Ned Bunn is one of its well-known
residents. He’s not exactly a well-liked resident; he’s something of a bully –
always has been – and he’s used to getting his way. After a few drinks with
other townsmen at the local pub, Bunn walks across the street to his shop,
discovers his 40-year-old daughter kissing his shop assistant, physically throws
the assistant into the street, and within a scant few minutes is shot to death,
his body hurtling from the front door.
Who shot
Ned Bunn? As Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard will discover, a veritable ocean
of suspects and motives will be uncovered during the investigation. Not the
least of which are those of the large eye-to-the-main-chance Bunn family, with
a cast of characters right out of a Charles Dickens novel, including two
elderly women vying to be considered the Bunn matriarch.
Is the
killer the daughter or her would-be suitor? Is it the shopkeeper next door
facing eviction at Bunn’s hands? Is it any of a dozen or more Bunn relatives
who hate Ned for past family sins, or would love to get their hands on his
money, or both? Is it the step=sister whose love life he ruined? Littlejohn has
his hands full. And then there’s a second murder, which may or may not be related
to the first.
 |
| George Bellairs |
First
published in 1960, Corpses in Enderby by George
Bellairs (1902-1982) is a book where the story and the mystery seem almost
secondary to the large cast of characters who each try to take the story in
their own direction. It’s a fun, large riot of a story.
George
Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell, who was first a
banker and philanthropist before turning his hand to writing mystery stories. He
wrote more than 50 Inspector Littlejohn mysteries, and also wrote four other
books under the pseudonym of Hilary Langdon. He also wrote comedy for radio, and
was a newspaper columnist and freelance writer.
Inspector
Littlejohn will eventually get his villain (or villains, as the case may be;
the story gets complex at times). We’ll miss the Bunn family, though; they
contained enough stories to keep a dozen books goings.
Related:
Top photograph: A small English
town by Annie Spratt via Unsplash.
Used with permission.
1 comment:
This sounds like a great read. I just finished a detective story by a different British author that was written in the 1960s and is being re-released. Very different tone from more modern detective fiction. I love having the chance to find these older gems.
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