“The Murder of a Quack” by George Bellairs

British Library Crime Classics has published both The Dead Shall Be Raised and The Murder of a Quack by George Bellairs in one volume. The books were first published in the 1940s; both mysteries reflect World War II although neither has anything directly to do with the war. Mystery expert Martin Edwards, in the introduction, describes them both as short novels. But both seem longer than what we think of as a short novel and shorter than a full-blown novel. 

In The Murder of a Quack, Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is called in to assist with  murder in a small English village. Staged as a suicide by hanging, the crime is determined to be a murder – the victim was almost strangled before he was hung. The victim is what was then known as a “bonesetter,” what medical doctors at the time called a quack and what today we would call a chiropractor. Even the man had been a “quack,” he had been a successful one, effecting cures and diagnosing ailments missed by the medical doctor.

 

George Bellairs

At first, few if any clues can be found. The victim was well-liked, or at least he hadn’t seemed capable of provoking anyone to the act of murder. Some of the village residents resent being interviewed by the police. But slowly Littlejohn begins to piece together what happened, eventually identifying the killer. 

 

One hallmark of both stories is the frequent lapse into humor. Bellairs had an eye for the foibles of village life and human nature, and he uses both in these novels to great effect.

 

George Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell (1902-1982), 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. His Littlejohn mysteries, many set outside London, provide a perceptive look at small towns and minor cities.

 

Related:

 

The Dead Shall Be Raised by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Death in the Fearful Night by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Corpses at Enderby by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Death in High Provence by George Bellairs.

 

Death of a Tin God by George Bellairs.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Campaign 2024: Not Left Versus Right, But Affluent Versus Everyone Else – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

Trail of Tears – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

“The Dead Shall Be Raised” by George Bellairs

It’s right before Christmas, 1940. Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is on his way to the holiday his wife, whom he had moved to Hattersworth in the Pennines for safety during the blitz and after their London flat had been bombed. It’s a long trip and in the required darkness. He has 10 days of holiday leave, and he’s almost immediately pressed into professional service. 

The skeletal remains of a body have been found on the moor, and they turn out to be those of a man who was thought to have disappeared 20 years before. He was the chief suspect in the murder of his best friend, supposedly a result of a spat over a girl. But now the suspect turns out to have murdered as well.

 

It’s a cold case, but it becomes very hot indeed when another murder happens, and it’s connected to the first two. Littlejohn has to seek the motive in the past, but it’s a motive that is still very much present.

 

The Dead Shall Be Raised is described as a short novel by mystery writer George Bellairs, who’s career stretched from the Golden Age of Mystery (1920s and 1930s) to the late 1970s. British Library Crime Classics has published a new edition of the novel, paired with another short novel by Bellairs, The Murder of a Quack (to be reviewed next week).

 

George Bellairs

George Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell (1902-1982), 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. His Littlejohn mysteries, many set outside London, provide a perceptive look at small towns and minor cities.

 

The Dead Shall be Raised is a deft combination of old and new crime, with something of a Christmas flavor and set against the backdrop of World War II. And it’s rather fun to watch Littlejohn go about his business, doggedly interviewing one and all until he finally solves the crimes. And the excellent introduction by mystery fiction expert Martin Edwards is not to be missed.

 

Related:

 

My review of Death in the Fearful Night by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Corpses at Enderby by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

 

My review of Death in High Provence by George Bellairs.

 

Death of a Tin God by George Bellairs.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Lyrics to Songs Unwritten – 3 poems by Kerry O’Connor at Skylover.

 

Samuel Johnson as Hero – Jeffrey Hart at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

White dress –poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

“Death of a Tin God” by George Bellairs

Movie idol Hal Vale arrives on the Isle of Man to film his next movie, co-starring another movie idol, Monique Dol. They briefly attend a welcome cocktail party, and then Vale returns to his room to get ready for dinner. An hour later, his valet discovers the star’s body in the bathtub, along with his electric shaver still plugged into the outlet. As the valet had just shaved him before his bath (and being dismissed), the death turns out to be murder. And Monique Dol is nowhere to be found; she hurriedly left the hotel where they were staying with the film crew and flew to London.

Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard had been on the same plane as Vale, intending to visit with an old friend for a brief holiday. So much for the holiday. Littlejohn soon finds himself flying back and forth between the Isle of Man, London, and Nice as the case takes on international dimensions and involves all kinds of possible motives and suspects.

George Bellairs

Death of a Tin God by George Bellairs was first published in 1961. George Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell (1902-1982), 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. His Littlejohn mysteries, many set outside London, provide a perceptive look at small towns and minor cities.

In this story, Littlejohn is relentless in tracking and questioning suspects and witnesses. Early on he learns that Vale was not the most amiable of men. The people surrounding him don’t seem to be at all admirable themselves, and Littlejohn has to sift through fears and hatreds – and possible danger to himself and the investigation.

Death of a Tin God is a fast-paced mystery, with some new development happening on almost every page.

Related:

My review of Death in the Fearful Night by George Bellairs.

My review of Corpses at Enderby by George Bellairs.

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

My review of Death in High Provence by George Bellairs.

"Death in High Provence" by George Bellairs

A high British ministry official visits Inspector Thomas Littlejohn at Scotland Yard, asking him to look into the recent death of his brother and sister-in-law. They were killed in an automobile accident in Provence in southern France. The French police and investigating authorities concluded it was an accident and closed the case, but the official isn’t satisfied. Something seems wrong.

If Littlejohn investigates, he has to do so unofficially; he has no jurisdiction in Provence. And so he and his wife take a vacation. Their surface story is that it’s a holiday and she’s looking for places to sketch and paint. And no sooner do they arrive in the small village nearest to where the accident occurred when they discover they’re being spied upon, people who say the official investigation was wrong either disappear or nearly get killed, and the local marquis – who seems to know everything going on – tells Littlejohn that he knows the Scotland Yard connection.

What Littlejohn gradually comes to understand is that what looks like accidental deaths is anything but, and the answers lie in a shooting incident from before World War II.

Originally published in 1957, Death in High Provence by George Bellairs combines local geography, secrets buried in the past, a marquis who may – or may not – be evil, suspicious villagers, and even good food to create an engaging mystery. 

George Bellairs

George Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell (1902-1982), 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. His Littlejohn mysteries, many set outside London, provide a perceptive look at small towns and minor cities.

Littlejohn is nothing if not relentless in tracking down what happened and who’s responsible, and it may be more than one “who.” It’s a case where nothing is what it looks to be, and the Scotland Yard detective has to kept sifting and resifting clues and information. Death in High Provenceis an engaging, intriguing mystery.

Related:

My review of Death in the Fearful Night by George Bellairs.

My review of Corpses at Enderby by George Bellairs.

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

Top photograph by Sam Bark via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Death in the Fearful Night” by George Bellairs

On separate occasions, two young women are murdered while walking home at night near the town of Carleton Unthank, both stabbed in precisely the same way. Residents becomes alarmed at the idea of a maniac stalker; local police have no leads or clues. And, so, Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard, assisted by Sergeant Cromwell, is called in to take over the case (the London detectives, like the local police, rarely use first names). 

Two more murders follow, and they appear to be by the same killer. One is a man, stabbed in his home. He had moved to England from Australia some years before and had the reputation of being something of a ladies’ man. The second is one his ladies, the owner of the local riding school. But these seem different than the first two. Could there be two different killers using the same method of murder?

Death in the Fearful Night by George Bellairs was first published in 1960, and it’s a classic British police whodunit. Littlejohn and Cromwell are no Holmes and Watkins; Littlejohn has no great flashes of insight based on a few odd clues. He gets the job done by plodding police work, talking to people, interviewing witnesses, paying attention to what people say and how they behave. He’s not above a bit of mild bullying and theatrics, if that’s what it takes to catch a killer (or killers).

George Bellairs

George Bellairs is a pseudonym of British author Harold Blundell (1902-1982), 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. His Littlejohn mysteries, many set outside London, provide a perceptive look at small towns and minor cities.

Death in the Fearful Night manages to keep the reader guessing to the end. The pleasure in reading comes as much from the unmasking of the killer as it does how Littlejohn goes about solving the case. 

Related:

My review of Corpses at Enderbyby George Bellairs.

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

Top photograph by Tevin Trinh via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Corpses in Enderby” by George Bellairs

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:

My review of Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs.

Top photograph: A small English town by Annie Spratt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Death of a Busybody” by George Bellairs

Miss Tither is the busybody of the village of Hilary Magna (not to be confused with Hilary Parva). She hears things, and repeats them, and has no compunction about confronting fellow villagers about their sin. She specializes in information about infidelity and other related activities, but no kind of gossip and knowledge is beyond her reach.

And then someone kills her. Her body is found floating in what was once called a cesspool but we would more recognize today as a septic stank or household waste recycling system. The suspects may be endless; the motives certainly are.

The local police call in Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard. As Littlejohn and the other police investigate, the case only gets murkier, and the possibilities for who the killer might be only grow.

Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs (1902-1982)is another entry in the British Library’s British Crime Classics series, and it help bring to the fore one of the best-known British writers in the mystery genre.

George Bellairs is actually the pseudonym for Harold Blundell, a banker and philanthropist who became extraordinarily well known for his Inspector Littlejohn mysteries. He began writing the Littlejohn mysteries in 1941 (Death of a Busybody was the third and published in 1942) and kept writing them until shortly before his death – more than 50 in all. He also wrote four mysteries under the name of Hilary Langdon.

George Bellairs

Bellairs/Blundell was actively involved in several charities in the Manchester, England, area. He began writing his mysteries during spare moments while he served as an area air warden during World War II (Death of a Busybody is set during the war and contains several references to village life in wartime). He also wrote comedy for the radio, was a columnist for the Manchester Guardian, and was an active freelance writer.

In Death of a Busybody, Littlejohn will eventually get his murderer, and it doesn’t give anything away to say that fanatical religion plays a large part in the story – but not so much in it solution. The story is full of twists and turns, and what often appears obvious becomes less so as the plot unfolds. The book is definitely deserving of being included in the British Library series.

Related: My reviews of other British Library Crime Classics

Miles Burton’s The Secret of High Eldersham.

J. Jefferson Farfeon’s Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Death on the Cherwell.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s The Santa Klaus Murder.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Murder Underground.

John Bude’s The Lake District Murder.

John Bude’s The Cornish Coast Murder.

Charles Warren Adams’s The Notting Hill Mystery.

Freeman Wills Crofts’ The Hogs Back Mystery.

John Rowland’s Murder in the Museum.

Top photograph by Olivier Collet via Unsplash. Used with permission.