Continuing (backwards) my ratings of John Street's detective novels, I thought I would look at the wartime ones (books with actual wartime settings in bold):
JOHN RHODE
1941
Death at the Helm****
They Watched by Night*****
1942
The Fourth Bomb****
Night Exercise (noneseries)***
1943
Dead on the Track****
Men Die at Cyprus Lodge****
1944
Death Invades the Meeting***1/2
Vegetable Duck*****
1945
Bricklayer's Arms**
MILES BURTON (all with Inspector Arnold, all but 2 with Desmond Merrion)
1941
Death of Two Brothers***1/2
Up the Garden Path****
1942
This Undesirable Residence***
1943
Dead Stop**
Murder M. D.*****
1944
Four-ply Yarn***1/2
The Three-Corpse Trick*****
1945
Not a Leg to Stand On****
Early Morning Murder**
9 RHODES
2 5-star
4 4-star
1 3.5 star
1 3-star
1 2-star
9 BURTONS
2 5-star
2 4-star
2 3.5-star
1 3-star
2 2-star
Rhode's Vegetable Duck has always been one of my favorites, dodgy title and all, having one of the most madly complex murder plots in the business, like Sayers' Have His Carcase or Christie's One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. One of the all time classic poisonings, although it is a creative adaptation of R. Austin Freeman (not the only time Street did this). They Watched by Night is less showy, but everything is great here--wartime setting, Supt. Hanslet brought out of retirement and Jimmy Waghorn in intelligence working in tandem, neat espionage and brilliant murder.
Death at the Helm is a very sober and character-driven with one Rhode's clever poisonings, The Fourth Bomb another good strong wartime mystery, Dead on the Track unexpectedly moving in its handling of the chief suspect, while Men Die at Cyrpus Lodge is Rhode's take on the haunted house mystery, full of clever devices. Death Invades the Meeting is maybe a notch down from these, while the nonseries Night Exercise is a maybe a little dull as a mystery plot (by Rhode's standards) but is a very interesting look at wartime England. Bricklayer's Arms made very little impression on me at the time, but the Puzzle Doctor has defended it so who knows!
Burton's Murder MD is just a lovely wartime village mystery, probably the closest thing he did to a Christie in terms of clever plotting and milieu. One of my favorite books. Three Corpse Trick has an almost unbelievably intricate plot (I diagrammed it) converging on this odd English village, very well conveyed. Brilliant books both.
Not a Leg to Stand on is a clever take on vanishing (a man and his artificial leg), while Up the Garden Path aka Death Visits Downspring (not to confuse it with Rhode's 1949 Up the Garden Path) is another very clever wartime tale, not quite as good as Rhode's They Watched by Night but still good.
Death of Two Brothers is a very atypical Burton. No Merrion and more character than plot driven I would say. I might bump this up to 4 on rereading. Four-Ply Yarn has similarity to Murder MD but is not as good.
This Undesirable Residence is one Anthony Boucher, Jacques Barzun and Nick Fuller all hated, but what can I say, I enjoyed it reasonably well. No Merrion again in this one. Dead Stop was a big disappointment in that it is one of Street's locked room mysteries but is a dud, while Early Morning Murder just struck me as kind of dumb. Even the greats can nod, especially when they write over 140 mysteries!
Thank you - with so many Rhode / Burton titles to discover, it helps to know which you think are the best ones as I search for available, second hand copies.
ReplyDeleteNow if only these were reprinted. Given so many GAD works now are available, I can only imagine it is the the rights to the books that prevent this for Rhode / Burton titles.
Mysterious Press is reprinting seven Rhodes, hopefully it will lead to the rest.
ReplyDeleteI think we pretty much agree on these, at least the ones that I've read - I too found Night Exercise interesting but underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteBricklayers has, I think, one of Street's better hidden villains, but the murder method is pretty unbelievable. I think one reason that I enjoyed it was that thanks to it not being focussed on in Masters, I presumed it was a duffer. As with a lot of Rhode titles, it does drag a bit when Jimmy is chasing after an obviously innocent suspect though...
See below! You mentioned somewhere that plot mechanics on more than one occasion require Jimmy (and Hanslet and Dr. Oldland too) to be dumb so Dr. P can be smart. That's a flaw that for me mars clever books like Death on Wellington Road and The Dovebury Murders. Sometimes it's hard to swallow Jimmy's obtuseness.
DeleteIn my copy of Death Pays a Dividend, when P tells Jimmy, "Surely that observation is unworthy of you," someone wrote in the margin "From what I can see it's entirely characteristic of him." LOL Paraphrasing from memory, but pretty accurate. Though other times Jimmy is brighter, like in The Bloody Tower and it's the local cop who is an ass.
Of these, I'd personally downgrade Early Morning Murder to one star - it really can't be called a detective story, as Merrion does no detection at all and the crime is only solved because the killer confesses on their deathbed. Ob the other hand, I'd put Bricklayer's Arms up to four stars, despite the murder method that probably would have failed - this flaw applies to several of Street's other books, including Invisible Weapons (first crime) and particularly By Registered Post (second crime).
ReplyDeleteI suppose I'll have to reread Bricklayer's, it just didn't stand out for me at the time.
DeleteOver a decade when I was planning and writing Masters of the Humdrum Mystery I had to read around 250 novels by Street, Connington, Crofts, the Coles and Henry Wade. Two books came out of it, after the Coles and Wade were detached for another book from Masters. So we are talking about 25 novels a year, not counting other books I read. Over 140 of these were by Street. So it's possible that, going back to it fresh, it might stand out more.
As for Early Morning Murder, I didn't like it, but it's better written say than The Fatal Pool!
I think the thing about Accidents is that it deliberately has thrillerish elements, so perhaps it should be judged with that in mind. Still didn't like it though!
DeleteWhoops, meant Early Morning Murder. (It's known as Accidents Will Happen in the US.)
DeleteOne thing I was wondering, is there an actual bricklayer in Bricklayer's Arms? Why were so many pubs named for bricklayers? If I ever blog this book that is what I want to know!
ReplyDelete