Body Blow

 Body Blow (1962) by Kenneth Hopkins

The third (and, unfortunately last) of Hopkins' mysteries featuring Dr. Blow (81 years old!) and Professor Manciple (79 years old!)--two retired academics who have penchant for finding bodies and losing them again. In their last "jaunt" (Dead Against My Principles), they helped investigate a corpse purported to be Blow's old classmate Simon Blunt. A corpse that seemed to play musical chairs between Simon's family castle and little cottage. In this outing, Dr. Blow receives a large packing case which he expects to contain over a hundred volumes of books, some in fancy linen bindings. Even before it's opened, Manciple is questioning the contents...

" It's an awfully big box. Did you say you bought a hundred books?"

And, of course, when it's opened, there are no books to be found--just one very dead woman whom neither gentleman has ever seen before. They hustle off to the police station to report the incident to their friend Superintendent Urry--the phone being so unreliable, don't you know. But he isn't there. And by the time they return to Blow's flat with Constable Poindexter. The packing case is gone. According to Blow's housekeeping, three boy scouts showed up to pick it up--and she didn't think anything of it because Dr. Blow, being the true absent-minded professor, so often forgets to tell her things.

Well, this isn't the first time the two gentleman have been mixed up with dead bodies and they're eager to find out what's going on. Who was the woman in the box? Why was she sent to Dr. Blow? Who took her away again? Was it the same person or someone else? And when the body shows up again minus its stomach, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the stomach appears in Professor Manciple's ice box. I mean, really, where else would it show up? Before they know it, Blow and Manciple are mixed up with secret agents and double-crossers and everybody is on the hunt for a top-secret formula for fantastically strong nylon. 

I have to admit that the mystery plot in this one isn't the greatest. The secret agent business (especially when we find out who one of the players really is) is a bit hard to swallow--but honestly, the story is such great fun, I didn't mind a bit. It's been a while since I read the last Blow and Manciple book and I had forgotten how delightful they are. Blow is a wonderfully stereotypical forgetful academic who will begin a lecture on any one of a dozen topics at the drop of a hat. Manciple tries to keep his friend on the straight and narrow of detective work, but don't mention coins in his hearing or he'll be off an running as well. Between the two of them, they stir up enough nonsensical dust that the villains of the piece don't quite know what to do. And though our academics may not solve the puzzle themselves, their antics help the official police and the MI5 folks get their men. Well...mostly. ★★★

First line: Dr. William low inserted the key of the small satin-wood bureau in which he kept two leaves of unpublished manuscript of Part Four of Butler's Hudibras into the lock of the front door and turned it and pushed--in vain.

"No," admitted Poindexter. The difficulty of police work, he knew, was that murderers looked like anybody else, and forgers and thieves appeared almost abnormally normal. (p. 24)

(about secret double-agents) "They always live in a big, gloomy, decaying mansion on the Essex marshes," said Dr. Blow. (p. 48)

"I'll tell you this," said Hume, "these are grave and complex matters, not even properly the province of the uniformed police. Certain persons whom I must not name, in quarters I shall barely hint at, are vitally interested and concerned." (p. 87)

Last line: The phone rang again and Urry snatched it up, and the voice of the policewoman on the switchboard said sweetly, "Professor Manciple for you sir."

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Deaths =  2 (one suicide; one heart attack)