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The Secret of High Eldersham (1930) by Miles Burton (Cecil Street)
Welcome to High Eldersham, a small East Anglican coastal village. It's a quiet farming town where not much happens--unless you're an outsider. The townsfolk don't take much to outsiders and outsiders seem to have bad luck. New people who try their hand at farming find that equipment breaks down or they have a bout of unexplained illness. New shopkeepers can't seem to make a profit. When Samuel Whitehead, a retired policeman, takes over as landlord of the Rose and Crown, it seems that string of outsider bad luck may have been broken. His profits go up and the locals seem to like him well enough.
But then...one night someone sneaks into the pub near closing time and stabs Whitehead in the back. The Chief Constable immediately thinks (since a former policeman is the victim) that this is a case for Scotland Yard. And when Detective Inspector Young arrives and gets the lay of the land he immediately thinks the case has a strange vibe that will appeal to his brilliant amateur detective friend Desmond Merrion. As he writes in the letter asking Merrion to join him at High Eldersham:
There is something mysterious about the whole of this countryside, something which I cannot possibly fathom, but which seems to me is more less in your line, and may possibly interest you. I can't get away from a wild and insane idea which I dare not even hint to you, lest you should think I have gone clean off my head.
Needless to say, his letter intrigues Merrion and the wealthy young bachelor comes along to see what's what. He immediately picks up on what Young had hinted at and, to the DI's consternation, confirms his wild idea. There is a nasty hand guiding all the events in High Eldersham, but to what purpose? And had the ex-policeman stumbled across the plot? Or is the murder more personal than that?
So...for most of the book you've got to wonder if DI Young is merely a vehicle to get Merrion into the case. Because Young really doesn't behave much like a Scotland Yard detective. Once he passes on his "this place is weird and something unpleasant is going on" ideas to Merrion he pretty much gives up and disappears for 75% of the book and only shows up again at the end to save the intrepide amateur from a watery grave and to bring in the police reinforcements to round up the bad guys. He does a spot of investigation on the side (but we don't really learn about what he's been up to until he meets up with Merrion again). Merrion is the star of the show and what starts out like a straightforward mystery rapidly turns into a thriller. He tracks the bad guy to his lair, saves a damsel in distress, gets bashed, tied up, and nearly drowned...and, of course, as the hero winds up with said damsel.
Now don't get me wrong...it's a fun thriller and I enjoyed myself immensely as I was reading it. It's full of ancient folklore, folks running around in hooded cloaks, and sacrificial rites--all to provide cover for the evil deeds. There's a speed boat chase. There's a mysterious boat that runs through shallow water and shoots off guns at specific points. Merrion gets lost in a fog, discovers a hidden steel box, and manages to lose not one, but two dinghies. But he also manages to identify the man behind cloaks and help Young put an end to his nefarious doings. I do wish there had been more of a mystery plot and that we'd seen more of what Young was doing in the background. A solid read. ★★★
First line: Nobody knew better than Mr. George Thorold, the senior partner of Thorold and Son, the well-known Gippingford brewers that in those days of highly-taxed beer it would not be an easy matter to find a tenant for the Rose and Crown.
Last line: "Things haven't changed much since those days, have they?"
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Deaths = 4 (one stabbed; two natural; one hanged)
