10/8/15

With a Hint of Gloom


"Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed."
- Lewis Carroll ("The Queen's Croquet-Ground," from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865)
"Leo Bruce" was the penname of Rupert Croft-Cooke, who authored a series of inventive, tongue-in-cheek parodies of the detective story starring a ginger mustached, beer guzzling and pub-sports loving village constable turned private-investigator – the inimitable Sgt. Beef.

Cold Blood (1952) is the seventh and last full-length case Lionel Townsend recorded for Sgt. Beef, which ended the series with a dramatic finish and a wink.

Townsend observes in the opening chapter how the Ducrow-case seemed to have changed Sgt. Beef. The "old chuckle was still heard at times," but their meddling at the "gloomy house" with its "overpowering atmosphere of watchfulness and evil" left its marks on the psyche of the sergeant – becoming more earnest and "a little bit afraid."

However, in spite of its serious coating, the story is plaided with usual humorous remarks and comedic references. When they first read about the Ducrow affair in the newspaper, Townsend remarks Beef needs "a great deal more than successful detection" to be a famous detective. He must stand out and be different. Which can be accomplished by simply resembling a crocodile every couple of pages, "like Mrs. Bradley," or "talk like a peer in an Edwardian farce" like Lord Peter Wimsey.

A similar, wonderful conversation takes place between Beef and his client, Theo Gray, who engages him to find the murderer of Cosmo Ducrow, but the sergeant wants to know why he came to him and wanting the best man for the job isn't accepted as an answer – because there are some better known and better written up detectives than Beef. 

Well, the answer is that Hercule Poirot "was engaged on another case," Albert Campion was "not interested" and a rejection from Beef would've put Gray on "on the phone to Inspector French." It's passages like these that helped Bruce in becoming a fan-favorite, because mystery geeks love reading this type of genre-related, referential-type of humor.

Anyhow, Beef and Townsend learn that Cosmo Ducrow was "worth half a million," which he inherited from his father, but was described as a neurotic, hermit-like recluse – who was "shy to the point of misanthropy."

Ducrow buried himself in a small, Kentish village in a gloomy-looking, Georgian house surrounded by a small, but trusted, circle of intimates. There is a younger wife, Freda, who used to be his nurse. A nephew, Rudolf, alongside with his wife and Theo Gray is a long-time, live-in friend and there's a Major Gulley – who's in charge of running the estate. The group of rounded out by the servants and one of them is a murderer.

One early morning, Cosmo's body is found near the croquet lawn with the back of his head pulverized and besides him lay a croquet mallet, which "had been used to give him three or four terrible blows." The evidence and local police favor Rudolf as the murderer, which adds a hint of doom to the already present gloom.  

Initially, Sgt. Beef barrages the facts and people in the case with his typical, blunt approach and "cryptic statements" that "only grow more obscure" upon questioning, but soon comes to the conclusion that more than his reputation is at stake on how he handles the case. 

The case comes to a conclusion on a tension-filled evening when Beef arrives drunk and too late for an appointment at the Ducrow-home, which ends in a deadly rendez-vous on the rooftop of the house and the scene will give fans of Jonathan Creek and Sherlock a serious case of déjà-vu. Well, now I know where the idea for this gambit originated.

Anyhow, what's even more interesting than the ensnarement of the murderer is the classical nature of the solution, clues and, generally, how the entire plot hang together.

Cold Blood was penned and published in the twilight years of the Golden Age, but Bruce even included a "Challenge to the Reader," which states that Townsend had "scrupulously told the reader all Beef knew" and how "the reader may like to try his hand at finding the answers to the puzzle" – without resorting to "cheating" or "reading or looking into the remaining chapters."

During the first half of Cold Blood, I suspected Bruce was, as they say in England, taking the micky out of S.S. van Dine, but he was actually tipping his bowler hat at his brethren across the pond.

So, all in all, Cold Blood is a very accomplished, classically-styled mystery that harked back to the best from the 1930-and 40s and a better send-off than some of Beef's more well-known and famous colleagues, who had "been written up better," received. Recommended! 

15 comments:

  1. Aside from a dip in some of the very last ones, Leo Bruce was very dependable for Golden Age mystery fans, providing a good puzzle plot and humor. I'm surprised he isn't better-known among fans, since he has been in back in print for decades now.

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    1. I assume the dip you're referring to occurs in the Carolus Deene series?

      Because the Sgt. Beef stories have been fairly consistent in quality and only appeared to have been struggling in matching the sheer joy and ingenuity of Case for Three Detectives, which was eventually accomplished by Case for Sergeant Beef.

      I've read only one of the Deene novels, Death in Albert Park, which was dreary, morose and surprisingly unoriginal as it filched its main plot-idea from Christie. The opinions on this series fluctuate far more than the general enthusiastic responses to the Sgt. Beef series

      So maybe the unevenness of the Carolus Deene books are to blame for Bruce's relatively obscurity today?

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    2. I think Albert Park is atmospheric, but of course you are right about the plot and its origin! I think the Deenes peaked in the late 50s and early 60s, but find most of the 60s ones worth reading. The last two in the series are very weak in my view.

      Bruce actually had thought about bringing Beef back in the 1960s, but his last appearance was in the story Beef for Christmas, the plot of which was the basis for the Carolus Deene novels A Louse for the Hangman. The story has been reprinted in the BL's new anthology of Christmas mystery shorts.

      I think the Beefs are quite consistent and Three Detective is his most famous book, but I have the impression that the Carolus Deenes are more read, though I may be wrong of course. Beef is a lot of fun, though, yeah, this last one is a bit darker.

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    3. You're probably correct in your impression that the Carolus Deenes are more read, which could go a long way in explaining why Bruce isn't as well-known today even among fans.

      If you've only read the Deene novels, and they're as dark and gloomy as Death in Albert Park, you might miss in Bruce the clever satirist I found in the Beef series. That being said, I should give Carolus Deene another try, because it's not fair to judge an entire series on a single work.

      Thanks for pointing out there's a short story about Sgt. Beef!

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  2. The gloomy atmosphere is not surprising. It isn't just Beef who is different. Great Britain in 1952 was a substantially different country from what it was in 1939. The post-war detective novel has a distinct flavor of its own. Race Williams and Mike Hammer do essentially the same things, but the Hammer tone is different and bleaker. I think an interesting study could be made of the post-war detective novel.

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  3. "The gloomy atmosphere is not surprising. It isn't just Beef who is different. Great Britain in 1952 was a substantially different country from what it was in 1939."

    They still had rationing until 1954. In fact the Labor Party wanted rationing to continue forever! Presumably they wanted equal misery for all. I think many people in Britain had the feeling that the Second World War had pretty much brought a end to civilisation as they had known it - the future was going to be grey and bleak and dull.

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    1. Henry Wade caught a lot of this in his postwar books.

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    2. Congratulations on getting your book on Wade (and the Coles) published. Wade was a very substantial novelist as well as a very substantial detective story writer. He was also in the armed forces for both world wars. But Wade was always gloomy. Mist on the Saltings could just as easily have been written in 1953 as in 1933. I see your point about post-war books like A Dying Fall.

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    3. I really should pick up Henry Wade one of these days, because Wade seems to have wrapped his plots in the after effects World War I and II had on society. I love detective stories saturated with WW I and II material!

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  4. I love Bruce's Sgt. Beef books -- it was you, TomCat, who first put me onto him with your recommendation of ...Three Detectives -- and even though none of them quite reach the pinnacle of that first one they are all excellent in their own right. He even managed to write a superb inverted mystery with Case for Sergeant Beef, which is no mean feat in my eyes!

    Anyone struggling to track down his OOP books might be interested in the following site, where the full texts of many of such are available:

    http://booksofleobruce.blogspot.com.au/

    Might save you some time and money in tracking this particular title down...

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    1. I'm glad my recommendation proved useful and enjoyable. I mentioned Case for Three Detectives and Case for Sergeant Beef earlier here in the comments, which are definitely the best from the Beef series!

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  5. Its been so long since I read one of the Beef books - definitely my copy of this one from the shelves soon - thanks TC, great review.

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    1. I hope you'll find it as clever and enjoyable as I have, Sergio!

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  6. Enjoyed this review (no problem finding the Beef). Here's another added to my list. Thanks.

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    1. You're welcome and if you've never read a Leo Bruce/Beef before, I'd recommed starting with Case for Three Detectives.

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