This is the first book I have read by Adams, a somewhat popular British writer of Golden Age mystery novels.
At the start of this story, featuring Adams's series detective Roger Bennion, Bennion is hosting a dinner for his father, Sir Christoper; his Scotland Yard friend, Inspector Goff; and a newspaper reporter. Crime is the principal topic, of course, with much discussion of the role of coincidence.
One assumes that we are about to be treated to a coincidence, and one is not disappointed. The next day, Bennion drops by Goff's office to return the latter's forgotten pipe, and is invited to accompany the detective as he looks into a strange case: two men, brothers (attorney Alexander Curtis and accountant Frederick Curtis), both committed suicide by shooting themselves, at precisely the same moment – 10:58pm – the time being established in both cases by that tired device, broken timepieces.
Though the possibility of a suicide pact is floated, no experienced reader is fooled by a clock that fell off a desk, and such a reader would be disappointed by a detective who was so easily misled. The suicide idea is quickly discarded, and a few days later the accountant's feckless nephew-by-marriage, Wilfrid, is arrested for his murder – with inheritance as the presumed motive.
Wilfrid is a good name for a feckless nephew, isn't it?
Bennion, who had left town and done nothing in the first week after accompanying Goff on the first day's inquiries (and pointing out the clock) is drawn deeper into the case upon his return by the nephew's attractive fiancé, the niece/ward of Alexander's partner, Morant. She is pregnant (the word is not used – she says that she "
must" marry Wilfrid, and that it
must be soon. Bennion, being a detective, gets the hint).
Bennion is not satisfied about Wilfrid's guilt, though there is a fair amount of evidence against him, because he had no motive whatsoever to kill Alexander, to whom he was not related and with whom he had only a slight acquaintance. We're back to coincidence – were two brothers killed on the same night in unrelated acts? If so, who killed Alexander? The police aren't satisfied either, but go ahead, based on the evidence, with the prosecution of Wilfrid.
On the Alexander front, the first suspect is of course his wife. This gets muddled considerably when it turns out that she and Alexander were not in fact married (!) and that Alexander wanted out of their irregular relationship in order to marry (properly, this time) another woman. The 'wife' threatens to expose him to scandal unless she is properly rewarded for their years together, and there has been disagreement about the monetary definition of 'properly'. There is, however, no evidence against her.
But if we are not willing to accept the coincidence of two brothers being killed on the same night, we have the difficulty that nobody seems to be sufficiently connected to both brothers to have reason to kill them – other than the thoroughly unlikeable third brother Marmaduke ('Smarmy Marmy' as one character calls him). But though he seems to have owed Alexander some money, nothing can be found to indicate he killed either, much less both.
Another character who behaves somewhat suspiciously has an airtight alibi, which is checked thoroughly and attested to by the police.
Though all the on-stage detecting is done by amateurs, this still has some elements of a police procedural, I think, because much of the work is doggedly tracking down clues, following blind alleys, and questioning witnesses. A good deal of time is spent on a box of chocolates left in a cab that really don't mean much (I think this might just have been filler, because the novel is relatively short).
Readers who prefer strong characterization will be disappointed with this book; pretty much everyone is two-dimensional. The only character with any depth at all is a rather secondary one – Alexander's 'other woman'). All the rest are totally forgettable, including Bennion (though he has some amusing lines).
The solution is (mostly) fairly-clued, although final proof relies on the villain 'confessing' when he (to choose a pronoun at random) thinks he has the hero cornered.
As the foregoing may indicate, I have mixed feelings about the book, but overall I liked it sufficiently that I will give Adams another try. I have another book (Death of a Viewer) downloaded, and
there are a few more here.
A side note: The book was published in 1940, but I have to assume it was finished sometime before September 1939, and published early the next year, since there is no mention of the war, but several mentions of concern about it.
