Dress Down Sunday: Murder in a Nunnery by Eric Shepherd


published 1940


LOOKING AT WHAT GOES ON UNDER THE CLOTHES




Murder in Nunnery 1


[A visiting Baroness has been murdered in a convent]

Observing the blade, the Inspector asked: “Was it a deep stab?”

Both doctors answered at once. “No. Hardly did more than perforate…. And you should have seen the stays the old girl had on! More like plate armour. Shock was really what bumped her off….”

[The Baroness’s companion, Mrs Moss, is questioned by the police]

“We have it from you that the late Madame Sliema had on various occasions expressed some fear of being stabbed?”

Mrs. Moss broke down again. “It’s true, sir—as God sees me….”

“That is exactly what he is saying,” said Reverend Mother.

“She had even,” suggested the Inspector, “gone the length of taking certain precautions in her—ah—dress?” Mrs. Moss looked horrified at this remote allusion to such a subject as stays, but inclined her head.



[At the inquest, the question of the stays comes up again]


Some spice was lent to the proceedings, however, by a long discussion of stays, and Madame Sliema’s reasons for wearing such very ‘valiant’ ones (the term was the Coroner’s). The Coroner was not without a sense of his duty to the public in such a case as this, and his knowledge of ‘artificial supports’ appeared to be large. A special edition of the evening papers went quickly off under headlines:
NUNNERY MURDER MYSTERY
CORONER ON STAYS
Mrs. Moss, supported into the box with smelling-salts and brandy, was embarrassed almost into a swoon as she listened to Dr. Goodall and the Coroner exchanging badinage about her late mistress’s stays.

commentary: The moment when you realize that this is going to be an unusual book is when the policeman investigating a murder at a convent school says (in proper GA honourable manner) that he assumes
“we can pretty well rule out the youngsters [as murder supsects]?”
But Mother Trevor, with that faintly worried look of hers, could not suppose anything of the kind. “Oh no, I don’t think you can do that. I will speak to Reverend Mother. But you must remember we are a very cosmopolitan school—very; we have children from all over the world. Some of the countries one cannot even pronounce. I am afraid it would be rash to assume that none of the children has ever knifed anybody.”
[It doesn’t matter greatly, but it is clear she is not being racist, but respecting the customs of other cultures, including that of the young schoolgirl who is very pious but likes to keep a dagger in her stocking.]

The book is light-hearted and very funny: a horrible old woman has been murdered and the policemen become increasingly befuddled by the jolly atmosphere at the convent, and the attempts by the girls to find ghostly nuns….

There is a strange scene where the Inspector creeps into an unmarried female teacher’s bedroom in the middle of the night and crawls around on all fours: he is expecting to find her gone (he is wrong, of course), and at first I completely misunderstood this: I thought he suspected her or immorality. But no, just straightforward nefarious criminal activities.

Even the dead woman’s son doesn’t seem heartbroken about the murder:
“This crime,” he said, “it is very curious—yes? True, my mother was a disagreeable woman, but in a Convent one does not kill even these.”
The solution won’t come as a huge surprise, but the journey there has been good fun.

Blogfriends John over at Pretty Sinister Books , and Rich at Past Offences, have both reviewed the book: both posts highly recommended, and John’s contains a fair bit more info about the book. And our very own Lucy Fisher has this remarkable input:
Eric Shepherd taught at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Roehampton in the 30s. My mother was at the school - she is Verity! I have a copy of "More Murder in a Nunnery" somewhere... All I can remember is that Verity finds a corpse hidden in a compost heap and can tell by its flat feet that it has never worn shoes. (I never read the first one.) I went to the same school (after it moved to Surrey), and tales of ghostly nuns were still current - and superstitions about shoes.
And well done to Ostara publishing for reprinting (is that the word if it’s on Kindle?) this little gem.

The investigating schoolgirls were  rather like the students in Mavis Doriel Hay’s Death on the Cherwell, recently on the blog, and have made me think about the whole question of student/young person sleuths - blogpost coming soon... early comments and suggestions welcome below. 




























Comments

  1. Oh, this does sound like a fun read, Moira. And I love the idea of that talk of stays. You'v'e painted some great mental pictures here; that inspector crawling around the bedroom is especially funny. I'm glad that publishers are taking the time to republish lesser-known books like this.

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    1. Yes, I so agree Margot - all credit and praise to those small publishers. It is so nice to be able to get hold of an older book long out of print..

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  2. Kid sleuths!!!! Perfect topic for a return of the Tuesday Night Bloggers!!!!!

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  3. What looks very like a sequel here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39076005049049;view=1up;seq=10

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    1. Oh great find! Lucy, above, mentioned the sequel, good news to find it online. I definitely want to read it.

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  4. This seems like the best of both worlds for you, an academic setting and a clerical setting. I will put it on my list to look for.

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    1. I know! So many of my favourite things in one book, I couldn't believe my luck.

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  5. Comment from Brad Friedman, which seems to have got stuck in the system:

    Kid sleuths!!!! Perfect topic for a return of the Tuesday Night Bloggers!!!!!

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    1. And reply from me - yes indeed, Brad, we need to fire up the old team and do one more job as a team of find-outers and dog, and please don't make me be Fatty. (Sorry, getting carried away). But this is a good idea, it can't just be me and you who are totally fascinated by the idea....

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    2. Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew!

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    3. Indeed Shay, so many to choose from!

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  6. Progress is a wonderful thing - especially when it comes to women's underwear!

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    1. I was going to say, her stays were like body armour - but then they didn't save her from being murdered in the end did they. So yes, I'm with you...

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  7. I do like the sound of this one though it might just be my lingering desire for murdering the nuns who tortured my own schooldays. As for the word nunnery...I had a vague notion that was invented by Monty Python...we always called them convents in my neck of the woods...you learn something new every day

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    1. I'm sure there's a subtle difference, but both words exist, and nunnery turns up in Hamlet I think? and, there was a slang use (typical mean men) where instead of meaning a convent, the connection with young women meant it was a brothel. So Hamlet might have meant either. [You can't say I'm not full of know-all info here... I'm not sure another example of the nunnery usage doesn't come from Georgette Heyer...]
      Anyway, it really is a fun book, I don't think it will give you horrible flashbacks.

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    2. And let's not forget the Gilbertian Modern Major-General: "...When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery" (to rhyme with gunnery).

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    3. Great catch Susan, nicely spotted!

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  8. When I was summoned to Officer Candidate's School, the list of required items of clothing I was to bring included gloves, stockings and a girdle. This, in 1979.

    I bought a two-dollar foundation garment from the cheapest place in town (cocoa brown with pink roses, as I remember) and never put it on. After I graduated, I suggested to our platoon sergeant that updating the list would be a good idea.

    Of course I was tolled off to do it.

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    1. How extraordinary that they would have listed that! There is a courtroom thriller where a woman has been raped, and the rapist then killed. the question of whether the woman was wearing a girdle (= respectable) or not (= slut) is vital, and no-one in the book questions that. I must try to remember which book it is.

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  9. I've never been familiar with nuns on a day-to-day basis, and since the only real knowledge of them when I was small came from Armchair Thriller (the faceless nun in the creepy QUIET AS A NUN) or Dave Allen (he called them 'God's Stormtroopers') then the image wasn't a positive one. Now that we have CALL THE MIDWIFE it seems that nuns are getting a makeover of their public image, and probably not before time.

    A sequel as well? Before I start on this I want to be sure that this doesn't turn into a series. One murder in a nunnery can be counted as misfortune, more than one sounds like carelesness.

    ggary

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    1. Or, as Ian Fleming wrote: Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.

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    2. 007, Goldfinger and nuns? A heady mix!

      ggary

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    3. Oh if only Ian Fleming had gone into nuns. I'm pretty sure they don't feature anywhere in the oeuvre...
      When you known them, nuns are just like everyone else: there are nice ones and horrible ones.

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  10. Another one I'll happily avoid....

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