My Brother’s Killer by DM Devine

 

My Brother’s Killer by DM Devine

 

published 1961

 

 

She was wearing a beautifully-cut tweed skirt and a rose-coloured cashmere twin-set

 

We deal with a lot of social snobbery on this blog: but academic snobbery has its place too, and I have discovered a clear winner in that category. I am quoting here from the (invaluable) Agatha Christie Fandom Wiki.

In 1961, Devine submitted his first book, My Brother's Killer for the Dons’ Detective Novel Competition held by Collins Crime Club. Agatha Christie nominated it as winner of the contest. Unfortunately, Devine was disqualified on a technicality as it was ruled that he was not a don but a university administrator. 

I wonder if the book would be so forgotten if he had been allowed to win, because it is an absolute cracker: Christie had a good eye, though there are also elements that might particularly appeal to her.

It’s very much in the Golden Age (GA) tradition – the opening line is ‘I was deep in an armchair relaxing over the Guardian crossword’; people look ‘seedy’; everyone is busy drinking huge quantities and having another aspirin; at the end all the suspects gather to hear the truth. All very redolent of 1930s books. But the setting is fascinating – a small town where everyone knows each other, a respectable solicitor’s practice, tennis club and dinner dances. But there is an underlying current, and you can feel that soon things are going to change with the 1960s – very much like Mary Kelly’s The Spoilt Kill, same year, which I also very much enjoyed. Both could stand as straight novels for their picture of life. 

Simon, the narrator, is the younger brother and junior partner to Oliver in the family law practice. Summoned from his deep armchair by an urgent phonecall, he goes out into a very foggy night (this fog is going to affect everyone’s timings and alibis) and finally gets to the office, and finds his brother dead. Unimpressed by the police investigation, he goes in for some freelance sleuthing, and uncovers all kinds of goings-on among the respectable citizens – infidelity, a love nest, a sex orgy in a nightclub, blackmail – though weirdly, none of this is seen as either surprising or the road to damnation. There’s a rueful air of ‘well of course people do those things, shame about the blackmail and hurt feelings’: and there is much more to the case, and people’s lives, than sex.

The alibis are very complicated, as is the phone system – which I often find boring but not this time. People drift in and out of the frame, everyone has something to hide and a lie to tell. I found it very compelling, and kept changing my mind about who was guilty.

There is one trick (which could well appeal to Agatha Christie) which I am able to use my new #SpoilerNotSpoiler programme to conceal from you. (My theory is that I have written about so many books on the blog that I can tip you off if you want to know, not if you don’t, by use of links).  So if you’re not bothered, there is a repetition of something that happens in this book and this one. If you’ve read them both you could triangulate…

There is a collection of very well-defined characters, and as they get ruled out you wonder are there are any surprises left – but there are.

I always say that Patricia Wentworth is the Queen of the ‘How many people were in the graveyard that night without tripping over each other?’ trope, but other authors can do it too: the solicitor’s office on this dark murder evening was a lot more bustling than it seems to have been on a normal afternoon, everyone managing not to see each other. But that keeps the tension up.

I’m slightly confused also by the dates, which don’t always work out, and would there really have been a fog that heavy – total blackout – at the end of April as (very late on) Simon suddenly reveals it to be?

But overall a most enjoyable read, and highly recommended.

GA expert and crime writer Martin Edwards is also a solicitor, so gave a very nice and informative review of this book back in 2012.

First lady in twinset from Clover Vintage. The second one would not be cashmere but is very elegant – and you can find the pattern and make your own at the Knitting Bee site.

The picture of an office shows receptionist and telephone operator in a law firm – it is Canadian, and some years earlier than the book, but definitely has the right look.