The Piccadilly Murder wings in from America

The Piccadilly Murder by Anthony Berkeley

published 1929

 [excerpt] To those who have eyes to see, the kaleidoscopic juxtapositions to be found only on this unique spot are a continual delight. Here a couple of public school boys…are rubbing quite unwitting shoulders with a pair of vermilion-lipped ladies of the night (or of the pavements)…. Over there a chorus girl, with the matinee paint scarcely removed from her cheeks, is cocking an impudently amused eye at her neighbour, the white-haired and rather wondering vicar of an obviously country parish. A hundred such unconscious little comedies are enacted daily between the hours of five o’clock and half-past seven.

 

comments: Yet again, JJ over at The Invisible Event is to blame. He reviewed this book, I immediately wanted to read it, but couldn’t easily find a reasonably-priced copy. Then – Brad Friedman (Mr Ah Sweet Mystery himself) read my complaint to Jim in the comments – and produced a copy for me. Blogworld at its finest all round. Brad travelled from California just to bring me this book, which was really nice of him – there’s some story about his also being here for the Agatha Christie Festival, but I know he has priorities.

So obviously I read it immediately, and I liked it a  lot – I have had varied responses to Berkeley, but this one very much appealed.

It has a proper, old-school opening in the Piccadilly Palace Hotel in London, as described so beautifully above. Ambrose Chitterwick, an occasional Berkeley character, is taking tea in the lounge and is witness to some very rum goings-on, culminating in the death of an old lady. He is a key witness for the prosecution: it is clear what and who he saw.

There seems little doubt that the accused will be found guilty and be hanged. But then Mr C is persuaded that there may be more to the case, and he starts investigating – trying to get the alleged culprit off.

Berkely is great at mystification: it wasn’t at all clear to me where this early section of the book was going, and the strange weekend in the country was tremendously good reading – and for once I will let the author off for not telling us who people are to begin with, one of my great dislikes in novels. Girl in flame dress, girl in pink dress…

She moved, as if unconsciously, into the very centre of the entrance. A tragedy queen...

[Later] This was a desperate woman, the mask off, the veil of convention thrown aside; no tragedy queen, but…employing in despair the only resources left to her. And Mr. Chitterwick had no experience in dealing with desperate women.

(However, I think Berkeley might need to have looked up the rules on ‘tampering with witnesses’ as I think there were astonishing goings on here.)

 A team of merry sleuths rush round, trying to find out what happened. They pile into cars and race around chatting away –

The facts seem incontrovertible, but there MUST be room for doubt. So what could be the explanation?

Any regular reader of Golden Age detection will have a clear idea of some of what will happen – but if we know Berkeley we will know that surely it can’t be solely what is being hinted at? And he doesn’t let us down, there is a lot to uncover. Because of the surprises along the way we will forgive him the sheer unlikeliness of the series of events. As Jim puts it, ‘you have to swallow one coincidence that might be rather too large to go down smoothly’.

Unlike the sidecars which are mentioned – my own favourite traditional cocktail:

Lady Milborne beckoned to the waiter. “Two more side cars, please. I want another,” she added to Mr. Chitterwick with her most dazzling smile, “and I hate drinking alone. You don’t really mind, do you?”

So many scenes throughout that you can imagine in a TV period crime drama – this book would be ideal.

Several Berkely books have featured on the blog, and he is mentioned in a number of other posts. See here for a full list.

Hotel lounge is New York in 1918, but seemed to give a nice impression of the people and the bustle in a busy hotel lounge, which is key to the plot. 

Pink dress from NYPL

Girl in car, also NYPL