The Right Honourable Corpse by Max Murray

The Right Honourable Corpse by Max Murray

published 1952

 

I’m a big fan of Max Murray’s books and there are a few of them on the blog – you can use the tag at the end of the post to find them. Galileo Publishing have reprinted a couple and I hope might do more. 

One of the major points about them is that they are all completely different – no series characters (that I have found) and jumping around all over the globe. When I saw The Right Honourable Corpse listed (and I bought it sight unseen) I assumed it would be set back in England among the titled poshos. I was terribly surprised that it was set in democratic Australia where I assumed they didn’t have all that nonsense. But Rt Hon actually means a Privy Councillor in the UK – a political role rather than an inherited title, and perhaps it is the same in Australia, though it’s not mentioned in the book.

Anyway, a politician’s murder is trailed in the opening sentence and follows minutes later, so no spoilers there. The Minister for Internal Resources is called Rupert Flowers, which certainly sounds like an effete Englishman. But he is a tough guy, much hated, so plenty of candidates for the role of murderer. He dies in his study in his official residence, while a reception takes place in the next room.

Canberra in the era

The action takes place in Canberra, the Aussie political capital, and I think is probably the first book I have read that’s set there, so that was intriguing in its own right. 

*** and see extra note below!

The main characters are two young men living in a horse ranch some way out of the city. The geography wasn’t super-clear to me, because it took very little time to get there from the bustling centre of the capital, but somehow equally quick to be out in the bush and completely untrackable, so that’s handy for plot purposes.

There are a couple of young women, and also the US Ambassador, the widow of the Minister, and her dissolute brother. I was expecting politics and wise grey-haired men to dominate, but far from it. Everybody is forever driving out to the ranch and back again, and looking for each other, and giving each other advice, and having sharp words.

The main young man, Martin Gilbert, is a fascinating character: he is interfering in everything and making himself most unpopular, while obviously being (as far as we can tell) one of the good guys. We know he is being misjudged by everyone, and accused of and blamed for all kinds of things. I think there were a few similar characters in books of the era -  it was the kind of thing that really bothered me in the adventure stories I read as a teenager ‘Poor soul, so badly treated’, it seemed horribly unfair to me. I seem to care less now, as it is so obviously set up by the author. But that didn’t make me enjoy it any the less: Martin is a great character, very funny and charming. His backstory, as slowly revealed, does contain one of the most horrible stories you could imagine. (Not forgetting this book was written less than 10 years after the end of WW2)

The book has two tropes that I would be very suspicious of: Martin is an extremely talented classical pianist as well as whatever else he does, and he and his friend have a tremendously wonderful old lady to housekeep for them at the ranch, a member of what we would now call a First Nation People. Both these features can be cringe-making, but Murray manages both as un-annoyingly as possible.

Apart from Martin’s dialogue, it isn’t as funny as some of his other books, though I did like two women searching for a pony: ‘Its hard to miss a horse in a small stall, but they went back to the stable to have another look.’

Two-thirds of the way in, one character is suddenly revealed as having a penchant for driving racing-type cars very fast – I think this should have been seeded earlier. And I also had questions at the end about some related matters, but nothing to worry about too much.

The book turns into a kind of outback thriller late on:

‘In the Australian country when somebody has been warned against riding a certain horse and they still say they are determined to try, nobody attempts to stop them. They merely wait in gloomy anticipation for them to break their necks.’

There are sinister black crows: ‘They wait,’ she said slowly, ‘till you are helpless. Then they peck out your eyes.’

Mr Murray is full of surprises, and, as ever with him, the book is short and highly entertaining and enjoyable.

*** and then shortly after finishing this, I read a very modern novel (ie written 70 years later) whose heroine spent part of her youth in Canberra (though it doesn’t feature much, and her family moved to Darwin). It was Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley, published 2025, and it was an enjoyable read about a family in London over the past 10+ years, matching events in their lives with political activity: slow to get going but funny and entertaining and in the end compelling. 

Man, horse, dog, outback from National Library of Australia

Government offices in Canberra – Museums of History NSW

Woman with the horse is the American actress Helen Twelvetrees, and is from an earlier era, but looks right for some scenes of the book – from the New South Wales Library.