Cyril Hare (A.A. Gordon Clark)

An Unprolific but Classic Writer in the English Tradition of Mystery Writers

Mr Gordon Clark (1900-1958), writing under the pseudonym of Cyril Hare, was a British solicitor (lawyer) who produced a limited output of detective novels, less than a dozen, during his spare time over a period of some 20 years. They fall into the dryasdust class for many readers, but have the virtue of being well written, witty (in an understated way), and nicely plotted. Not first rate (he was more like Wilkie Collins compared to Dickens, or Beaumont to Shakespeare, Gladys Mitchell to Agatha Christie, etc.). Nonetheless, very readable and entertaining for 'Golden Age' fans. His main detectives were Inspector Mallett (a pre-Morse type of a sort, although his lunch meant more than his drink) and Francis Pettigrew (an elderly lawyer who just happened to get caught up in murderous situations every now and then in the good old amateur sense). The detectives are not really that important, Mallett being summarized as being large in size and appetite, who tugs his mustache when thinking, and Pettigrew being a sort of palimpsest non-entity for the author's current object lesson -- a dull mirror, if I can mix my metaphors, although that is not a criticism, one of Hare's best short stories ("Monday's Child") having a variation on that theme in that things are not what they seem.

Cyril Hare was always succinct, unlike many authors of the time -- novels about 200 pages long -- which is good. Complexity, yes, verbosity, no, is a fine form to follow. Here are quick summaries of all his books (that I know of; the best, as my opinion goes, are starred):

• Tenant for Death (1937) -- [Mallett] Shades of Bentley: at this time stories about shady financiers were still popular (went out of fashion later until the 1990s when your leverage sharks resurfaced). Nice debut, but rather dull apart from the 'surprise' ending.

• Death Is No Sportsman (1938) -- [Mallett] Murder among upper-class fishermen (of the Walton trout-hunting sort), a subject of no interest to me at all, except in the sense that I am curious to learn about the mores of weird ducks like this. Lots of complicated time-tabling in this mystery, and coincidental locations/activities of the suspects, all of whom have some dirty secret or other, flaws it, but it is amusing. [Interesting observation from a reader of later times: somebody is criticized for the 'disgusting American' habit of using chewing gum, whereas everybody else smokes up a storm of tobacco.]

• ** Suicide Excepted (1939) -- [Mallett] First rate! Central portion of the book involves a bunch of disparate characters with a common interest collaborating in an amateur investigation of a death the police have dismissed as suicide (the common interest being that the insurance company will not pay up if it was suicide). The upshot of all this, in addition to the wonderful job these amateurs do without knowing how to go about it, is also fair and surprising. It would have been nice if Hare had encored drunken private detective Edelman and lawyer Dedman (who gives one of the best lectures I've ever read about meddling in things beyond one's competence to deal with) in later books. The scene where Edelman's report, extremely well researched, is retrieved from the seat of the chair he has passed out on is a classic.

• *** Tragedy at Law (1942) -- [Pettigrew and Mallett] This author's masterpiece: adventures of a lawyer, during wartime, on a County Assize Circuit. Nice stuff about expense accounts, perks of the job, judicial dignity, etc. during a period of austerity and rationing. Plot turns on a neat obscure point of law, of course. This book deserves permanent shelf-space in a crimes classics library, as much a historical novel (nowadays -- practically nothing remains of that sort of life now) as a good detective story.

• With a Bare Bodkin (1946) -- [Pettigrew and Mallett] Takes place in wartime in the North Country, where Pettigrew is working for the Ministry of Pins -- good opportunity for some satire about wartime bureaucrats, black market, etc. Otherwise pretty humdrum.

• ** The Wind Blows Death (US title: When the Wind Blows) (1949) -- [Pettigrew] Very nice story set in the environment of a provincial orchestral society, the murderer being a clarinet player who doesn't play the clarinet -- doesn't have to because the symphony, Mozart's 'Prague', is not scored to include that instrument, so he has time to slip out and kill the prima donna during the performance. Motive for the murder turns on an extremely obscure point of law, probably no longer applicable, based on a statute of Henry VIII's. Characters and situation excellently portrayed, plot good but depending too much on luck and happenstance (from the murderer's viewpoint). This would never fly in 87th Precinct territory.

• * An English Murder (1951) -- [Wenceslaus Bottwink, not Mallett or Pettigrew] Snow-bound English country house situation, well-done except there are not enough people stranded there to make up a decent list of suspects. Solution turns on an interesting point of English constitutional law, hence the title. The characters and environment are extremely well done, and nobody's political slant is left unsatirized or uncriticized, except maybe for Bottwink's.

• Death Walks the Woods (UK title: The Yew Tree's Shade) (1954) -- [Pettigrew] This is a 'country cosy' taking place in Hare's fictitious county of Markshire (Markhampton, Didford, etc.) as many of his do, but unlike Christies it involves 'lower-class' people rather than, well, in addition to, gentry. Whether that makes it truer to life is a matter of opinion, but it makes the story interesting beyond the humdrum plot.

• * Untimely Death (UK title: He Should Have Died Hereafter...) (1957) -- [Pettigrew and Mallett] A very well-done story ranging from stag-hunting on Exmoor to Chancery Court in London, with country folk who are not total idiots as they usually are in Christie, etc. The Chancery stuff, depending on an obscure bit of law about "base fee" (some sort of primogeniture clause), is delightful. The main plot really hinges on what crime was actually committed, not whodunnit, and that is brilliant. A masterpiece of 'comeuppance', with a nice Sherlock Holmes reference. One mystery was left unsolved, however... (properly so, in my opinion)

• Death Among Friends (1959, posth. collection) -- Short shorts (3-4 pages) of the sort that used to appear in British newspapers; some involve Pettigrew and co.; most have neat little twist endings.

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