Well, who’d’ve thought it, eh? Philip MacDonald first featured in my reading life in 1-star ignominy, and here he is not just beating all-comers to feature my 400th blog post, but doing so with a book that I — against my better judgement, nature, and previous standards — unabashedly loved with every fibre of my being. Quite the turnaround, and part of why I persevere with intially-disappointing authors. Just to clear something up from the off: no, I would not classify this as an impossible crime, despite its inclusion on the Ronald Lacourbe list being what brought it to my attention in the first place, but that’s hardly the first time this has happened….
Deemed ‘An Exercise in Crime’, the book is perhaps best known for telling its story out of sequence: we begin with an epilogue (uh-oh…) in which a large sum of cash — £287,499 3s 10½d, some £13 million in today’s market — is delivered to the Naval, Military and Cosmopolitan Assurance Company for reasons no-one there is able to discern. Come the end of the story, this will indeed make perfect sense; for now, let us go back in time…
…some six or so months, to Francis Xavier ‘F.X.’ Benedik, figurehead and driving influence of Rynox (Unlimited), a company whose precise business dealings are never made clear but do not matter: Rynox, we are left in no doubt, is Going Places, and it is Benedik who has made it happen. And so his murder at the hands of a disgruntled ex-associate could not come at a more crucial juncture in proceedings — had it been delayed by mere weeks, chances are Rynox would pull through, but his untimely death casts that in doubt. I could say more, and I originally did, but that’s really all you should know plot-wise going in.
It is the telling of this plot that really makes the book for me. Evincing MacDonald’s burgeoning film-writing career, it is split into three ‘Reels’, each divided into various Sequences which vary in their modes of telling. The first Reel is straight prose, detailing the characters in the piece up to Benedik’s murder and capturing characters in sly and trenchant observations such as a theatre clerk nursing a terrible hangover at work, Petronella Rickforth’s engagement to F.X.’s son Tony having “broken, at least temporarily, more hearts than any feminine decision in London for the past six months”, or the following exchange between the president of the company receiving that money and his secretary Miss Winter:
Very untidily heaped in [the room’s] very tidy centre were the sacks. Miss Winter was bending down, reading the label.
“Got a knife?” asked the President.
Miss Winter had a knife. Miss Winter always had everything.
It’s on the second Reel that things change: a cavalcade of police reports, crime scene maps, letters, a Coroner’s summation to a jury at the inquest, and internal police memoranda that outline the case, the investigation, and the conclusions, as well as the consequences for Rynox itself. It sounds gimmicky, and it probably is, but it’s also charming as all hell. If there’s one flaw, it’s that I’m still not entirely sure what a ‘Big Four beard’ is:
Every police constable carries a Big Four beard in his pocket. Some police constables, realising this, do nothing about it; others, realising this, do far too much. Neither class achieve the beard. Others neither miss opportunities nor try to make opportunities. They, of course, do not get the beard either, but they do at least go some way towards earning it.
Yup, no idea.
By the time Reel Three rolls around most readers will have figured out what is going on, and to a certain extent the events herein add nothing except a distraction. It’s not a traditional detective novel at all, but at the same time you will have the perfect opportunity to solve what’s going on. The slight improvisational structure will not be to the taste of every reader — and I’m more surprised than most to find out how much I enjoyed this aspect of it — but again for me it’s made by the character beats MacDonald effortlessly works in: the entirely irrelevant details of Mrs Pardee and her cloven palate in detailing the unthinking cruelty of immature young men, or the sparklingly beautiful succinctness in his descriptions:
Captain James laughed once more. A hundred tin cans fell down twenty-five uncarpeted steps.
The Invisible Event 
Glad you fell under the spell of this one JJ – I am a long-time fan of MacDonald and this is a real favourite. If you are curious about the film versions of this book, I did a post about them way back when at Fedora: https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/rynox-1932-tuesdays-forgotten-film/
LikeLike
I saw there had been a film version, but I’m so bad at sitting down and watching movies these days that I just sort of let it slide. Thanks for the link, I’ll be sure to check out your thoughts — would be interesting to see how these compare, as there’s still quite a lot of scope to diverge from the book and yet remain very faithful to the story. If I could track it down, it might be an interesting exercise at some future point.
LikeLike
The Big Four were the superintendents in charge of the CID (at least in the twenties–I think I heard of a Big Five later). I think the beard is referring to how any constable has the potential to reach this rank (I’m guessing now that the beard is being held as a symbol of maturity or wisdom, but I can’t think of any other examples of this usage).
LikeLike
In that context it would make a lot of sense. Thanks for the info — I was looking up historical uses of “beard” and getting nowhere fast (‘Four Tips to Grow a Big Beard’, and the like…)
LikeLike
Good to see you think this is worthwhile and it gets bumped a few places higher in my list. I’ve recently read MacDonald’s Warrant for X and had a good time with it. Very smooth writing and with enough variations from the film version I know to make it more interesting.
LikeLike
The more MacDonald plays in the detection pool, the more I like him; he’s a great one — I’m coming to appreciate — for trying to mix up the rules and approaches, rather than trying to, say, ape the Van Dine idiom or gives us another Sherlock Holmes just to make an easy buck.
I have his novels The Polferry Riddle and Mystery at Friar’s Pardon (as Martin Porlock) on my TBR, and have been recommended The Crime Conductor, The Wraith, Rope to Spare, The Link, and Death on My Left as possibly my sort of thing…and I could not be more excited to track them down.
LikeLike
There’s a writing effect in this book — a whirlwind chapter of little snippets of information from many points of view — that reminded me of other MacDonald titles and also hearkened back to Trent’s Last Case. Quite enjoyable, I thought. Rynox is about as slight a story as they come but the liveliness of the narrative is everything for me.
MacDonald did have his clinkers — I’ve just picked up a copy of Polferry Riddle and it’s just as awful as I remembered. The ending is infuriating.
LikeLike
I shall prepare myself for Polferry, then — I was quite excited to get a copy last year, if only because it’s an(other) impossible crime. But, with the excellence of this, I feel he’s earned a bit of a duffer…
LikeLike
Well well, this is very exciting. Look forward to getting my hands on this. Annoyed to find out it’s not an impossible though after all these years. Any reason why it might have been included on the top 100? (Without saying to much I guess)
LikeLike
I can see why it might be mistaken for, or perhaps thought of as, an impossible crime because…hmmm, well, you’ll see when you read it. It offers a situation that could be considered impossible from a certain perspective, yet the book never encourages you to consider it from said perspectvie. Any more I’m not comfortable in saying; spoilers, y’know.
And I can see why it would be included: because it’s bloody fabulous!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess similar again then to a mystery involving an orange of east Asian origin (not saying too much)
LikeLike
And happy 400th by the way!
LikeLike
Sounds like a great discovery, I’ll have to seek this one out. I’ve actually seen it quite a few times while looking for The Maze, although I’ve ignored it as I haven’t seen a review championing it up until now. It’s always nice to have a new must-read book hit your radar out of the blue. I’m still looking forward to reading The Devil Drives.
LikeLike
It is to be hoped that HarperCollins continue with the MacDonald reprints — the estate would seem keen, as we have The Noose, The Rasp, The Maze, Murder Gone Mad, and this one…so it’s not unreasonable to hope for more. Right?!?!?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the review, and I was going to comment that I haven’t read any MacDonald – until I realised I have read him as Martin Porlock. How could I forget? 😉
Porlock seems to be a traditional mystery writer, while some of the MacDonald titles seem slightly more thriller-ish/ adventur-ish? But that may be a misconception I get from the Collins covers.
Anyway, glad this title worked for you – I got it on your recommendation. 😊
LikeLike
I dunno about that MacDonald/Porlock division — I’m pretty sure (I could check, I suppose…) that X vs. Rex was originally published as “by Martin Porlock”, and that’s very much not a novel of detection in any way.
Okay, I checked, and that’s correct. Though it would seem that he only rolled out the Porlock nom de plume three times: in years when he also published three or more books under his own name. So maybe there’s no more to it than that – he had an idea for a non-Gethryn story, but had already done sufficient under his own name and so put it out under another one.
Mystery at Friar’s Pardon coming soon…ish 😛
LikeLike
Congratulations on reaching 400 posts and it’s nice to see that the milestone coincided with a good ‘un! I actually have a copy of this somewhere in the wilds of my To Read pile so I will look forward to eventually tracking it back down and reading it for myself. The structure alone intrigues.
LikeLike
Many thanks, I’m surprised to find this place as old as it is — I’m loving being involved in this community, and the posts seem to fly by.
The structure of this was the absolute joy for me, no doubt. I’ve certainly attuned myself to MacDonald’s way of plotting, which helps, and now recognise him as the arch experimenter he so obviously was — if he carries on like this, he may even supplant Anthony Berkeley in that regard, in my opinion. And that’s part of why I’m so keen to keep reading him: it’s like I suddenly understand what he was trying to do, which is a very exciting prospect when it lines up so completely with what I want the books I read to do.
Anyway, I hope all this praise doesn’t unrealistically raise your own expectations so you end up hating this…always remember that my reactions are much more gut than head!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I found this semi accidentally last week. It was on my list of things to look for but not on the shelves at the used bookstore. As I was leaving I decided to inspect a thickish book at random from a shelf not in the mystery section. It turned out to be a PM anthology, with Rynox! So I bought it, and will get to it sometime. I have not read the review except the opening, but I pray your love is not because he out-railway timetabled Crofts …
LikeLike
The essential idea is, I feel, a toucvh transparent, and MacDonald seems to’ve focussed on smaller and smaller ideas as his career developed, but the execution is sublime, stuffed with a cornucopia of joyful details and ideas. It would be entirely uderstandable for someone not to love it, but the inovation-lover in me can do little here except applaud.
LikeLike
I enjoyed the novel very much but also found the short story very gripping as well . In both cases what I liked is the way he sets a scene . A very unique writing style . Unfortunately except this and The Rasp(too few suspects but again great scene setting) all the others are unavailable in India .. 😦
LikeLike
Lovely to have this one available, though. MacDonald didn’t always hit, but when he does he really seems to hit hard.
LikeLike
Pingback: PHILIP MACDONALD. The Rynox Murder (1930). | Only Detect