#505: The Shop Window Murders (1930) by Vernon Loder

February 28, 2019February 28, 2019 / JJ

I shall refrain from pointing out the similarities between The Shop Window Murders (1930) by Vernon Loder and The French Powder Mystery (1930) by Ellery Queen — Nigel Moss does an excellent job of that in his introduction of this reprint, and you’ll want your money’s worth. In short order we get dead bodies in a display in a shop window, and after the initial surprise of revealed identity it’s not long before Detective Inspector Devenish and the avuncular Superintendent Melis are on the scene to untangle possibly the most baffling range of clues seen this side of an early-period Queen novel. Oh, er, sorry about that. No more, I promise.

It’s a complex case, no messing, and Devenish and Melis are great company for the duration. They’re both very much ciphers in terms of their internal lives or personal whims — indeed, anything that doesn’t contribute directly to the plotting and clewing has been excised, including transitions from one location to the next: should your attention waver for a moment, you’ll miss Devenish crossing London, or getting a train out to the sticks. For all the comparisons that could be made with Freeman Wills Crofts, Loder has none of Crofts’ love of travel or the great outdoors — he’s here to log clues and take names, and there will be plenty of both. But his arguably characterless policemen and suspects have that Croftian touch of the wry in their dealings that betokens a firm respect and the low-key humour of men who know and trust each other:

“Come in, inspector. You’re the very man I want to see. One of our cheerful experts has upset your latest apple-cart, and I want to see how you propose to set it up on its wheels again.”

The investigation could almost be a microcosm of GAD compressed into a single book. From the exclusion of the servants in the matter of suspicion (the murder “doesn’t look like a job that one of [the sales assistants] would do” and so they get to go free early doors), to the clues so obviously screaming This person is guilty! that you know there’s no way in hell they are, via the casual assertion of something as a fact that later turns out to be the key to the whole shebang, it’s a whistle-stop tour of the genre. And for bonus points you get a dollop of British social hierarchy (“…men like him regard our class as banded together, and likely to confide in each other” is the way the suspicious actions of one working class man is justified by his obvious betters), some speculation on the Ways of Women (a woman of 23 consenting to marriage because “she would have hated to be an old maid”), and a soupçon of The War raising its head by way of explaining the casual expertise of a man regarding firearms, say, or the loyalty of one to another.

Loder is keen to all of this, however, and manages to somehow play a straight wicket while clearly not trying too hard to take it overly seriously. Employing a huge department store as his setting enables some playful hiding of evidence and provision of clues, with various departments coming in handy when specialist equipment is required, and the obscure touches that make up the core of the book (a foldable plane-cum-helicopter that you can build at home among them) are clearly discernible as the playful touches they’re intended to be. Additionally, the way the problem seems to sprawl in all directions, drawing in inventors, the nouveau riche, a slew of personal motives, and at least one unrequited lover, is either infuriating or mildly humorous depending on your mileage, and with each new development it feels the situation can’t get more muddled…and then it does, making even less sense than it did before. Rinse, repeat, enjoy.

To an extent, this is very much the opposite of the sort of book I imagine I’d look for — see as a counterpoint John Dickson Carr’s Death Watch (1935) which is almost the precise inverse of this: starting out deeply baffling and becoming startlingly clear by the end. Equally, it’s one of those Croftian tales in that there’s no staggering reversal of a clue having been dropped right in front of you; we’re at the nascent stages of the police procedural here, where you simply sit back and watch the intelligent design of patterns that emanate from the core problem, and trust intelligent men to do a professional job exhaustively. I’m a fan of Loder not needing to set up a long chapter for the sole purpose of a clue being discovered and instead just going “Oh, yeah, and we found this clue…” — there’s so much to discover and disclose in this narrative, that a more verbose approach would produce a book of Dickensian proportions — but at the same time my one gripe would be that I do so love to play along.

Still, I won’t fault the intelligence with which this is approached. There’s a mettlesome application of rigour in the speculations and conclusions drawn, with each step in reasoning questioned quickly and efficiently rather than left to hang through a lazy, slapdash rush to cheat a surprise out of you (the discussion about sailors’ knots, for instance, demonstrates a genuine acuity in the dark arts of misdirection…it’s just a shame Loder is more interested in the idea in abstract than in practice). There’s such a breadth of exuberance with regards the genre herein, I’d happily take any Loder recommendations if you have them — this reissue is a wonderful discovery for me of an author I’d very easily overlook, and I’d be delighted to make his acquaintance on another occasion. Don’t come for the emoting, don’t expect it to tug your heartstrings, and Loder’s prose reveals him as no bardolater, but for sheer sturm und drang of puzzle complexity it’s difficult not to recommend. Huge fun, a real delight, and showing once again how good reprints can be when they get it right.

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John @ Pretty Sinister: This book is not only entertaining it may be Loder’s most complicated and original spin on a gimmick he seems to have invented. If he didn’t invent it, then he certainly perfected it. Other than in the work of Anthony Wynne, who has his own favorite tricks like the twice murdered corpse, I have yet to come across so many variations on such an odd idea for detective novel crimes. While I’m recommending this book I would suggest you keep your eyes out for any book with the Vernon Loder pseudonym on the cover. They make for fascinating reading and are as different from the standard whodunits of his colleagues as champagne is to soda water.

Kate @ CrossExaminingCrime: Loder builds up quite a mystery through what you could describe as a surfeit of clues, (missing bullet and weapon, more than one weapon, the role of the shop lifts, wheel prints on the roofs…), many of which the reader and the police know must be red herrings, faked up to mislead, yet the tricky part is trying to figure out the truth they are attempting to obfuscate. Still I think this book could probably win the award for mystery with most criminal fakery in it, along with the award for most unusual place for a suspect to get shot in.

Nick @ The Grandest Game in the World: Like Ellery Queen’s French Powder Mystery, it opens with a crowd discovering that shop window mannequins are really corpses. Unlike Queen, it’s not very good. The police have to sift through clues, false clues, manufactured evidence, and schools of red herrings before the culprit helpfully confesses. “It seemed to me the only thing was to make everything as confusing as possible so no one would be proved guilty,” X says. As an authorial technique, it has little to recommend it; I was indeed confused and bewildered, even with an A4 piece of paper covered in suspects’ movements.

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The second part of The Men Who Explain Miracles episode on the rules of detective fiction is going up this Saturday, and after that I’m unlikely to be posting here in March. No drama, I just have a very busy month ahead with significantly more than usual demands on my time, and I doubt there’s going to be much reading or blogging done until April. I’ll still hang around in various comment sections and on Twitter, but the next activity here after the weekend will probably be on Tuesday 2nd April with some more Minor Felonies. Just, y’know, so y’know.

21 thoughts on “#505: The Shop Window Murders (1930) by Vernon Loder”

Aidan

February 28, 2019 at 05:13

This sounds really interesting. The department store setting was one of the more intriguing parts of The French Powder Mystery and the crime here sounds promising. I will be sure to seek out a copy!

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- JJ
  
  February 28, 2019 at 12:40
  
  The similarities are quite striking, but they’re also very different books — weird, though, just how much crossover there is. Loder uses the setting very well, but it’s not long on atmosphere; great invention, and clearly someone who knew a lot about the genre.
  
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  - stevemal
    
    April 10, 2020 at 02:19
    
    Help!. I haven’t got the greatest memory but I seem to recall reading a book that starts with a murder at the big unveiling of a department store window display. But Vernon Loder is a new author to me, and I’m pretty sure the only Queen novel I’ve read is The Roman Hat Mystery.
    
    For the sake of my sanity, is there maybe a third variation knocking about that someone remembers? It won’t be anything too obscure so I’m hopeful!
    
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    - Brad
      
      April 10, 2020 at 03:21
      
      Steve, my guess is that you did indeed read The French Powder Mystery, but finding yourself in unfriendly territory at JJ’s site, at least insofar as Ellery Queen is concerned, you have blocked it out of your mind!
      
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      - stevemal
        
        April 10, 2020 at 13:27
        
        Brad, you may have been joking but I think you’re close to the truth! I had a quick flick through The French Powder Mystery and it’s very familiar.
        
        Nothing against EQ, I have several books in my queue, but I would’ve bet the house that I’d only read the first one.
        Thanks.
        
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    - JJ
      
      April 10, 2020 at 13:24
      
      It’s possible, of course, that another such mystery was written, but it’s not one I’ve encountered. Had it been written prior to 1930, I can well believe it would have been mentioned in the introduction of this book because Nigel Moss is phenomenally well-informed and is very, very unlikely to have overlooked it. So if such a book exists, you’ve now narrowed it down to 1931 onwards… 🙂
      
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      - stevemal
        
        April 11, 2020 at 01:36
        
        Should be a piece of cake then!
        
        To ease the throbbing in my head I think I’m happy to accept it was The French Powder Mystery – as I said to Brad it seems very familiar and as the second in the series I probably did go on to it. There you go, I’ve almost convinced myself.
        
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Colin

February 28, 2019 at 09:42

I bought a copy of this quite recently. Naturally, it remains unread and demands on my own time mean it’s likely to hold onto that status for a while. It’s encouraging to hear another positive take on the book though.

While I understand the publisher’s wish to step back from this line for a bit since the market is quite crowded just now, I do feel a little saddened too. I hope it is only a temporary measure as beautifully presented editions of interesting titles at affordable prices are very welcome.

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- JJ
  
  February 28, 2019 at 12:38
  
  I spent a long while getting Vernon Loder confused with Gerald Verner, and so this reprint has been the perfect opportunity to clear that up. And, yeah, it’s very enjoyable, and has that sort of E.C.R. Lorac quality of bringing a knowing, slightly different view to what should be a standard, dull run through of the tropes and obvious trappings. It’s very smart, I’m keen to read more.
  
  I’m with you on the slow down. They’ve put out some great books — Crofts, Leroux, MacDonald, Crispin, Berkeley, Fisher — and I hope they’re back up and running these out soon.
  
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armchairreviewer

February 28, 2019 at 10:59

Thanks for the mention JJ. Not sure how I am going to cope going cold turkey with no new Invisible Event reviews for a whole month, but hopefully I won’t develop any distressing symptoms such as a overpowering desire to read Crofts or Penny, to fill the gap!

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- JJ
  
  February 28, 2019 at 12:33
  
  Ha, were it up to me I’d sequester myself away with my books and my computer and there’s be no need to break. Alas, people will selfishly “get married” and “have an important birthday” and “leave the country” and “come and visit” and so, well, watcha gonna do? 🙂
  
  And, hey, you should read Crofts and Penny. The more people who do, the better…
  
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  - armchairreviewer
    
    February 28, 2019 at 20:52
    
    Ideally what needs to happen is that some eccentric millionaire endows several readers in residence positions, whereby you and me and the blogging gang as it were, could get paid to review GAD novels. Since they would not be linked to any publishing houses it wouldn’t matter if we liked or disliked the books. Expenses (i.e. the buying of the books), would also get covered. Hmm better make this an eccentric billionaire just to be on the hypothetical safe side…
    
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    - JJ
      
      March 1, 2019 at 06:46
      
      That’s the dream. Note to any bill/mill-ionaires, we are now taking bids for this undertaking. Submit your pitch via the email address on my “About Me” page…
      
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Brad

February 28, 2019 at 14:04

Like Colin, I bought this a while ago. I got to the private airstrip and then got distracted by a shiny new Horowitz. I will go back but don’t know when; at least your review is a positive reminder. It sure is a pretty little hardback. I wish I found these late-20s titles more appealing.

Wow! You actually are busy for once? But it sounds more like a social whirl than work.am I the only teacher who feels overburdened at all times?

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- JJ
  
  February 28, 2019 at 15:14
  
  Oh, dude, overburdening is just background noise now. Like, I actively worry when I don’t have too much to do. You have an abundance of company in that regard.
  
  As for this…yeah, I’d be intersted in your take. I think the lack of clue-based reversals might frustrate you, but then there’s an uncommon vein to Loder’s plotting and construction that you might perversely enjoy — I certainly did.
  
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stanton39

February 28, 2019 at 16:23

If you don’t mind ebooks there is a ‘Vernon Loder Collection ‘ comprising 6 (six! ) full length novels including Shop Window Murders for £1.25. I’ve read three of them. All very entertaining. I love the slightly detached, wry, plot-driven approach. The idea is that we are all here to have a good time solving this puzzle and to hell with angst-ridden psychology or descriptions of places or clothing, which is just as I like it. I must mention AG Macdonell who wrote at the same time as Loder. I’ve just finished ‘The Silent Murders’. An absolute cracker. A serial killer book that is also a fun read. It can (or could) be done! Thanks to John Norris for putting me onto these authors.

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- JJ
  
  March 1, 2019 at 06:41
  
  Yeah, John’s review of The Silent Murders — which can be found here — does make it sound rather fabulous. It’s on my TBB, but my TBR recently got something of a boost and so I may not get there for a while.
  
  Thanks for the steer to the Loder collection, too. I didn’t realise so many were available as ebooks, I’ll have to give them a look and see what sounds good.
  
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thegreencapsule

February 28, 2019 at 20:30

It’s funny that you sidestep the comparison to The French Powder Mystery because much of your review read to me as it being very similar. Not for that surface level department store window murder comparison, but rather the singular focus on plotting and clueing. I suppose the distinction becomes more clear with this comment – “I’m a fan of Loder not needing to set up a long chapter for the sole purpose of a clue being discovered and instead just going ‘Oh, yeah, and we found this clue…'”

As to how I’m going to survive a month without The Invisible Event… yeesh. Maybe I’ll have time to read some actual books instead of reading about them ;P

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- JJ
  
  March 1, 2019 at 06:43
  
  Ha, that may well be the key difference; had the Queens written this one, I can’t help but feel it would be a lot longer and half as interesting.
  
  One of these days I will come around to the joys of Early Queen, I’m sure. But there’s a lot to read until that happens…
  
  And, hey, who knows — after a month’s forced hiatus, maybe I’ll start doing four posts a week to make up for lost time 🙂
  
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JFW

March 2, 2019 at 12:58

Oh no, a hiatus! 😦 I’m looking forward to the blog resuming activity in April. Meanwhile, press on amidst busyness in March!

Anyway, thanks for the review for this novel – I have it on my Kindle. Which means I probably should consider bumping it up on the to-read list…

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- JJ
  
  March 3, 2019 at 07:35
  
  Hey, I’m also looking to the blog resuming in April — I do this three times a week for a reason, after all…!
  
  This one is a good one, and the lack of descriptive longeurs and over-wrought characterisation will, I think, play to what you look for in this type of story. I’d be interested in your take, since it’s probably a very different book to what most people expect when they pick it up.
  
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