I’ve somehow managed to get this far into the Golden Age without reading any Francis Beeding, the nom de plume jointly adopted by John Palmer and Hilary St. George Saunders, but then it’s only a recent spate of Merlin Classic Crime ebook publications which has made them accessible. So let’s start our acquaintanceship off with The Norwich Victims (1932), one of Beeding’s 30-some novels — an inverted mystery that has been highly praised in many other quarters in the GAD fandom. And I can see why: it’s a genuine inverted tale, for one, and contains some clever ideas that wring much from the apparently uninspiring setup…a staunch lesson to anyone who thinks that knowing the murderer early on in some way hamstrings a mystery plot.

When middle-aged school matron Miss Haslett, of St. Julian’s Preparatory School in Norwich, wins half a million francs in the French lottery — some £800,000 today — she consults independent financial agent John Throgmorton about the best possible options for investing her money. Alas, John Throgmorton decides that Miss Haslett’s money would be best in his possession, so murders her at the end of chapter one and begins an elaborate scheme to acquire the money for himself, involving double impersonation and enough safeguards to ensure he and his accomplice Hermione Taylor are never suspected.

Through association with the victim — his fiancée Elizabeth Orme also works at St. Julian’s — young Inspector George Martin finds himself investigating the disappearance of Miss Haslett (surely this isn’t how policing works…?). Of course, John Throgmorton knew an investigation was bound to be launched, and spends a patient couple of minutes explaining to Miss Taylor how completely safe from suspicion they are — their tracks are covered, their imposture ensures that they only ever appeared in events while disguised and under identities that have no link to them — only for the phone to ring and Inspector Martin to inform Miss Taylor that he’d like a word with Mr. Throgmorton…

The opening two chapters to The Norwich Victims are a lot of fun, outlining both the nature of the characters involved and the clever lengths Throgmorton has gone to, lengths that we will see Martin re-examine fruitlessly. It was very much brought home to me reading this how much pleasure the reader is able to derive in the inverted mystery from knowing ahead of time what the detective is due to find — the dead ends he’ll run up against due to the foresight of the ingenious criminal — rather than waiting to discover new and startling information alongside the investigator as would be customary in a traditional whodunnit. A sense of anticipation of failure, especially regarding the efforts of ‘heroic’ characters, stirs something perverse in the reader, and contributes hugely to the fun being had here.

It helps, of course, that Martin is an intelligent young man who is aware of the need to do well in this case. The equanimity with which he acknowledges that, knowing Miss Haslett was seen in the company of a bearded man wearing an eye patch, “we are looking for a man whose only distinguishing features are that he will not be wearing a black patch over his right eye and that he will be clean shaven” typifies him, really: he is dogged, capable, and thoroughly up against it. And the other characters who drift through proceedings are no less cleanly felt, giving the at time slightly bland prose rather more traction than this story might otherwise achieve.

I can fault this only in that there is a new gear added to proceedings in the final stretch — this seems to have taken many other readers by surprise to go by the reviews, but the indications were, in all fairness to Beeding, there for this reader to pick up on by the end of chapter six — and it requires Martin to make a leap which, at the time, he would have been incapable of doing. It’s explained afterwards how this crucial link was formed, but Martin did not know some of that when he joins up the two threads and so his realisation comes, unfortunately out of nowhere because the plot needs it. This aside, it’s a brisk and congenial piece of murder and detection, and one that would make an excellent addition to the British Library’s Crime Classics range.

Interesting to note, too, that other editions seem to contain a selection of photos at the start, photos not included in this ebook edition. Should this put you off, I’d suggest that it’s by no means fatal: sure, it would have been a nice inclusion, and since they apparently have the rights to publish the book it’s odd that Merlin don’t include them, but equally you’ll get as much out of the book without them. And so now, given Beeding’s newfound availability, where do I go next with this creative and entertaining pair of authors? Accepted wisdom says Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931), but I have a feeling that might be informed more by its being the only other title of theirs recently available. What hidden delights does the oeuvre of Francis Beeding contain? Let me know, please, as I’m curious to read further…