A gap of six years followed Randall Garrett’s sole Lord Darcy novel Too Many Magicians (1967) before he returned to the universe. Was that time well-spent in creating another strong fusion of mystery, magic, and murder?

Let’s find out with…

‘A Stretch of the Imagination’ (1973)

When Lord Arlen, “owner and head of one of the most important publishing houses in Normandy, Mayard House”, is found hanged in his study one afternoon, having been alone in the room for at least an hour beforehand, there is understandable consternation. And since any instance in which “a member of the aristocracy dies by violence — whether intentional, accidental, or self-inflicted — it is mandatory that [Lord Darcy] enter the case”, it is not long before that worthy and his right-hand man, tubby Irish sorcerer Master Sean O Lochlainn, are on the scene.

Perhaps more so than any of the stories in this corpus prior to this — and, if my memory serves, more than the later ones I’ve read, too — ‘A Stretch of the Imagination’ is as concentrated a who-and-howdunnit as Garrett ever wrote. The suspects are literally gathered in the library while Darcy and Master Sean go over the scene, and, in true Sherlockian style, we’re only really confirming a suspicion that Darcy had apparently formulated almost immediately he arrived at the scene.

“Now, come, me lord. You have that touch of the Talent that all the really great detectives of history have had — the ability to leap from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion without covering the distance between the two. You then know where to look for the clues that will justify your conclusion. You knew it was murder two hours ago, and you knew who did it.”

“Well, of course! Those two points were obvious from the start. The question was not ‘Who did it?’ but ‘How was it done?'” His lordship smiled broadly. “And now, naturally, the answer to that last question is plain as a pikestaff!”

The setup here is, perhaps, a little less than original in the who element, but it’s pleasing to see Garrett playing the game with the apparently impossible nature of the murder as fully as possible. There’s always the risk that Master Sean could simply magic the answer out of nowhere, but, as noted in previous entries, Garrett has been at pains to establish pretty broadly what the magic is able to do in this universe (“I’m a technician who digs up facts that ordinary observation wouldn’t discover. But all the clues in the world don’t help a man if he can’t put them together to form a coherent whole.”). And here, well, the magic is on hand to seal that room as fully as possible:

“[A]side from the door, there are no other ways in or out of this room.” He looked at Master Sean. “None?”

“None, me lord,” said the round little Irish sorcerer. “Master Gwiliam and meself have checked that over thoroughly. There’s no hidden passages, no secret panels. Nothing of the like.” 

Some intelligent examination of physical evidence allows us to dismiss one possible explanation for the crime, and while the key descriptors are largely there for the reader to see and interpret themselves, it’s a little bit of a shame that the key, er, object is identified because Master Sean is able to, like, magic up its relevance. Yes, the principle of Relevancy has been well-covered in this series to date, but would it have hurt for the magic to be enhanced because, like, there was a fibre or a hair on the relevant object? Y’know, just one tiny thing? This one nitpick aside, it feels like the magic in this universe is folded into the investigation more successfully than previously (“[T]here’s no gloom.”), with little touches like getting a rope to re-tie itself into a knot being part of the charm rather than a quick and lazy way to get around any real thinking on our detective’s part.

That six year gap was, then, seemingly well-used on Garrett’s part; rather than rushing back to shoehorn in a half-baked story to his magical universe, he really does seem to be evincing some care with the curation of his ideas for Darcy & Co. It’s lovely to see Garrett set out his store, get in tell the tale, and get out — this is the shortest tale so far by some margin — rather than feel that each story needs to be a certain length or to contain certain trappings in order to fulfil some idea of his own. It is to be hoped that such discernment and intelligence continues for the remainder of this highly enjoyable series of intelligent and carefully-crafted romps.

~

The Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett

1. ‘The Eyes Have It’ (1964)
2. ‘A Case of Identity’ (1964)
3. ‘The Muddle of the Woad’ (1965)
4. Too Many Magicians (1967)
5. ‘A Stretch of the Imagination’ (1973)
6. ‘A Matter of Gravity’ (1974)
7. ‘The Bitter End’ (1978)
8. ‘The Ipswich Phial’ (1976)
9. ‘The Sixteen Keys’ (1976)
10. ‘The Napoli Express’ (1979)
11. ‘The Spell of War’ (1979)