Thu 27 Nov 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: CHRISTOPHER BUSH – The Case of the Platinum Blonde.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[13] Comments
William F. Deeck
CHRISTOPHER BUSH – The Case of the Platinum Blonde. Macmillan, US, hardcover, 1949. First published by Cassell, UK, hardcover, 1944.
My copy of this novel is a previously owned one. One of the former owners wrote on the first page, “Good to the last suspect.” I quite agree with the anonymous reader that it’s a good mystery, but Ludovic Travers in this outing is not a very appealing detective. Perhaps the pain from his recently acquired war injury makes him irascible and thus rather irritating.
Travers is convalescing at his sister’s home in the village of Cleavesham. In his rambles around the village he notices a man putting up a sign on another man’s house, a sign saying, among other things, “REMEMBER — THIS NIGHT SHALL THY SOUL BE REQUIRED OF THEE.”
The next day Travers finds the occupant of the house in his living room with a bullet in his head. Because Travers loves “ironic situations and even creating them,” he toys with the evidence and does not reveal all to the police. And then he discovers that the wife of the Chief Constable, a man whom he admires, may be involved somehow.
An interesting investigation by Travers, along with his friendly rival, George Wharton of Scotland Yard. But it would have been a better novel if Travers had been better behaved.
Bibliographic Notes: Over a period of 42 years, from 1926 to 1968, Bush wrote over 60 detective novels under his own name, all with Ludovic Travers as the leading detective. Superintendent Wharton may have been his rival and ally in all of them as well, but this is not so indicated by Hubin. Bush also wrote a small numbers of crime and thriller novels as by Noel Barclay and Michael Home.
November 27th, 2014 at 4:19 pm
I counted either 62 or 63 Travers books, and being unwilling to try again (and get 64) I left my statement open by saying “over 60.”
I have more a few of them, mostly thanks to a box lot I won on eBay some 10 or 15 years ago. I’ve even read a few, but the best I could say is that they were adequate but forgettable. Adequate because I read more than one; forgettable because I don’t even remember the titles, much less what they were about.
On the other hand, Nick wrote a positive review of this, and you can find it online here:
http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931743/The%20Case%20of%20the%20Platinum%20Blonde%20by%20Christopher%20Bush
Mystery writers whose careers last as long as Bush’s did interest me, in the sense of how their approaches to writing detective fiction changed over the years. To look into Bush’s work, though, might be difficult: his books from the 1920a and early 30s I suspect would be very hard to find.
November 28th, 2014 at 1:01 pm
I make it 63 Travers novels, and so does Cooper & Pike’s ‘Detective Fiction: The Collector’s Guide’. They also state that George Wharton appears in well over half the series, his last book being ‘The Case of the Flowery Corpse’. In later books the policeman is Inspector Jewel. I have read this that Bill’s reviewed and several others – they are mostly very similar and rather forgettable – the only one that stood out for me was The Case of the Murdered Major which was set in a POW Camp in England in WWII. Six of the Michael Home books are ‘Novels of Military Intelligence’ – two are certainly mysteries with a real detective, Captain John Benham of MI5, to solve them. The other Michael Home books are mostly ‘straight’ novels set in the author’s native East Anglia, some of them have a little crime in as well.
November 28th, 2014 at 1:34 pm
I appreciate the additional data. Thanks, Jamie.
I may have to sample one of the Home novels with John Benham. They may prove to be quite interesting, if easily found.
November 28th, 2014 at 3:58 pm
Both the Michael Home John Benham novels are rare, I don’t think I have ever had either of them. Only one very poor copy for sale on ABE, The Auber File, and that one is in New Zealand
November 28th, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Have had the same problems with Christopher Bush as everyone else here. Have read five, only one was good: The Case of the Good Employer (1966). The others range from mediocre: The Case of the Second Chance (1946), to awful: The Case of the Dead Man Gone (1961).
Will look for The Case of the Murdered Major, The Case of the Platinum Blonde, neither read here yet.
The Case of the Second Chance (1946) shows Travers and Wharton setting up as (genteel) private eyes.
Which are the Michael Home actual mysteries?
November 28th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Bush followed up “The Case of the Murdered Major” with “The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel”. It is too bad he didn’t work his way through every rank in the service, down to “The Case of the Pulverized Private”.
November 28th, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Ludovic Travers was like Dr. Tolefree and a few others, not bad but not particularly good. Okay in a bind with nothing else to read but not what you would hunt down or look forward to. It says something about the genre then that there were so many great writers that you could ignore merely good ones.
November 28th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
I’ve read only one book by Christopher Bush and would describe it as adequate.
November 29th, 2014 at 10:39 am
The 2 Michael Home books featuring John Benham are ‘The Strange Prisoner'(1947) and ‘The Auber File'(1953). He also wrote a WWII ‘North African Trilogy’ which J.B. Priestley described thus: ‘the manner is that of A.E.W. Mason and John Buchan, and a very good manner too’.
November 29th, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Thank you for the information!
My brief note on Bush:
http://mikegrost.com/coles.htm#Bush
November 29th, 2014 at 4:39 pm
I note that Christopher Bush’s great niece Avril MacArthur is writing a biography of the author – she left a comment on John’s review of ‘The Case of the Green Felt Hat’ on the Pretty Sinister Books Blog:
http://prettysinister.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/case-of-green-felt-hat-christopher-bush.html
November 29th, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for the link, Jamie. Besides Avril’s comment about doing the book on her great uncle, it’s nice to see John found a book by Bush that he liked.
May 8th, 2021 at 12:04 pm
The case begins with Travers going to his sister’s home in Cleavesham. Although recuperating he has been asked by his friend Superintendent Wharton to see if he can trace a face Wharton saw there last year, a face Wharton feels sure has some criminal past. It seems bit of an impossible task, a long shot. Yet very quickly Travers picks up the trail, except the trail ends in murder, murder of the man Travers was trying to trace. The case has a number of suspects, though most of the interest fixes on to Thora, the Chief Constables’ wife and our title’s platinum blonde – a choice of suspect I found quite intriguing. There is also still the mystery of why Wharton remembered the victim’s face, an answer which doesn’t appear until quite a while into the story.