THE BACKWARD REVIEWER
William F. Deeck


MARY FITT – Mizmaze. Michael Joseph, UK, hardcover 1959; Penguin Books, UK, paperback, 1961. US edition: British Book Centre, hardcover, 1959.

MARY FITT Mizmaze

    “The Maze was at the south-west end of the garden; it covered over a quarter of an acre, and seemed even bigger to those who walked in it. The entrance, cut in the splendid yew hedge, was six feet high and three feet wide; on the top of a topiaried archway stood two topiaried birds with long spreading tails.”

   The foregoing is a description of Mizmaze. Unfortunately, the maze is the best thing about the book.

   Inspector Mallet and Dr. Fitzbrown investigate the murder of Augustine Hatley, slain in the center of the maze by a wooden mallet generally employed for driving in croquet hoops; Hatley, his two daughters, former son-in-law, and acquaintances, were playing their Invented game of “Theseus and the Minotaur,” with Hatley fittingly the Minotaur.

   Hatley was despised or feared or both by all the characters, only one of whom has any redeeming social value, and not much at that. It is difficult to care about who killed the man. Whoever did or did not do it, if they were all put away or hanged, the world would be a better place.

MARY FITT Mizmaze

   Strangely, Mallet — the Inspector, not the weapon — turns over all questioning of the suspects to Dr. Fitzbrown and wanders off to work with what little objective evidence there is. Reluctantly and tediously Fitzbrown goes about his task.

   One oddity among several is the second corpse. A woman is strangled and thrown off a cliff. When Mallet and Fitzbrown examine the body, however, they do so at the top of the cliff, not where the body had landed. No explanation is vouchsafed by the author for this peculiar behavior of either the police or, possibly, the corpse.

   Later on, one of the suspects — unwell, but not mentally, or at least not more so than any of the other characters — comes into a room where he encounters the woman he loves. He is taken from the room, returns a few minutes later, and has no recollection of having seen the Woman. Presumably the author assumes that anyone who has read her book to this point is willing to accept anything just to get it over with.

   Recommended only to diehard collectors of maze mysteries, should there be any.

— From The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 11, No. 1, Winter 1989.


Editorial Comments:   Inspector Mallet appeared in 18 novels; Dr. Fitzbrown shared the billing in four of them. In one collection the latter was the solo sleuth in several shorter stories. The earliest of the author’s mysteries appeared in 1936, her last in 1960.

   For those who may be interested, my own review of the book includes a complete Bibliography. I found as many flaws in the telling as Bill Deeck seems to, but I also somewhat inexplicably believe I enjoyed it more than he did.