Recently brought to the attention of mystery readers was the hitherto unnoted death of crime fiction author Michael Kenyon. Born in Yorkshire England in 1935, he lived in the US off and on after his university days for many years before eventually becoming an American citizen in 1997. He died in Southampton NY in 2005.

   Mr. Kenyon has a long list of credits in Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, most of them featuring in the starring role either Ireland’s Superintendent O’Malley or Inspector Henry Peckover of Scotland Yard. One book, The Elgar Variation (US title) seems to be somewhat of a transition point between the two series, with both characters sharing the top billing (see below).

KENYON, MICHAEL (1931-2005); occasional US pseudonym Daniel Forbes.

    * May You Die in Ireland (n.) Collins 1965; Morrow, 1965. Fawcett Crest R1211, pb, 1968. [Supt. O’Malley; Ireland]

Ireland

   * The Whole Hog (n.) Collins 1967; Morrow 1967, as The Trouble with Series Three. [Illinois; Academia]
    * Out of Season (n.) Collins 1968 [Channel Islands]. No US publication.
   * The 100,000 Welcomes (n.) Collins 1970; Coward, 1970. [Supt. O’Malley; Ireland]
    * The Shooting of Dan McGrew (n.) Collins 1972; McKay, 1975. [Supt. O’Malley; Ireland]

McGrew

   * A Sorry State (n.) Collins 1974; McKay, 1974. [Supt. O’Malley; Philippines]
    * Mr. Big (n.) Collins 1975; Coward, 1975, as by Daniel Forbes. [England]
    * The Rapist (n.) Collins 1977; Coward, 1977, as by Daniel Forbes. Dell 17294, pb, 1982. [Supt. O’Malley; Ireland]
    * Deep Pocket (n.) Collins 1978; Coward, 1978, as The Molehill File. [Insp. Henry Peckover; England]
    * Zigzag (n.) Collins 1981; Coward 1981, as The Elgar Variation. [Insp. Henry Peckover; Supt. O’Malley; England]
    * The God Squad Bod (n.) Collins 1982; Doubleday 1982, as The Man at the Wheel. Avon 70381, pb, 1988. [Insp. Henry Peckover; London]
    *A Free Range Wife (n.) Collins 1983; Doubleday, 1983. Avon 70382, pb, 1988. [Insp. Henry Peckover; France]
    *A Healthy Way to Die (n.) Hodder 1986; Doubleday, 1986. Avon 70380, pb, 1987. [Insp. Henry Peckover; England]
    * Peckover Holds the Baby (n.) Severn 1988; Doubleday, 1988. Avon 70636, pb, 1988. [Insp. Henry Peckover; Belize]
    * Kill the Butler! (n.) Macmillan 1991; St. Martin’s, 1993. [Insp. Henry Peckover; Long Island, NY]
    * Peckover Joins the Choir (n.) Macmillan 1992; St. Martin’s, 1994. [Insp. Henry Peckover; Belgium]
    * Peckover and the Bog Man (n.) Macmillan 1994; St. Martin’s, 1995. [Insp. Henry Peckover; Scotland]

   Compiled by using resources available on the Internet, the following collection of short synopses does not include all of the books above, but it does provide a fairly substantial glimpse into the kind of mystery fiction Mr. Kenyon wrote:

   May You Die in Ireland. The letter bearing the news that William Foley, easy-going math professor at a Midwestern university, had become the owner of a castle in Ireland was certainly cause for celebration. But the legacy that made him king of a castle also turned him into a human carrier pigeon, the unwitting bearer of a deadly secret, and a living time bomb.

   The Whole Hog aka The Trouble with Series Three. Arthur Appleyard experiments with pigs and their feeds.. one day he finds series three batch, including Marlon and Humphrey, have been given a magical ingredients of critical importance to the space race and the cold war!

Series Three

   Out of Season. Mystery set in Jersey as a German man returns to the island where his father was once stationed, to be met by hostility and bizarre events.

   The Shooting of Dan McGrew. In this hilarious Irish crime story, O’Malley investigates the disappearance of two prospectors working a mine site together.

   The Rapist. Dungoole in County Cork begins to unravel when a visiting American feminist is raped, and later murder occurs.

   Deep Pocket aka The Molehill File. Detective-Inspector Henry Peckover, “a passable published poet,” links the “murder of a May fair tart to a web of political, financial and sexual hanky-panky that encompasses a titled M.P., a police chief superintendent who turns drag queen by night, Middlesex pols and proles, bird hunters of all varieties and an Arab sheik bent on making the green and pheasant land an adjunct of Riyadh.” (Time Magazine, July 17, 1978)

   Zigzag aka The Elgar Variation. A simple escort-the-prisoner run goes awry when the man escapes just as Chief Inspector Peckover is about to take over.

   God Squad Bod aka The Man at the Wheel. Scotland Yard’s newly formed God Squad is following Paster J. C. Jones very closely. A Henry Peckover novel.

    A Free-Range Wife. Peckover finds himself in France at the Chateau de Mordan, where more is on the menu than escargots and chips: a modern-day Jack the Ripper.

   A Healthy Way to Die. An elite spa features beautiful bodies and murder for Inspector Henry Peckover of Scotland Yard.

Healthy

   Peckover Holds the Baby. Peckover is sent to Belize to track down a cocaine king and lands feet first in a messy brew of murder, drug running and kidnapping.

   Kill the Butler. It’s madcap mayhem when Inspector Henry Peckover goes undercover as a butler on a Long Island estate to find a millionaire’s murderer.

   Peckover Joins the Choir. Chief Inspector Henry Peckover and Detective Constable Jason Twitty go undercover as choir singers to investigate a series of continental art thefts.

   Peckover and the Bog Man. When Sir Gilbert Potter, whose blustering grows offensive at a dinner party, is murdered by a knife through his voicebox, Henry Peckover and his assistant Jason Twitty must investigate.

   While Barzun & Tayor in A Catalogue of Crime were not impressed with the two of Kenyon’s works they read – May You Die in Ireland “A bad first try,” and The Molehill File “rather turgid plotting and prose” – one suspects that humor combined with mystery were not what they were looking for. Craig Rice’s books are panned by them, for example, as being filled with “ill-advised humor.”

Molehill

   Other commentators have invariably made referenceto the humor in Kenyon’s mystery fiction and have been more favorably impressed. Reading what else they have had to say, along with the synopses above, the impression that’s gathered is that under the veneer of light-hearted gaiety in Mr. Kenyon’s work is a solid core of seriousness and — in the good old Irish tradition — a healthy dose of tragedy.