Fri 21 Nov 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: GUY CULLINGFORD – Conjurer’s Coffin.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
GUY CULLINGFORD – Conjurer’s Coffin. Hammond, UK, hardcover, 1954. Lippincott, US, hardcover, 1954 Penguin Books, UK. paperback, 1957.
Miss Jessie Milk, spinster of uncertain age and kin to the distressed gentlewomen so well portrayed by Barbara Pym, finds somewhat unsuitable employment as a receptionist at the Bellevue Hotel, which does not live up to its name and which the police have nothing against, muddle and unconventionality not yet being against the law. The Bellevue caters, if that’s the mot juste, to the less eminent variety performers.
Gene the Genie, a magician and one of the not-quite-successful artistes, primarily because of his interest in horse-flesh and not because of lack of talent or imagination, checks into the hotel with his wife and his female assistant the first afternoon Miss Milk is on duty. He plays a trick on her then and becomes aware that she is a perfect foil for a magician.
When first Gene the Genie’s assistant and then his wife disappear, Miss Milk is an excellent witness. When the wife’s body turns up in the trash, the police are baffled by Miss Milk’s testimony but accept her transparent honesty in telling things as she believes she saw them. Fortunately, a retired Merchant Navy Captain, now a bookstore detective, lives in the hotel and has Miss Milk’s interests at heart in more ways than one. He is able to determine what happened, although it’s not by any means all ratiocination.
Well written, amusing, excellent characterization, and an interesting crime. All of Cullingford’s novels are well worth trying to find.
Bibliographic Notes: Guy Cullingford was the pen name of (Alice) C(onstance) Lindsay Taylor, 1907-2000, who has one title in Hubin under her own name, and ten as by Cullingford. Of the latter, only four have been published in the US. In spite of the possibilities suggested by Conjurer’s Coffin, there seems to be no series character appearing in any more than one of them.
November 21st, 2014 at 4:59 pm
I rather enjoyed POST MORTEM by Guy Cullingford. (My review here.) It’s a detective novel told from the viewpoint of the victim as a ghost. Once you accept the somewhat far-fetched set-up of his not knowing who killed him, the story has an engaging fantastical quality, is often very funny, and has an ingenious ending that explains how a ghost managed to write his own autobiography.
November 21st, 2014 at 5:53 pm
John
I’ve found your review and read it. POST MORTEM sounds as though it’s really one of a kind as mystery novel. When I’m back home, I’ll have to see if I have any of the author’s books. I’m sure I do, and I even know exactly where to look.
By the way, here’s a link to your review. If you provided one, it doesn’t seem to work.
http://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2012/02/ffb-post-mortem-guy-cullingford.html
November 22nd, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for adding the link, Steve. I used HTML enbedded code but I guess your blog doesn’t allow for that. I was on my work computer when I left that comment. I’ve had trouble before but not on my home computer where I am now.
I was glad to see Bill had good things to say about “Cullingford” who I greatly admire for her inventiveness and wit. There was an awful lot of undue dumping on POST MORTEM and all other books by this woman at the GAD forum many years ago. But too many of the readers who belong to that group are purists and will hate any book that deviates in the slightest from a traditional, well-clued detective novel. What alarmed me most were several “observations” that were just blatant lies. Like the reviewer who claimed the book was lacking in plot when the exact opposite is true. POST MORTEM is overflowing with plot and action! Many of those men also detest (not just dislike) the use of supernatural events in the detective novel. C’est la vie! 🙂