Fri 19 Dec 2014
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: FRANCIS BEEDING – Death Walks in Eastrepps.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
by Marv Lachman
FRANCIS BEEDING – Death Walks in Eastrepps. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1931. [Insp. Wilkins]. Mystery League, US, hardcover, 1931. Reprinted several times, including Norton, US, hardcover, 1966; Dover, US, trade paperback, 1980.
Francis Beeding’s Death Walks in Eastrepps comes well recommended. Vincent Starrett called it one of the ten best mysteries of all time when it came out, and he repeated this as late as 1965 when he did an outrageously bad introduction for a hardcover reprint in Norton’s ill-fated Seagull Library of Mystery and Suspense.
I had better document my charge. Though he doesn’t actually disclose the killer, Starrett gives away almost every other surprise. This, mind you, is not in a critical work dissecting a classic but in the introduction to a new edition that readers are presumably ready to start.
Starrett even commits a careless error, claiming that Beeding’s famous numbered series of Colonel Granby novels were published in order, e.g., The One Sane Man, The Two Undertakers, The Three Fishers, et al.
Actually, the first book in the series was The Six Proud Walkers (1928). It was followed by The Five Flamboys (1929). The One Sane Man did not come along until 1934, by which time Beeding had already used five numbers in his titles.
Just because Vincent Starrett had an off day is no reason to miss Death Walks in Eastrepps. The edition to buy and read is the brand new paperback by Dover. It has no introduction and needs none. The book speaks for itself, a throwback to a time when authors felt the need to provide mysteries that were long, inventive, and contained many surprises.
A series of murders takes place in an East Norfolk resort town. The puzzle is a good one, though the identity of the killer is far from impossible to guess. Things move at a fast pace, and a bonus is the excellent description of the effect of these murders on a resort during its summer season.
December 19th, 2014 at 10:04 pm
This and THE HOUSE OF DR. EDWARDS (Hitchcock’s SPELLBOUND more or less) are atypical of Beeding’s novels, but both worth reading. The Granby novels in the Buchan style and a couple of stand alones are spy thrillers and entertaining ones if a bit dated today.
The Dover edition was indeed, attractive, sturdy, cheap, and did not give away the candy store on the back cover.
Good book, solid detection and thrills.
December 20th, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Francis Beeding, like Desmond Bagley, whose book FLYAWAY was reviewed on this blog earlier this week, is an author I’ve never caught up to. Some of his book were reprinted in paperback in the 1940s, and I have those, and I have this one in the Mystery League edition, but I’ve never read any of them.
Started one or two, put them down, got sidetracked, and never got back to them. Not the fault of the books, but life too often intervenes. More books to add to my To Be Read pile!
May 6th, 2020 at 11:38 am
[…] in Eastrepps has been reviewed, among others, at Golden Age of Detection Wiki, Noah’s Archive, Mystery File, Mystery Flie (2), Clothes in Books, Cross Examining Crime, In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, […]