Thu 8 Dec 2016
RICHARD M. BAKER – Death Stops the Bells. Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, 1938.
This is the third and final case tackled and solved by a middle-aged scholar by the name of Franklin Russell in book form. The earlier entries in the series were Death Stops the Manuscript (Scribners, 1936) and Death Stops the Rehearsal (Scribners, 1937). Russell is by profession a schoolmaster in a small town in Massachusetts, but his true calling is as an amateur detective, and in Death Stops the Bells, he really has his work cut out for him.
He is on hand for the first death. It takes place in a compound of two homes and two families whose members respectively hate each other. To be correct in that statement, the elder members of each family do. The younger members of both sexes find the opportunity to meet and consort on many an occasion, to the consternation of their respective parents. A third home in the block is owned by a friend of Mr. Russell, who happens to be on hand when whoever is playing the bells in a church tower on the estate stops suddenly, mid-song, then starts playing again, the entire song through.
To Russell’s fine-tuned ear, however, it is clearly a second player ringing the bells. It is soon discovered that the first player is dead, murdered, it is assumed when the first song stopped. Was it the murderer who started ringing the bells again? And if so, why?
The writing is old-fashioned and stilted, not at all how you would think a book written in 1938 would sound. The number of suspects is also very limited, which makes the questioning quite tedious, as it goes over the same topics again and again. Even Detective-Sergeant McCoun seems to squirm a lot in his seat as he listens to Mr. Russell interrogate all of the suspects in turn, and then as further events occur, start all over again.
In other words, a lot of talk is all there is to propel the story forward, and not a lot of action. None, in fact. The solution, when it comes, is, unfortunately, little more than yawn-producing. A mediocre effort, in other words. If Scribners, publishers of the S. S. Van Dine mysteries, were thinking they had another Philo Vance on their hands, they were sadly mistaken.
December 10th, 2016 at 12:20 am
At least the talk in the Vance books was interesting.
December 10th, 2016 at 1:55 pm
Baker also wrote THE DROOD MURDER CASE, a collection of his five essays on Dickens’ unfinished mystery. His arguments are well written: cogent and a lively read.
December 10th, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Thanks, Bill. Not being a big Drood fan, I didn’t know about this book at all.
December 10th, 2016 at 2:05 pm
I love Van Dine and the Van Dine School. Think they are a central group of American mystery writers. Maybe THE core American detective writers.
So was very pleased to read this review, and learn about a Van Dine follower who is completely new to me.
Too bad this book is so second rate. I’ll keep a lookout for Baker, though.
Just saw “Hairspray Live!” The book’s title recalls the song “I Can Hear the Bells”:
December 10th, 2016 at 2:37 pm
I’m reading Van Dine’s GARDEN MURDER CASE right now, and the difference between it and the Baker book is like day vs. night. As David says, the talk in the Philo Vance books is designed to lead somewhere.