Thu 18 Feb 2021
A 1001 Midnights Review: G. D. H. and MARGARET COLE – Knife in the Dark.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[8] Comments
by Bill Pronzini
G. D. H. and MARGARET COLE – Knife in the Dark. Collins, UK, hardcover, 1941. Macmillan, US, hardcover, 1942.
G. D. H. and Margaret Cole were extremely prolific writers between the two world wars: individually and collaboratively, they published well over two hundred books of fiction, nonfiction, and verse. G. D. H. was a prominent social and economic historian; his five-volume A History of Social Thought is considered a landmark work. Dame Margaret is best known for her biographies of Beatrice Webb and of her husband (The Life of G. D. H. Cole, 1971).
The Coles co-authored more than thirty “Golden Age” detective novels, beginning with The Brooklyn Murders in 1923, and six volumes of criminous short stories. Knife in the Dark is their next to last novel, and the only one to feature Mrs. Warrender as its protagonist. “A naturally trim and tidy old lady,” Mrs. Warrender is the mother of private detective James Warrender (who affectionately calls her, among other things, “an incurably meddling old woman”). She is also solidly in the tradition of such “little old lady” sleuths as. Miss Jane Marple and Hildegarde Withers, although less colorful than either of those two indefatigable crook-catchers.
Knife in the Dark takes place at a mythical ancient English university, Stamford, during the dark days of World War II. Kitty Lake – wife of Gordon Lake, a teacher of Inorganic Chemistry whose mother is a cousin of Mrs. Warrender’s – is stabbed to death during an undergraduate dance which she herself arranged. Any number of people had a motive to do away with the mercurial Kitty, who had both a mean streak and a passion for other men; the suspects include her husband, an RAF officer, a young anthropologist, a strange Polish refugee named Madame Zyboski (who may or may not be a Nazi spy), and a dean’s wife whom James Warrender describes as “an awful old party with a face like a diseased horse and a mind like a sewer.”
Like all of the Coles’ mysteries, this is very leisurely paced; Kitty Lake’s murder, the only one in the book, does not take place until page 104, and there is almost no action before or after. Coincidence plays almost as much of a role in the solution as does detection by Mrs. Warrender (who happens to be staying with the Lakes at the time of the murder); and the identity of the culprit comes as no particular surprise.
For all of that, however, Knife in the Dark is not a bad novel. The characters are mostly interesting, the university selling is well-realized, and the narrative is spiced with some nice touches of dry wit. Undemanding fans of the Golden Age mystery should find it diverting.
Mrs. Warrender’s talents are also showcased in four novelettes collected as Mrs. Warrender’s Profession (1939). The best of the four is “The Toys of Death,” in which Mrs. W. solves a baffling murder on the south coast of England.
The Coles also created three other series detectives, none of whom is as interesting an individual as Mrs. Warrender. The most notable of the trio is Superintendent Henry Wilson of Scotland Yard, for he is featured in sixteen novels, among them The Berkshire Mystery (1930), End of an Ancient Mariner (1933), and Murder at the Munition Works (1940); and in the collection of short stories, Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday (1928).
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
February 19th, 2021 at 3:33 pm
As mystery writers, the Coles are all but forgotten now. Some of their books have been published in facsimile editions, but none that I know of as legit reprints.
That’s too bad, really, since of the three I’ve read, I’ve enjoyed all three, including this one. I needn’t say more about it. There’s nothing more to say about it that Bill hasn’t already.
February 19th, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Even in the day their reputation wasn’t great. I think Haycraft gives them a sentence and without much enthusiasm.
I read a couple of Wilson books, found them dry and tough going and never got to the Warrender books.
For some reason my library had several of their works, but after my first exposure I never collected them on my own.
In all honesty this is the most favorable critique I have ever read of their mystery fiction from the Golden Age to now.
February 19th, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Just a note though when I studied economics in college I did a paper on G.D.H. and his landmark books largely because I recalled him from mystery fiction.
February 19th, 2021 at 10:17 pm
Both Mike Grost and Nick Fuller talk extensively about the Coles’ mysteries here:
http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930232/Cole%2C%20GDH%20and%20M
Mixed reviews, but generally favorable. What they see as negative factors are the same as you, oft times “dry and tough going.”
February 20th, 2021 at 4:21 pm
The Coles’ books are wildly uneven. They range from good to awful.
I, and most other people, would know much more about them if their books were reprinted. But they’re not, as Steve pointed out.
Curtis Evans’ book “The Spectrum of English Murder” (2015) is a critical study.
February 20th, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Barzun and Taylor were kind to MURDER AT CROME HOUSE and BLACHINGTON…, but beyond that the most common word they use is “tedious”. One book they describe (THE BROOKLYN MURDERS if I remember right) as containing the “… the worst flubdub of the Neanderthal period of detection.”
They were popular enough, but I don’t recall the Cole’s ever being respected much or a favorite of any other writers (the way Carr admired Hanshew despite the nonsense or Sayers liked Sexton Blake).
Almost the only contemporary compliments I can recall ever seeing had to do with G.D.H. being a noted economist.
I’m not sure there is much interest in reviving the Cole’s in ebook form, but certainly a genuine study of their work sounds interesting. There has even been an interesting piece done on Carolyn Wells recently so there ought to be room for an evaluation of the Cole’s though I can’t see anyone convincing me to want to reread them.
One of the curiosities of genre fiction is that a good book can be written about bad books.
February 20th, 2021 at 8:36 pm
As is often true, my reactions were the exact opposite of Barzun & Taylor.
I thought MURDER AT CROME HOUSE was dull.
And THE BLACHINGTON TANGLE is not just bad, but offensively racist.
By contrast, THE BROOKLYN MURDERS is a nice mystery that might be enjoyed by today’s readers.
February 21st, 2021 at 8:44 am
I don’t know why it took me so long, but I’ve finally checked out previous reviews of the Coles’ books on this blog:
THE BLANCHINGTON TANGLE, by Bill Deeck:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=28571
THE CORPSE IN THE CONSTABLE’S GARDEN, by me:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1048
KNIFE IN THE DARK, by Bill Pronzini
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1046
[Yes, the current post is a repeat. I didn’t realize it until now.]
KNIFE IN THE DARK, by ma:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1040
The comments after each review follow the same pattern as those after this one.