Wed 5 Jan 2022
An Archived Mystery Review by Bob Adey: E. H. CLEMENTS – Cherry Harvest.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
E. H. CLEMENTS – Cherry Harvest. Alister Woodhead #2. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1943. Messner, US, hardcover, 1944.
Take a girls’ school in the heart of.the English countryside and place them in high summer during the last war. Add a well observed selection of children and visiting parents, and three mysterious guests — vague Mr. Carey, quiet Miss Hartland and chatty Mr. Brent. One of them is a spy, and it is the author’s long enduring detective Alister Woodhead whose job it is to find out which one.
The book is not notable for its pace and action (though there is a murder) and its attraction lies in the author’s ability to evoke the English countryside. Those of you who like the idea of a quiet stroll down a country lane to an unknown destination will enjoy it.
The Alister Woodhead series —
Let Him Die. Hodder 1939
Cherry Harvest. Hodder 1943
Berry Green. Hodder 1945
Weathercock. Hodder 1949
Chair-Lift. Hodder 1955
Discord in the Air. Hodder 1955
The Other Island. Hodder 1956
Back in Daylight. Hodder 1957
Uncommon Cold. Hodder 1958
High Tension. Hodder 1959
Honey for the Marshal. Hodder 1960
A Note of Enchantment. Hodder 1961
Let or Hindrance. Hale 1963
Further Bio-Bibliographical Notes: Her initials perhaps helped disguise the fact that the author was female: her full name was Eileen Helen Clements Hunter (1905-1993). Besides the Woodhead series she has five standalone mysteries in Hubin. Only three of her books have been published in the US.
Added Later: I have found one other review of this title online, that on J. F. Norris’s “Pretty Sinister” blog. John goes into a lot more detail and even provides a photo image of the cover. John, I hope you don’t mind my appropriating it for Bob’s review.
January 6th, 2022 at 9:51 pm
There are more than enough writers who do pace and action and the English countryside. I think I’ll pass.
January 6th, 2022 at 10:12 pm
Thanks to John’s review of this very same book, I learned that the gent who hosts the Spy Guys and Gals website has covered the series, and in some detail:
https://spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=757
The short synopses make some of Whitehead’s adventures more interesting than Bob Adey’s remarks on this one.
Of Alistair Woodhead himself, he says:
“After the war, able to return to his home again, Woodhead has to look for gainful employment now that his service is over. He chooses the Ministry [of Scientific Research] where he is promised a quiet time devoid of the action and danger he had seen in the War. He gets the job but doesn’t get the quiet.
“As time goes along, Woodhead and his family age naturally and in an entertainly manner. Most importantly to this aging process is the way that Woodhead becomes a fair degree of a curmudgeon, annoyed with any job that takes him out of the country and not too happy with any that keep him in the country. He has a fair number of mannerisms which make him entertaining, not the least of which is his basic desire to not have much to do with other people. He isn’t anti-social so much as just not that friendly. Deliciously so.”
January 6th, 2022 at 10:27 pm
This brief review leaves out so much and highlights an aspect of the book that is negligible, I think. I prefer my more detailed review. It’s an odd book that tries to be so many things at once— detective novel, wartime book, a spy adventure and a girls school story. It doesn’t really work for me as any of them, but it’s never boring. It’s very chatty and is indeed lacking in real action. But when Clements finally decides to give us actual events (mostly in the last third) rather than talk talk talk she shows she has the stuff of a good storyteller and clever plotter. Maybe this year I’ll try her again. I have two more of her books that I bought last year, but have been reluctant to attempt either. Maybe they’ll be improvements over this rather mixed bag.
January 6th, 2022 at 10:45 pm
Color me curious. but at the moment I’m not inclined to track any of Clement’s book down. If any of them happen to come my way, though, that’s a whole nother story.
You bring up another point. Mystery reviews in fanzines of the 60s, 70s and 80s tended to be rather short. Reading both your review and Bob Adey’s it’s clear that you were reading the same book, but he managed to get the essence across in a nutshell.
Not saying his was better. I think maybe with printed space at a premium back then, reviews tended to be a lot shorter. On the internet you can take the time and space to expound on the writing as much as you want, the plotting, the characters and just general overall critical criticism.
There was a time back then when I was pretty good at short reviews. (Or at least I thought so.) Three lines to describe the plot and three lines to say what I thought of it.
I can’t write that succinctly any more. It’s too hard!