Wed 5 Aug 2020
An Impossible Crime Mystery Review by Ray O’Leary: C. DALY KING – Obelists Fly High.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
REVIEWED BY RAY O’LEARY:
C. DALY KING – Obelists Fly High. [Lt. Michael Lord & Dr. L. Rees Pons #3. Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, US, hardcover, 1935. Dover, trade paperback, 1986, 2015. Published in the UK by Collins, hardcover, 1935.
A re-read of a book I probably bought when it was first reprinted. In this case, I didn’t remember anything about it, so it was like reading it for the first time.
Dr. Amos Cutter, a prominent surgeon and brother of the Secretary of State goes to the Police after receiving a letter saying he will be murdered on the following day at noon central time. Cutter is going to Reno, where his sister is getting a divorce and his brother is in the hospital in need of an operation that Cutter is one of the few surgeons who can perform.
The Commissioner assigns Capt. Michael Lord to protect Cutter as they fly across country with Cutter’s nieces: the beautiful Fonda Mann, who is fond of men and her sister Isa who is a lesbian. (Note that King wasn’t very subtle with his names). Also along is Cutter’s assistant Hood Tinkham. Among the passengers is Lord’s friend, psychologist Dr. L. Rees Pons, who is going to Hollywood to provide psychological background for a script involving two women in love with each other (obviously pre-Code.)
There’s also author Hugh L. Craven, who is a friend of the girl’s father, a former British spy during the Great War and a believer in the theories of Charles Fort. (ASIDE: Some 30 or so years back I came across a one volume edition of Fort’s books and read it. Some of the stuff is pretty interesting in a Ripley’s-Believe-It-Or-Not sort of way. Other stuff is just damn silly.) Anyway, at noon central time as they’re flying over the mid-west, Cutter dies, and it’s up to Lord to find the killer before the plane reaches Reno.
Of all the Dover reprints I’ve read this is probably the most poorly written. Characters and dialogue are mediocre at best and there’s an elaborate timetable provided that I couldn’t bother going through. However, King manages to pull off a big surprise midway through the book and then tops that in the final few pages. He also provides at the end a list of clues with the page and the line on that page where they were given so that the reader can go back and verify them.
Editorial Notes: Quoting from Martin Edwards’ blog and a review he wrote of Obelists en Route:
“‘Obelist’ was a word that King made up. He defined it in Obelists at Sea as ‘a person of little or no value’ and then re-defined it in Obelists en Route as ‘one who harbours suspicion’. Why on earth you would invent a word, use it in your book titles, and then change your mind about what it means?”
Another online review can be found here at the Invisible Event blog. (He gives it Zero stars.)
The Obelists series —
Obelists at Sea. Knopf 1933.
Obelists en Route. Collins 1934. No US publication.
Obelists Fly High. H. Smith 1935.
Careless Corpse. Collins 1937. No US publication.
Arrogant Alibi. Appleton 1939
Lt. Lord makes a solo appearance in Bermuda Burial (Funk, 1941)
August 5th, 2020 at 8:12 pm
The best of the Obelist novels, and unique in that it starts with the Epilogue and ends with the Prologue wherein the mystery is solved.
I admit I enjoy the Obelist stories, and this one is somewhat more entertaining than the first OBELISTS AT SEA. Lord is, of course, one of those upper middle class policemen slumming as a detective like Rufus King’s Lt. Valcour or Appleby and Alleyn across the pond.
CARLESS CORPSE is the only one I haven’t read.
King is somewhat better known in the genre for his stories about Trevis Tarrant (THE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT), whose only collection of stories was a Queen’s Quorum selection.
August 5th, 2020 at 8:33 pm
It looks as though I’ll have to read this one for myself, given your quite opposite opinion of it, David. I have owned the Dover reprint of it since almost forever. It is time, I think, to finally read it.
August 8th, 2020 at 7:46 pm
The Obelist series is supposed to be at least partially humorous, a sort of send up of the Van Dine school. In the first one all the Obelist’s are on an ocean liner proposing theories about a murder on board while vacationing Captain Lord of the NYPD actually uncovers the killer.
It is somewhat in the mood of Anthony Berkeley’s POISONED CHOCOLATES CASE or Leo Bruce’s CASE FOR THREE DETECTIVES. Later ones are a bit more straight forward, but for the most part the Obleists (Pons is the most successful of the lot) at best provide a clue which Lord uses to solve the case.
The unique structure of FLY HIGH is what makes it a near tour de force. Barzun and Taylor praised the flying drama and the “psychology” as well as the use of a layout and two timetables that actually contribute to the solution.
As for Lord he is is a fairly attractive and active protagonist though his tolerance for Pons and the others is bit of a stretch. It is as much or more the Captain Michael Lord series as the Obelist’s series.
August 10th, 2020 at 11:59 am
A Mystery*File review of OBELISTS AT SEA by William F. Deeck (miss him): https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=28927
August 10th, 2020 at 12:50 pm
Thanks, Bill. I of course had totally forgotten this old review.
What’s useful about Bill D’s review is that he included a detailed description of who the Obelists really are.