Tue 6 Apr 2021
A Mystery Review by Maryell Cleary: R. T. CAMPBELL – Bodies in a Bookshop.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
R. T. CAMPBELL – Bodies in a Bookshop. Professor John Stubbs #3. John Westhouse, Ltd., UK, hardcover, 1946. Reprinted by Dover, US, trade paperback, 1984.
R. T. Campbell is the pseudonym of Ruthven Todd, poet, scholar, art critic, and fantasy novelist (according to the back of the book). He wrote several detective novels; I have not read any of the others, but if they are of similar quality to this one, his mystery writing would have to be marked only “fair.†His amateur detective, Professor Stubbs, and botanist Max Boyle, Stubbs’s assistant, have some similarities to Dr. Priestley and his Harold, and some to Nero Wolfe and Archie.
Max, in the course of a day’s bookhunting, finds two bodies in a gas-filled room at the back of a small bookshop. He calls in Chief Inspector Reginald Bishop, who welcomes Stubbs’ s cooperation and lets the two amateurs come along on all his interviews. This convention seems somewhat shopworn for 1946. Still, there are some lively interviews with possible suspects; some aspects of the bookseller’s business that Max had not known about are revealed, and the shady side of the book dealer’s visitor’s character is shown in all its nastiness.
Which one of them was the intended victim? Or were both intended to die? To the book lover the unexpected revelation of some very valuable old books will be a treat, even if the book itself is not in the first, or even the second, rank of mysteries.
Editorial Notes: An earlier review of this book by Doug Greene on this blog can be found here. That particular post includes a list of all seven Professor Stubbs mysteries. My own review of Unholy Dying, the first in the series, can be found here. My concluding sentence was this: “I’d have to call this one as being in the wheelhouse of those readers who already fans of the Golden Age of Detection. It won’t convert any others.”
April 6th, 2021 at 7:49 pm
They were enjoyable enough when Dover reprinted them, but honestly if they had not been reprinted in cheaper editions I would have been annoyed to have collected them and paid more.
April 6th, 2021 at 8:19 pm
And pay more for them is right. I haven’t dared look to see what they might go for now — and I’ll bet some in the series may be extremely hard to find.
I’m not sure at the moment how many Dover has done, but they’ve done some only in the last year or so. BOOKSHOP was one of the early ones, obviously because of the lure of bookstores that’s hidden in the hearts of every mystery reader. All of us!
April 6th, 2021 at 11:34 pm
Police inspectors amiably allowing citizens from the general public along with them as they go about their job? I’d really *like* to be convinced that this was ever permitted by any real-world police force in history …
April 6th, 2021 at 11:45 pm
Sometimes, when I’m feeling really down, I start thinking. And when I do, I often try to convince myself that 99% of all detective fiction is not pure fantasy. I’m never able to succeed, though. Either I’m not a very good persuader, or it’s true that it really is.
April 10th, 2021 at 5:50 pm
There is some history of civilians accompanying police as observers, usually journalists or members of some crime commission or other, but not always, of course the whole Philo Vance/Ellery Queen/Mr. Pinkerton model is fairly ridiculous, though a D A like Markham allowing a wealthy dabbler like Vance who might contribute to his campaign and who solves cases to indulge himself or Inspector Queen taking advantage of Ellery’s ability to solve problems is not out of the realm of possibility however improbable.
With Pinkertons I was loaned out twice to the Dallas D A’s Office and once to the Texas Rangers, but that isn’t quite the same. I was sworn in all those times.
Over the years a few ‘celebrity’ police types have been more indulgent of an audience than you might expect but strictly in the sense of having an admiring audience along.
Truth is most police work is drudgery and boredom mixed with a bit of terror and no sane person would want to tag along.
Most fiction pretty much skirts reality to some extent and there are always things you have to buy to except the premise. Both Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Dr. Edund Locard worked in the field with police and not just in the lab much like Dr. Thorndyke. Teddy Roosevelt recruited Bat Masterson to clean up boxing in New York.
I’m just saying you can just make a case for this kind of thing, not much of one, and within narrow confines, but it is just possible.