Wed 29 Sep 2010
ANTHONY WYNNE – Emergency Exit. Hutchinson, UK, hardcover, 1941. Julian Messner, US, hardcover, 1944.
The popularity in the United States of Anthony Wynne seems to have waned with the onset of World War Two. Wynne’s longtime American publisher, Lippincott, seems to have dropped the author after it published his Doornails Never Die (1939). Of Wynne’s next three books, published between 1940 and 1942, I’m aware of only one that appeared in the United States: Emergency Exit (1941), which was belatedly published in the U. S. in 1944 by Julian Messner.
I’m happy Messner published Exit, because it’s a fine example of a locked room mystery — in this case murder in a private, sealed bomb shelter, surrounded by snow. How’s that for a miracle problem?
As is very often the case in Wynne’s mystery novels, the murder his Great Detective Dr. Hailey is called on to investigate is that of a millionaire financier; and the murder has taken place at the man’s opulent country estate. Some good descriptive writing sets the stage, but we soon get down to the problem, which is initially laid out at an inquest.
Naturally the murder victim proves to have been rather an unlovable fellow, and we are presented with half-a-dozen suspects who might well have done the old man in — but how?!
Exit is not as good a detective novel, in my opinion, as Murder of a Lady, reviewed here. The setting and characters are less original and the likely identity of the key culprit should not tax readers overmuch.
Also, movement flags a bit in the central portion of the novel (which consists too much of Hailey wondering about the country house and its grounds).
Still, Emergency Exit should leave admirers of Golden Age mystery pleased. The why? question turns out to be quite interesting and the locked room problem (how?) cleverly turned out indeed (though a map would have been nice).
As far as the characters go, the most interesting aspect of the novel is the relationship between the financier’s daughter and the man she loves, a heroic fighter pilot who received a blow on the head and is suspected of the murder by the police, as he may not be “quite right” anymore. Readers may find the daughter rather unbearably priggish, but the fighter pilot is an interesting character.
Wynne also allows himself some interesting asides on the war and England’s resolve to fight it. And the title proves itself quite an apt one. A good tale.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Curt
There is a large sense in which you’re teasing us with this review. Published in this country by Messner or not, there are no copies of the book for sale online anywhere.
Neither the UK or UK edition show up anywhere. Obviously somebody has to persuade someone to reprint books like this!
— Steve
PS. Maybe there was a map in the British edition?
September 29th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Curt may single handedly bring Wynne back from obscurity, and that’s not a bad thing. Admittedly Hailey isn’t the best of the Golden Age sleuths, but Wynne wrote some very good puzzles and had a nice way with atmosphere, and I always thought the complaints about his melodramatic tendencies were a little unfair.
When you have read the best of the Golden Age writers and move onto the second tier it is nice to discover Wynne is high up on that list and well worth discovering. Between this, Curt’s previous review, and the Bill Pronzini review hopefully Wynne will find a new audience and maybe some of the harder to find books will get a shot at being reprinted.
September 30th, 2010 at 2:55 am
I’m going to email Ramble House about reprinting these two books (I can provide copies). Should have a review for a third one shortly. Yes, it’s locked room!
On the Julian Messner thing, I was surprised to find this copy. Rare as it is, if the American edition had not come into being I probably never would have found a copy. I wasn’t even aware Messner published mysteries.
November 21st, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Just finished reading Emergency Exit. As Curt says, the relationship of Brooke, Elspeth, Vernonica, and Sir Rex too is more interesting than most chararcter groups in Wynne books I’ve read. Nice last revelation of locked room solution in the last paragraph. But there’s no doubt that Wynne slips in last in any comparison with Curt’s three “Humdrums.”
November 14th, 2014 at 6:35 am
I agree, Gordon!