Thu 13 Dec 2012
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: G. V. GALWEY – The Lift and the Drop.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[10] Comments
William F. Deeck
G. V. GALWEY – The Lift and the Drop. Bodley Head, UK, hardcover, 1948. Penguin Books, UK, paperback reprint, 1951.
Since his theory of how to catch a murderer is examining the past of the victim, Chief Inspector “Daddy” Bourne has a real dilemma here. For there were six people in the lift at Pleydell House, home of The Voice and other publications, when it plummeted out of control from the sixth floor to the basement. If any of them were meant to die, which one was it? Or was it an act of mindless terrorism, since no murderer could be certain whom he or she might kill?
A bit too much emphasis on the technical aspects of the murder, a lot too much on the seafaring aspects — I got quite lost as soon as water was approached — a nebulous political scheme, and a murderer with more hubris than I could accept are the weak points here. The strong points are the characters of Bourne and Sergeant Griffiths and their investigation. Well worth reading, and a nimbler mind than mine might find my objections not significant.
The Inspector “Daddy” Bourne series —
Murder on Leave. Lane, 1946.
The Lift and the Drop. Bodley Head, 1948.
Full Fathom Five. Hodder, 1951.
NOTE: These were G. V. Galwey’s only works of mystery fiction. To find out more information about him, check out the Golden Age of Detection wiki here.
December 14th, 2012 at 8:20 am
I remember one reviewer back in the days I was doing fanzines saying, “Finding it was a lift; reading it was a drop.”
I never managed it myself.
December 14th, 2012 at 10:31 am
Bill Deeck makes it sound a little more interesting than that, Jeff, but not quite enough to make me want to go looking for a copy.
(In case anyone else might want to, though, I can tell you that while I was looking for a image of the cover to add to the review, I did find several copies offered for sale on ABE, all of the Penguin paperback edition, and none too expensive,)
December 14th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Here’s one for interested researchers: Which mystery stories (written or filmed) revolved around murder on an elevator (lift)?
It seems to have been a favored murder method in the Golden Age.
Off the top of my head: FATAL DESCENT (Dickson & Rhode), at least one short story by Berkeley, and one episode each of REMINGTON STEELE, MONK, and ELLERY QUEEN.
I’m sure this list could be extended quite a lot.
December 15th, 2012 at 11:08 am
I had a list in the works when I accidentally deleted it. It included RADIOLAND MURDERS, in which one of the victims dies in an elevator shaft. (I’m sure there are loads of other murder mysteries and films in which victims die the same way.)
From TomCat’s blog: http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-favorite-locked-room-mysteries-ii.html
Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg’s “Death Rides the Elevator.” This story almost reads like a homage to Rex Stout and John Dickson Carr, in which a man is decapitated while riding alone in his private elevator and Penelope Peters, a female Nero Wolfe, and Sean O’Brien, her Archie Goodwin, look into the matter.
THE INTUITIONIST, by Colin Whitehead, has as its detective Lila Mae Watson, “the first black woman elevator inspector in the union.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1999/01/10/love-at-first-sight.html
And an obscure detective novel by M. M. Mannon is entitled THE CORPSE IN THE ELEVATOR (Arcadia, 1956)
If I remember the others I may have come up with, I’ll add them later.
December 16th, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Cheating by looking in the title list in Hubin finds THE LIFT MURDER (aka THE BODY IN THE SHAFT) by R. Francis Foster (Jarrolds 1924) and THE LIFT SHAFT CRIME by Warwick Jardine (a Sexton Blake novel from 1938). Someone falls to their death down a lift shaft in the Father Brown story ‘The Eye of Apollo’
December 17th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Thanks, Jamie. I’d have never come up with either of those first two titles. I wonder if anyone’s read either of them in the last 60 or 70 years…!
As for Father Brown, I read the entire collection of his short stories when I was in my teens, all in one gulp, so to speak, and never since. Time for a revisit, perhaps.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
“The Eye of Apollo” is one of the best Father Brown stories and one of the favourites of Borges.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
It was one of the Father Brown stories recently repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra with Andrew Sachs in the title role – and done very well I should add. I, like you Steve, read them all in my teens and haven’t read them (apart from the odd one) since.
December 22nd, 2012 at 10:53 am
Said J. F. Norris on the Yahoo Golden Age of Detection group:
“THE DEATH OF LAURENCE VINING by Alan Thomas has one of the best elevator murders ever written.”
You can find his full review of it here:
http://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2012/01/death-of-laurence-vining-alan-thomas.html
where he says the following:
“That afternoon Vining is discovered stabbed, a ceremonial Malaysian dagger sticking out of his back, after descending alone in the elevator at Hyde Park station. There were only two people present at the time and both were on the platform to witness Vining falling out of the elevator. No one was inside the elevator and no one was on the upper level from where he descended. How was it done?”
I’ll have to see if I can find a copy of this one…
December 22nd, 2012 at 10:58 am
Uh, oh. I found only one copy offered for sale on the Internet, a well worn one in the UK with a $30 price tag. If you go looking, you probably won’t find one at all.