Wed 3 Sep 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: G. D. H. and MARGARET COLE – The Blatchington Tangle.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
William F. Deeck
G. D. H. and MARGARET COLE – The Blatchington Tangle. Macmillan, hardcover, 1926. First published in the UK by Collins, hardcover, 1926.
Shortly before encountering Lord Blatchington in the nude, Dick Prescott discovers a dead body in, will wonders never cease, the library. Something of an eccentric, Blatchington takes the corpse in stride. Prescott is a bit more concerned.
More has been going on at Blatchington Towers than merely murder, and this causes Inspector Peascod some problems when he arrives on the scene. Nonetheless, Peascod does pick out a likely suspect, who proceeds to engage the aid of Henry Wilson, former superintendent at Scotland Yard and now a private detective.
An amiable and at times amusing novel but not one that cries to be reprinted.
Books by the Coles previously reviewed on this blog:
The Corpse in the Constable’s Garden (by me)
Knife in the Dark (by Bill Pronzini)
Knife in the Dark (by me)
September 3rd, 2014 at 4:42 pm
I don’t know if this book is reprintable or not, but to my mind the works of less worthy authors have gotten back in print this last couple of years or so. This is definitely my kind of detective fiction.
September 3rd, 2014 at 8:30 pm
Wilson is one of the few great detectives of this era I could never warm to, and I tried if only because the Coles were fairly interesting.
The Wilson books weren’t bad, it’s just there was better out there. Were the Wilson books ever reprinted by anyone other than the original publishers? I don’t have Hubin or Hancer at hand so I don’t know if they had a paperback reprint at any point. I seem to recall a possible Pocket Books edition, but I am by no ways certain.
I don’t recall Barzun and Taylor being particularly kind to them either, but it has been years since I read THE CATALOGUE OF CRIME.
What I do remember when I first read them — 40 years ago — was a tendency to clank as the plot turned.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 pm
It could be that I haven’t read enough of the Coles’ books to have gotten tired of them, but the ones I’ve read, I’ve liked. They were popular enough in their day, but never in the top tier, and their name recognition today is as close to zero as you can get.
Some of their books have come out in paperback, but never in this country. In the UK several have been reprinted in Penguin editions, others as Collins (White Circle?) paperbacks.
The Corpse in the Constable’s Garden is one that’s available in a POD edition.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:35 am
I confess I didn’t like this one very much, when I read it around twenty years ago. It seemed lifeless. I agree with Deeck’s negative comments.
The idea of Wilson going to work as a private investigator is a good one. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t have much fun with the idea, IIRC.
The Coles seem uneven. Some of the their short tales are good, and their first book “The Brooklyn Murders” is pleasant. But the other novels read by them have been lousy, so far.
September 4th, 2014 at 12:11 pm
I just looked at Barzun & Taylor and they actually like some of the Coles work. They like THE BLATCHINGTON TANGLE and say:
“First read (and liked) in the late (and our early) twenties. A second reading reveals Lord Blatchington in all his nakedness as before, but shows that there is more to the book than we remembered. It is indeed a tangle, a good domestic one, with no foreigners, no London slums, no white slavery, and no dope.”
Some of the other novels they don’t care for but they call THE MURDER AT CROME HOUSE “…Coles’ masterpiece…” “…splendidly pulled off.”
September 4th, 2014 at 2:17 pm
A classic case of Gold amongst the dross, no doubt about it.