Wed 17 Sep 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: C. DALY KING – Obelists at Sea.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[12] Comments
William F. Deeck
C. DALY KING – Obelists at Sea. Knopf, US, hardcover, 1933. Heritage, UK, hardcover, 1932; Penguin Books, UK, paperback, 1938.
During the bidding for a number in the ship’s pool on distance traveled by day, the lights go out and Victor Smith, either a copper king or a Western railroad magnate, is shot twice in the heart. Only one gun is found to have been fired, and that is proved not to have committed the murder. Smith’s daughter also dies, although of what cause is not known. To add to the complexity, Smith had taken or been given poison almost immediately before he was shot.
The case is too much for the ship’s detectives, so four gentleman aboard assist in the investigation. Dr. Hayvier, a well-known behaviorist, Dr. Pechs, an equally well-known psychoanalyst, and Dr. Pons, inventor of Integrative Psychology, and Professor Miltie, who had carefully avoided being identified with any of the schools of his “science” — all have their theories, all different, with different suspects.
Put aside the fact that the Meganaut has ten decks above the water line and a crew of at least a thousand and that Captain Mansfield invariably refers to it as a “boat.” This is still a fascinating, albeit a bit slow, novel.
Editorial Comments: While I do not know if all four of the detective characters in this novel appear in all of the books below, Professor Pons is stated in Hubin to be in each of them.
The Dr. L. Rees Pons series —
Obelists at Sea. Knopf, 1933.
Obelists en Route. Collins, UK, 1934.
Obelists Fly High . H. Smith 1935.
Careless Corpse. Collins, UK, 1937.
Arrogant Alibi. Appleton, 1939.
Also of interest, I believe, is the following quote taken from author Martin Edwards in his review on his blog of C Daly King’s mystery output in general:
For more on C. Daly King, the mystery writer, may I also direct you to Mike Grost’s comments about his work on his website.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Steve,
Thank you for the link!
Only two of King’s mystery books are widely available: a short story collection “The Complete Curious Mr. Tarrant”, and the novel “Obelists Fly High”. Few contemporary people have managed to read beyond these two. I haven’t.
My strategy for dealing with this situation: read what is available, then analyze the heck out of it! It’s not a perfect strategy, but it is the best one can do.
It is good to get Deeck’s take on this.
September 17th, 2014 at 8:18 pm
I have to admit that I never knew what the definition of the word “obelist” was, and I was always afraid to ask, lest someone think me dumb.
September 18th, 2014 at 3:25 pm
The prime detective in the Obelist’s series is not Pons, but attractive New York policeman Michael Lord. Daly is making fun of the ‘obelists’ their great achievements in detection proving wrong while Lord solves the case.
FLIES HIGH remains the best known of the novels because of Daly’s success with a neat structural twist, the book opening with a cliff hanging epilogue involving Lord in a shootout in mid flight and ending with a prologue that reveals the killer.
Lord is the hero of the series, not the rather comic Obelists though they are Daly’s satirical focus and the series identified by Pons name. The fellow on the cover with the gun is Lord. Pons remains a figure of fun though not as much as in AT SEA, while Lord usually sails in toward the end to nab the killer. I’m not sure if Lord is in all of the Pons books, but he is certainly the chief sleuth in AT SEA, FLIES HIGH, and if I recall ARROGANT ALIBI. Pons becomes a bit less pedantic and more competent with time, but early on the real detection and the solution is supplied by Lord, while we laugh at the efforts and theories of the Obelist’s.
Pons gets more page time than Lord generally, but then it is not unusual in the form for the actual sleuth to appear near the end to solve the crimes. The Obelist’s though are almost always wrong though once in a while they unknowingly provide evidence or a clue that leads Lord to the real killer.
THE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT is a Queen’s Quorum title as one of the most important short story collections in the classic era.
Re why Daly changed the meaning of Obelist the answer is simple. In the first book they are meant to be foolish, while in later books he saw the sense in using Pons as a genuine sleuth. You can’t afford to have the word created for your title character mean ‘useless’ in a continuing series. There is only so much satire mystery fans would accept. Eventually Pons becomes a genuine sleuth if not always exactly a great detective since Daly had a jaundiced eye towards psychology throughout the series.
September 18th, 2014 at 4:43 pm
Yes, I knew about Michael Lord, but for some reason Bill didn’t mention him in his review, and I didn’t know how important he was (or not) in the overall scheme of things. Thanks for the info about him. According to Hubin, Lord was the single protagonist in Bermuda Burial (1941), King’s final mystery.
And thanks also, David, for expanding more on the relationship between Pons and Lord. You have me intrigued, as if I weren’t before. I have one or two of Daly King’s books. It’s time to see if I can locate them.
September 18th, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Out of curiosity, I looked up Bermuda Burial on the Internet. I’d never heard of the title before, and now I see why. According to bookfinder.com there is not a single book dealer online who has a copy for sale.
September 18th, 2014 at 10:31 pm
Steve,
I picked up a copy of “Bermuda Burial” some time ago, but could find NO info regarding it at all. It’s somewhere in a pile around here. I’ll try to locate it before I see you next. It does seem strange when you can’t locate a title on Bookfinder. Almost makes one feel like you just hit the lottery, sort of!
September 18th, 2014 at 11:28 pm
Yes, hold on to it till I see you next. It can’t be that you have the only copy in the world, but maybe you’ll even let me touch it…!
September 19th, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Interesting to read both the review and the comments. King is a strange writer, often hopeless yet still fascinating. I’m afraid I thought Bermuda Burial the weakest of his books and Arrogant Alibi not much better. Obelists Fly High is my favourite.
September 19th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
As you might expect, Lord is handsome, independently wealthy, in the social register, brilliant, and cussedly independent in his work. He’s a Captain in the first book and I don’t think advances beyond that, though in fairness any rank above that is more administrative than deductive.
He always reminded me a bit of Rufus King’s Lt. Valcour in that he is a professional policeman but almost completely autonomous in his investigations save when he needs manpower.
September 19th, 2014 at 7:58 pm
David’s comparison of Michael Lord with Lt. Valcour is very interesting.
It is something I never thought of.
On my web site, a comparison is made between Lord and other Van Dine School sleuths:
“Michael Lord, King’s series sleuth in his novels, has some features in common with other Van Dine school detectives. Like them he is New York City based. In many ways, he is related to the “genius amateur with personal connection to the police” of Van Dine’s Philo Vance and EQ’s Ellery Queen. He is a young policeman, not an amateur, but he owes his association with the police to his friendship with the Police Commissioner, just as Vance has a friendship with the DA, and Ellery is the son of Inspector Richard Queen. He is a wealthy, sophisticated young man whose father was the Commissioner’s best friend. The Commissioner made him a Lieutenant, but his genius detective skills made him rise rapidly to the rank of Captain. He is a Special Officer attached to the staff of the Police Commissioner.
As a social sophisticate attached to the police, he resembles Abbot’s Thatcher Colt. Like Abbot, he is concerned with his leadership position. Lord’s “I am in charge here” routine on the airplane in Obelists Fly High would make Al Haig blush. The Commissioner in King also resembles Colt in his insistence on saluting and other forms of discipline.”
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