Tue 26 Jan 2016
Mystery Review: GRET LANE – Death Prowls the Cove.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[10] Comments
GRET LANE – Death Prowls the Cove. Herbert Jenkins, UK, hardcover, no date stated but known to be 1942.
Nothing much seems to be known about Gret Lane, author of 13 works of crime and detective published in England between 1925 and 1943, except that the name itself is a pseudonym. The first two are standalone tales, two others are cases tackled (and solved, one presumes) by a policeman by the name of Inspector Hook. All of the rest (nine in all) feature an amateur detective originally named Kate Clare, but once she is married, she is Kate Marsh, as she is in Death Prowls the Cove.
And in eight of the nine, she is paired up with a police inspector named John Barrin, but by the time Cove was written, and perhaps for some time before, he had retired from Scotland Yard. Both families, Kate and her husband Tony Marsh (who writes adventure tales), and Barrin and his wife Jennie (a matron of 60 or so who knits a lot) now live in semi-detached cottages in the small town of White Owl Cove along the shore in South Devon.
Between them they have two maids, Polly and Sarah, sisters who in turn are engaged to two former miscreants, now totally reformed, from earlier books, named Bill and Jo-Jo. Dead not too far into the book is Jo-Jo’s Uncle Pierre, a former smuggler who has come to live in England from France.
Suspected are Uncle Pierre’s former colleagues in crime; Bob Daw, a loutish local poacher of a fellow who had an argument with the dead man in a local drinking establishment before his death; a coterie of neighbors high above the cove who act very suspiciously; and Bill or Jo-Jo themselves, separately or together.
This is a very cozy affair, with lots of huddled plans and strategies on the part of the combined two households, along with a local police inspector who is more than willing to let both Kate and John Berrin have the way with the investigation.
And any self-respecting criminal should begin to be on his guard when Kate starts reflectively rubbing the side of her nose. I hope I haven’t made this as unexciting as it is not, but truthfully the killer(s) can easily discerned by the laziest of readers — the scale and scope of the tale being so narrowly restricted as it is.
I wouldn’t mind reading another, if I could afford it. The least expensive copy offered for sale online is in the $60 range, and some of the earlier ones have even higher price tags, if they are offered for sale anywhere at all.
The Kate Clare (Marsh) series —
The Cancelled Score Mystery. Jenkins 1929 [JB]
The Curlew Coombe Mystery. Jenkins 1930 [JB]
The Lantern House Affair. Jenkins 1931
The Hotel Cremona Mystery. Jenkins 1932 [JB]
The Unknown Enemy. Jenkins 1933 [JB]
Death Visits the Summer-House. Jenkins 1939 [JB]
Death in Mermaid Lane. Jenkins 1940 [JB]
Death Prowls the Cove. Jenkins 1942 [JB]
The Guest with the Scythe. Jenkins 1943 [JB]
January 26th, 2016 at 11:26 pm
Steve: According to a recent CFIV addendum, Gret Lane was the pseudonym of Margaret Lane Van Patten (1883-1944). Born Margaret Chapman in Portland, Oregon; married Frederick Van Patten in New York City as Margaret Chapman Hastings; came to London in 1913; spent some time in Italy in the 1920s and died in Newport, Shropshire, England; origin of the Lane in her name unclear.
January 26th, 2016 at 11:37 pm
Neglected to mention previously that I have one of her books, THE RED MIRROR MYSTERY, a police procedural featuring her other series character, Scotland Yard Inspector Hook. Have yet to read it, but will soon after your favorable review of COVE.
January 27th, 2016 at 12:36 am
Yipes! Thanks, Bill. That CFIV Addenda with the info on Gret Lane was the most recent one, and since I’m the one still posting them online, I should have caught that update on her myself:
http://www.crimefictioniv.com/Part_3A.html
Rather than calling my report on the book a favorable review, I’d rather think of it as not being an unfavorable one, which it might have been, if I’d decided to emphasize its deficiencies. I did enjoy it, though, in spite of them.
January 27th, 2016 at 11:09 am
When I checked the link to the CFIV Addenda I saw the dedication to the late Victor Berch who died October 30. I had not known of his passing and perhaps should note it in the next issue of Dime Novel Round-Up.
January 27th, 2016 at 11:30 am
Randy:
I tried to notify you when Victor Berch died but my email bounced. I had hoped that you had learned of it from someone else; I’m sorry that you were “out of the loop.” Victor was a remarkable person and a good friend.
January 27th, 2016 at 12:52 pm
Randy
Ken’s tribute to Victor Berch after he died was posted here on the blog last November. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=36517
By all means do mention his passing in Dime Novel Round-Up. I’m sure he was a long time subscriber.
January 27th, 2016 at 6:32 pm
I’m taking it that the former Inspector is more along the lines of a Parker or Alleyn than an actual Yard man. Most of them can’t afford servants after retirement — or before.
As for the Gret, its a nickname sometimes used instead of Peggy for women named Margaret.
January 27th, 2016 at 7:59 pm
There’s nothing posh about either couple. Strictly middle class all the way. I don’t know how long the maids had been working for them, but if they’d been there all along, starting in 1929, it could be that maids a lot more common in middle class homes. I’m willing to be corrected about this.
As for my reading any of the earlier books in the series, copies of which are nowhere to found, chances are awfully slim.
January 28th, 2016 at 9:12 pm
The writer and his wife could be upper middle class enough to have a maid, the Scotland Yard inspector, even a chief inspector would be pushing it having a maid even in 1929, certainly on retirement pay.
Of course there is always the chance the wife had a bit of money from her family or either an inheritance, but if you recall your Sayers I think Parker even remarks about not being able to afford a maid when he marries Peter’s sister. Even a cook would be a stretch. An unmarried inspector would be living in a boarding house if he had no wife.
I think this is all skewered a bit by all those posh Yard men like Appleby, Alleyn, and the like. A policeman would have been at the lower end of middle class income, closer to a mailman than a manager.
January 29th, 2016 at 1:07 am
Steve, Ken, I am writing a note about Victor Berch for the Spring Dime Novel Round-Up. Yes, he was a collector of dime novels (specializing in detective short stories) and I was at Eddie LeBlanc’s when he was selecting ones to purchase. I stayed at Victor’s house when I was paying a visit to a publisher in Boston in the 1980s.
Ken, if that email bounced it’s because you had my old address. I changed email addresses about two years ago.