Mon 27 Oct 2008
Review: MAX MURRAY – The Right Honourable Corpse.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[13] Comments
MAX MURRAY – The Right Honourable Corpse.
Farrar Straus & Young, US, hardcover, 1951, as The Right Honorable Corpse. Hardcover reprint: Unicorn Mystery Book Club, 4-in-1 edition, April 1951. US paperback reprint: Collier, 1965, as The Right Honorable Corpse. British hardcover: Michael Joseph, 1952. British paperback reprint: Penguin #1203, 1957.
Back when he was actively writing, which was up right up to his untimely death in 1956, Max Murray was never one of the big names in the field of mystery fiction. Even though he had a respectable string of detective novels in a ten year stretch between 1947 and 1957, he may not even have been in the second or third tier of big names, in spite of the fact that many of his books were reprinted in this country by Dell in paperback and either the Detective Book Club or the Unicorn Mystery Book Club in hardcover.
The problem may have been that he never used a series detective. I’ve thought this of several mystery writers before, but I don’t believe I’ve ever quite come out and said it. I think it takes a steady focal point, a recurring detective character that the readers can feel comfortable with before they’ll take the author to heart as well.
With obvious exceptions, of course. But authors like Andrew Garve and E. X. Ferrars, to take two rather disparate examples, were extremely prolific and presumably very popular in their day, are all but totally forgotten now. Ferrars did have a few recurring characters, but if you can name one without going and looking up her bibliography, you are the winner of today’s trivia contest, and truth be said, when Garve wrote as either Roger Bax or Paul Somers, he did have a couple of series characters. You’re this year’s trivia champion if you can name either.
And I’m straying from the review of the book in hand, without making a very solid case for my conjecture, I’m afraid, but perhaps I’ll return to it some day.
Here below is Murray’s entry in Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, along with a few facts about him, most of which I didn’t know, until I looked him up earlier today:
MURRAY, MAX(well). 1901-1956. Born in Australia; newspaper reporter in that country, the U.S., and England; scriptwriter and editor for BBC during WWII; married to author Maysie Greig.
The Voice of the Corpse (Joseph, 1948, hc) [England] Farrar, 1947.
The King and the Corpse (Joseph, 1949, hc) [France] Farrar, 1948.
The Queen and the Corpse (Farrar, 1949, hc) [Ship] See: No Duty on a Corpse (Joseph 1950).
The Neat Little Corpse (Joseph, 1951, hc) [Jamaica] Farrar, 1950. Film: Paramount, 1953, as Jamaica Run (scw & dir: Lewis R. Foster).
The Right Honourable Corpse (Joseph, 1952, hc) [Australia] Farrar, 1951.
The Doctor and the Corpse (Joseph, 1953, hc) [Singapore; Ship] Farrar, 1952.
Good Luck to the Corpse (Joseph, 1953, hc) [France; Academia] Farrar, 1951.
The Sunshine Corpse (Joseph, 1954, hc) [Florida]
Royal Bed for a Corpse (Joseph, 1955, hc) [England] Washburn, 1955.
Breakfast with a Corpse (Joseph, 1956, hc) [Nice, France] U.S. title: A Corpse for Breakfast. Washburn, 1957.
Twilight at Dawn (Joseph, 1957, hc) [Australia]
Wait for the Corpse (Joseph, 1957, hc) [England] Washburn, 1957.
All of his books were published in the UK, but when they were published in the US, strangely enough they were often published here first. And as befitting his background as a world news correspondent for the BBC, his books take place all over the world, with only two of them in Australia, where he was born. (And as it turns out, where he died, while back on a visit.)
The Right Honourable Corpse is one of the two, as it so happens, and from the description of (a) the closely knit circle of politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats in the small and isolated capital city of Canberra, and (b) life in the beautiful but desolate Australian out-of-doors, you’d think he’d lived there all his life. And, truth be guessed at, perhaps in his own mind, perhaps he did.
Dead, but mourned only on the surface, is Rupert Flower, the powerful Minister for Internal Resources, poisoned to death during a piano concert going on in his home. Vain and vindictive — a dangerous combination — he was a man whose untimely passing was foreseen by many.
Martin Gilbert, the pianist, turns out to be the central character, and I for one would have liked it immensely if he’d ever made a return appearance, which sad to say he did not. It turns out that he is a spy — a domestic one. He works undercover for the new Commonwealth Security Service, and it is not a job that he likes, and his extreme distaste only grows as the case goes on.
Bitter, sarcastic and outwardly enigmatic in tone and behavior, Martin discovers that friendship with the people he is observing does not go hand-in-hand with reporting those observations on to his superior, Sir David Reynolds. Nor is falling in love consistent with the role he is playing, another problem being that one of the possible suspects is also his best friend and in love with the same girl.
The plot is quite largely secondary to the players, but it’s a good one. At the end, it’s also fairly clear why Martin Gilbert was never brought back for an encore. As a character himself, he gave all he was capable of in this one. I don’t think he had another murder case to be solved in him. He is used up, worn out, but never thrown away. No sir or ma’am. Tears seldom come to my eyes at the end of detective stories, but I’m not unwilling to say they did this time.
[UPDATE.] 10-28-08. Taken from a couple of emails sent by Jamie Sturgeon:
Enjoyed your piece on Max Murray, a quick e-mail to point out correct title Wait for a Corpse. There’s a note on Crimefictioniv.com (Part 7) to say Twilight at Dawn was rewritten by his widow Maysie Greig (it says wife but should be widow) and published as Doctor Ted’s Clinic. It is possible that Twilight at Dawn is not criminous or only marginally at best.
Also: In the entry for Maysie Greig in ADB (Australian Dictionary of Biography) Max Murray’s middle name is Alexander and year of birth as 1900. No separate entry for Max Murray.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Steve: I remember reading “The Neat Little Corpse,” and really enjoyed the yarn. Picked it up because of the amazing cover, never thinking a good mystery novel was inside. I am always sceptical when I see a fabulous cover and then having a let down going through the pages. This is definitely not the case here. I was told once that “Good Luck to the Corpse” was his best, don’t know if that is true.
You’re right about Max Murray being rarely heard of now. He sure had a thing about placing “corpse” in his titles.
August West
October 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
August
Any of Murray’s books that came out in US paperback, I have. This is the first one I’ve ever read, and it certainly won’t be the last.
That Bantam cover is a little strange, but the Dell’s are eye-catching, all right.
I didn’t catch this before, but Murray was still well enough known by someone in 1965 for Right Honourable to come out in a US paperback edition by Collier. Apparently, though, it was the only one of his that they did. (I wonder if Anthony Boucher had anything to do with that.)
And since you brought it up, it looks as though the one book Murray wrote without “corpse” in the title may not be a mystery at all.
Best
— Steve
January 24th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I discovered Murray while looking for the source of the entertaining film Jamaica Run, and quickly read all of his works I could find. I do agree with your assessment that lacking a recurring character can be harmful to the longevity of a writer. It’s unfair, but many a good writer is probably going to be forgotten entirely because they never created a series character.
But then a series character alone is no guarantee, and many a good writer who did create series characters and even got them on the big or small screen has gone by the wayside (Lawerence G, Blochman is a good example), and you really can never say why certain writers survive and prosper and others are forgotten. But I’ll grant that a series character is one way to help insure being read when you are gone.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:38 am
I’m reading the King and the Corpse at the moment and it’s a light, easy, golden age style read (although set after the Second World War). My copy is in the green Penguin detective story format, which I imagine would have given him a good circulation.
May 20th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Starting a copy of “The Neat Little Corpse” today. It was found with some old items stored at our house. My wife has already read it and liked it very much. Our copy is a hard cover published by Farrar, Straus and Company in NYC. The copy originally was owned by the Brooklyn Public Library, Carroll Park Branch. Taken out at least 9 times between Feb, 1951 and August 1951.
May 29th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I’ve picked up the King and the Corpse and the Voice of the Corpse – both in green Penguin editions – and they are both really very good indeed. They are well written, easy to read, deftly plotted, good characters, and a mystery which can be solved but is not too obvious. They are colourful and inventive but very strongly located in recognisable settings. I’m amazed that I’ve never heard of this man before because he holds his own with much better known writers of the genre.
May 29th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Unfortunately there are many many crime fiction writers who wrote some very good mysteries in the past, but who never managed to rise to the ranks of “Top Ten” lists in terms of popularity even in their own day — and who — like Max Murray — are all but forgotten now.
I’d like to think that this blog might bring them back into the limelight again, but history is against us here. It’s a battle that’s bound to be lost, but the pleasure is in trying.
— Steve
December 27th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Thanks for this piece on my father, Max Murray. I would just like to correct one point that Jamie Sturgeon makes in his update. “Twilight at Dawn” was not rewritten by author Maysie Greig (Max’s wife and my mother). It was written by me under Max’s name and largely at his request shortly before he died. Is not a mystery story, as Jamie correctly says, but is a fictionalized biography of MM’s early years in the Australian outback.
December 27th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Bob
I’ll pass the information on to both Jamie Sturgeon and Al Hubin, author of CRIME FICTION IV.
Thanks for stopping by. Your father’s mystery fiction is still remembered by at least a few of us!
Best regards
Steve
July 29th, 2011 at 2:10 am
Max Murray’s “Twilight at Dawn” is a portrait of his father John, and his mother May. I have hearx the stories which are entwined into the book, set on the site of John’s goldmine at Cowarra Creek on the Manaro high country. Iy is possible to recognise minor characters and the retellng of some events whichrelate to Max’s half-brothers and sisters. The end of the book underlines my grandfather’s pursuit of a new lead of a profitable mine.
The was t be a sequel which never. eventuated.
August 30th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
[…] Murray uses the tropical backdrop to superb effect, and he manages multiple plot strands and shifting points of view with professional flair. Detection (in the sense of formal problem solving) is minimal. Instead, Fairlie and others essentially resolve the case behind the scenes, and readers are left with a solution that clears away most but not all traces of the supernatural. […]
September 14th, 2021 at 9:00 am
I have just read “Good Luck to the Corpseâ€, which is currently available as a “print on demand†from Fiction House Press. It was an enjoyable read, but thing that even more interesting was Max’s social commentary, which is embedded in passing, as opposed to being overtly didactic. This is a trait that originated in his earliest work “The World’s Backdoorâ€, (Jonathan Cape 1927) a travel story of his own journey around the world as the result of a payday bet in a pub in Melbourne, when as a 26 year old he said he would make his way around the world with just the money in his pocket (£5).
Dover NY also brought out a reprint of “The Voice of. The Corpse†in 1985.
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