Fri 25 Mar 2022
An Archived Mystery Review by Maryell Cleary: CHRISTOPHER BUSH – The Case of the Tudor Queen.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
CHRISTOPHER BUSH – The Case of the Tudor Queen. Ludovc Travers #18. Cassell, UK, hardcover, 1938. Holt, US, hardcover, 1938. Penguin #849, paperback, 1953. Dean Street Press, trade paperback, 2018. (I believe that Dean Street has reprinted all 63 Travers books in uniform softcover editions.)
Amateur detective Ludovic Travers and friend Supt. George Wharton of Scotland Yard inadvertently stumble on two dead bodies in the house belonging to one of the dead persons. She is actress Mary Legreye, who recently was applauded as Mary Tudor.
She and her houseman, Fred Ward, appear to have committed suicide. Miss Legreye is sitting in a high-backed chair with the furniture cleared away, so that the scene is like one from the play. Both Travers and Wharton are suspicious, and the police surgeon corroborates their view. These are murders. But by whom, and why?
Miss Legreye is pregnant, the p.m. reveals, but no man can be found who can be named as her paramour. Actors, manager, and playwright in turn are investigated and found to have alibis. The case is almost given up as hopeless when Travers sees the light. A cast-iron alibi turns out to be faked, very cleverly indeed. When it yields to Travers’ investigation, a cruel, cold-blooded murderer 1s taken.
Interesting all the way.
March 25th, 2022 at 10:11 pm
My first Travers was reprinted in one of the old Detective Book Club editions and I was pleasantly surprised. Those were also my intro to Meynell’s Hooky Heffernan.
Over the years I’ve read a number of Travers adventures and some of Bush’s other work and generally enjoyed them as professional and smart.
March 25th, 2022 at 10:56 pm
Quite a few of Bush’s books were published in this country, more I think than many other British mid-level detective writers, but I don’t think he caught on over here to any great extent.
There’s no doubt about it, though. Sixty-three cases for Ludovic Travers is quite an accomplishment. If I recall correctly, he started out as an amateur detective but somewhere along the way he became a private investigator, in a genteel British style.