A review of A Knife for Harry Dodd by George Bellairs – 240604
If you like a story with a high body count, then the eighteenth or possibly twenty-first in George Bellairs’ Inspector Thomas Littlejohn is likely to satisfy you. There are three murders, a fire, a death from natural causes after a chase by a bull, and a murder aboard a vessel and loss at sea following a maritime collision and while the culprit seems to be revealed somewhat inadvertently midway through the book, there are enough potential suspects and red herrings to keep the reader on their toes. It is also quite a funny book with some interesting characters and so there is much in this book, originally published in 1953, to enjoy.
The principal murder victim is the eponymous Harry Dodd who rings home after leaving the pub, asking to be picked up as he is feeling unwell. By the time Dorothy Nicholls and her mother get to him, it is clear that he has been fatally stabbed but they get him home, put him to bed and do not call the police until the middle of the night. Why did they delay and who stabbed Harry and why?
As Dodd’s brother is a Member of Parliament, Scotland Yard in the form of Littlejohn and his faithful sidekick, Cromwell, are quickly called in to investigate and discover that Dodd’s domestic arrangements a tad unusual. An ill-considered affair with his secretary, Dorothy Nicholls, leads to his family insisting that his wife divorces him, somewhat against her will. Dodd is now living with Dorothy and her mother, although he sleeps in the attic and has little enjoyment save for his regular visit to The Bear public house. Amongst the items in his pocket is a bottle top from Hoods’, a beer that is not served at the Bear and which proves to be an important clue in solving the mystery.
There are some wonderful characters, not least Ishmael Lott, a hen-pecked corn merchant who is led a miserable life by his wife but finds solace in studying stocks and shares, creating graphs of the rise and falls of certain stock picks on the walls of the shop’s cellars. There is more to this eccentricity than meets the eye and it allows Lott to become a central point in the mystery, both explaining certain aspects of Harry Dodd’s behaviour and, through his nautical incompetence, becoming Harry’s avenging angel. It is heartwarming, too, that he is able to escape from his own personal hell.
The other important link in the story is The Aching Man, a pub run by siblings, Peg and Sid Boone, which both Harry and his son, Peter, are known to have visited. There is a parrot there which as is their wont is liberal with information and a child whose existence provides the motivation for the murder. Knowing too much is fatal for Harry’s father, cruelly incarcerated in a lunatic asylum for heckling his politician son, and for the family solicitor, Pharoah, and alibis which at first glance seem rock solid that fall apart, especially if provided by an alcoholic doctor.
Littlejohn, while an empathetic character who could be accused of handling Harry’s former wife with too kid gloves, is more of an investigator who takes a methodical approach to the problem at hand. There are no flashes of inspiration or deductive leaps: he goes where the clues and the needs of the investigation take him, often serving little more than a convenient plotting device to keep the story moving. The fireworks are to be found in the glorious array of characters that Bellairs serves up for our enjoyment.
While it is hardly a classic, there are enough moments in the story to make it worth reading.
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