A review of The Mysterious Suspect by John Rhode – 251130
Originally published in 1952, the fifty-sixth novel in John Rhode’s Dr Priestley series was issued in Britain under the slightly less prosaic title of By Registered Post, but the American edition bore the title of The Mysterious Suspect. As the Kindle e-book adopts the American title, I have chosen to follow suit. As is the case with Priestley books it is another exercise in a clever, logical and forensically minded amateur, the doctor himself, outdoing the bumbling professional sleuth, dear old Jimmy Waghorn, in what is a complicated and well-crafted puzzle with a twist in its tail.
Peter Horningtoft, a successful industrialist who values efficiency, performance, and achievement above family loyalties, has one off quirk, a penchant for quack medicines designed to alleviate, if not remedy, rheumatism. On the day of his death he has just received, by registered post, a bottle containing a concoction produced by a Sylford-based herbalist, Mervyn Blaybury. He retires to his study after dinner, as his wont, and following the typed instructions takes a dose and dies. The bottle, far from containing a harmless medicine, was filled with poison. A second innocuous bottle arrives from Blaybury the following day.
Horningtoft was married twice, the son from his first marriage, Hilary, manager of Peter’s principal business, was assumed by both himself and the rest of the family to be the heir in waiting, Hilary getting increasingly frustrated by his father’s reluctance to let go of the reins and give him his head. Robin, the eldest son from the second marriage, runs the business in Leeds but we learn that just before his death Peter was going to relieve him of his position as he was frustrated by his lack of application. The daughter from the second marriage, Jennifer, is also frustrated by her father’s reluctance to countenance her marriage with Arthur Gretton, an old friend of the family, who was also I the house on the night of Peter’s death.
There is motive enough to commit murder most foul but the will, when it is finally revealed, is a shock to the family, a carefully crafted, complex document that effectively constrains Hilary’s ability to shape the business as he wants. Hilary is furious and visibly affected by this turn of events. Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn of the Metropolitan Police focuses in on Hilary and at the regular Saturday evening soiree Dr Priestley hosts with friends ex-Superintendent Hanslet and retired medical practitioner Dr Oldland, Waghorn regales the company with his progress so far on the case of the moment.
Dr Priestley, though, is far from impressed and cautions Jimmy to concentrate on answering three questions and to extend his purview beyond the Horningtoft family and its immediate entourage, while giving a credible explanation of how the bottles were switched before arriving at Firlands. Re-energised Waghorn still focuses on Hilary, challenging him to explain his whereabouts on the early Monday morning when the fatal package was posted. Hilary gives an unconvincing story but before Waghorn can do anything else, Hilary is found in the bathroom of his flat, having apparently shot himself with a gun which lands in the toilet pan.
At a second soiree Dr Priestley takes a more active part, arguing that far from Hilary’s death from suicide being an admission of guilt and concluding the case, he was in fact the victim of murder. Even the stubborn Waghorn has to accept the force of his arguments and the recollection of the troubled acquisition of Leeds-based Sigma Fabrics Ltd finally puts him on the right track.
It is a tale of revenge with Peter Horningtoft not being the pillar of rectitude and worthy endeavour that he liked to project. The murder methods are ingenious, although the latter seems improbable in practice – in this age of the throwaway society it is fascinating to learn that engineers were employed to service and repair wireless sets – and the seeds of the origin of the Horningtofts’ fate are sprinkled in the narrative, even if the identity of the culprit is not made clear. Curiously, once the culprit evades the British legal system and takes his chance with his Maker, Waghorn chooses to sweep the new development under the carpet, a case of letting sleeping dogs lie with dubious moral connotations.
Rhode, as usual, writes in an easy and comfortable style and while Dr Priestly is not to everyone’s taste, it is an enjoyable read.
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