I am 5 reviews behind at the moment, so I thought I best get cracking!
I read Dead Man’s Music earlier in December, which seemed seasonally appropriate as Bush’s middle name is Christmas. Charles William thought well of this book, enjoying the ‘jolly pursuit’ aspect to the plot, as well as the ‘most attractive interlude with a man who collects dud china, writes incomprehensible music, and asks questions frankly like crossword clues.’ Williams summed up that ‘Mr Bush writes of as thoroughly enjoyable murders as any I know.’
Synopsis
‘Ludovic Travers starts an investigation of unnatural death by means of an automobile mishap on a rural road. His associate Superintendent Wharton is investigating a suspicious suicide by hanging at the nearby village of Pawlton Ferris. When the supposed suicide turns out to be a case of murder, Travers realizes he recognizes the corpse, despite attempts to alter the dead man’s appearance. The plot is thickened by a strange letter sent to Travers by the eccentric and musical Claude Rook. As Travers and Wharton are drawn further into the investigation of the murder, they begin to fit more and more pieces into a weird puzzle, unlocking the strange secret of the dead man’s music.’
Overall Thoughts
The opening scene is testament to the fact that authors should not ponder future writing projects whilst driving, as it can nearly cause accidents, as Ludovic Travers discovers. Fortunately, no one is hurt, and his vehicle drama leads to him getting to visit a crime scene. Initially the police think they are one step ahead of the killer, as they find out about the corpse at Frenchman’s Rise, a country cottage, sooner than they should have done, meaning more evidence is available. The body is discovered by a labourer who notices a kitten in the window (of what he believed to be an empty house). The labourer goes to rescue the kitten and gets a nasty surprise. The kitten is not hugely emaciated, which raises the question of how and when the kitten entered the property.
I think Christopher Bush does a good job of setting up an intriguing case for Ludovic Travers to solve. He achieves this partially through the crime scene itself, but also through the character of the victim, who Travers comes across prior to his death. Travers meets Claude Rook after the latter sends Travers’ private inquiry firm an unusual letter:
‘Dear Sirs,
Your firm has a reputation for absolute trustworthiness in its handling of affairs, and an implicitly honourable confidence. Will you therefore send me down here a GENTLEMAN; a most reliable, intelligent, cultured man, to see me about certain urgent matters. I want a man of unusual perception, the sort of man who knows that whereas two and two always make four. Two elevens are not necessarily twenty-two. I would particularly like his opinion on some china, and to hear his appreciation of music. He should be sent AT ONCE. I enclose a preliminary payment against expenses.’
Rook and his household upon acquaintance prove to be engagingly curious and I was keen to find out more about them. Knowing more about the victim encourages the development of reader sympathy.
Once Travers has recounted to Superintendent Wharton the occasion when he met the victim, the narrative returns to the present. However, things do not necessarily go Wharton and Travers’ way as despite their industrious detective work, some vital information is pulled out of reach by fate. The police are good at tracking Rook’s history, under numerous aliases and as I was reading this novel, it felt a little like Wharton was the more active sleuth.
The focus of the investigation is concentrated on the “why”, in order to figure out the identities of the guilty party. Part way through the story John Franklin, a private inquiry agency colleague of Traver’s, unbeknown to the latter, decides to travel to Italy to see if he can find any connections to the victim’s past, thus adding another narrative strand to the mystery. I think this makes the solving of the case more of a team effort and provides some new information which creates more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, I felt the time spent in Italy did slow the pace of the book and I was less keen on the thriller, cloak-and-dagger type of sleuthing that occurred here. John Franklin also blotted his copy book with some creepy paternal/avuncular feelings towards a teenage girl involved in the case. At one point in the story, he thinks:
‘How delightful it would be if something happened to Rossi – something that made it necessary for him to take the girl back to England! He imagined his pride as he showed her to Travers. She could live with them – a couple of uncles! And she should go for a year or two to some slap-up school…’
Just no…
Perhaps due to being distracted, Franklin is not as clever as he thinks he is, and a suspicious character gets the better of him. Consequently it is race back to England, although bizarrely once he returns, Franklin feels no sense of urgency to communicate with Travers and Wharton. A further odd situation is when Travers is uncomfortable about unfurling any form of subterfuge at a potential murderer.
The solution to the case relies heavily on backstory that the reader does not have access to, and I felt the second half of the narrative left the reader out of things, compared to the first half where the reader could interact with evidence more directly. Even after an arrest has been made, the explaining of the solution continues and for me I think the book as a whole was too long, as my enthusiasm and concentration was wilting by the end. The mystery surrounding the music sheet is interesting, but the final explanation is a little too convoluted for my liking.
Rating: 3.75/5