This is the first book in my 2025 Green Penguin reading project and having looked it up, it seems that I have not read any book by Hull since December 2019. The primary reason for this being the lack of availability for a lot of his books. However, including today’s review title I have managed to read 7 of his books and I thought it might be interesting to provide a ranked list of the 6 previously reviewed mysteries:
No. 6: Left-Handed Death (1946)
I think for me the plot in this one felt too small for the size of the book, and the page count is not excessive to begin with. The conclusion was too predictable and the parts which should have been surprising fell flat for me.
No. 5: And Death Came Too (1939)
When I came to this novel it was the most conventionally structured detective story that I had read by Hull, who I was used to writing in a more experimental and creative manner. I’m not sure Hull is at his most comfortable with the conventional, but I think this only becomes apparent in the final third of the book where the killer’s identity is quite noticeable, despite some very well-thought out and different motives for the murder, and the ending is somewhat limp. Nevertheless, I felt this story still showed some good characterisation work and humour.
No. 4: Excellent Intentions (1938)
Looking back over my review notes, at the time, I wrote that this was the most clued mystery by Hull that I had read and that it had a strong puzzle factor. I liked the concept of sharing the case through a trial setup, but without disclosing the identity of the person in the dock until the end, but I think for me the narrative voices lacked vitality and the plot overall a little bit of excitement. It is also perhaps one of his less humorous mysteries.
No. 3: Murder of My Aunt (1934)
This was the first book that I read by Hull, and it also stood up to a re-reading on the blog. You could argue that this book offers a dark and maybe even twisted variation of the domineering relatives P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster has to contend with and Edward Powell’s response to handling his own difficult aunt is decidedly different to any of Bertie’s reactions. The first-person narrative works effectively in this story, laced with plenty of irony and sardonic humour. Edward Powell is a well-crafted unpleasant and snobbish protagonist, whose repeated failures to kill his aunt are enjoyable to watch.
No. 2: Keep It Quiet (1935)
Hull maintains a comically amoral universe in this story, which is set at a gentleman’s club. The club secretary is desperate to avoid scandal at all cost when one of the members is poisoned. There is much to keep the reader guessing in this plot and overall, I found it very entertaining. I suspect my choices for 2nd and 3rd position are perhaps my most contentious.
No. 1: Murder Isn’t Easy (1936)
I chose this title for first place as it ticks a lot of boxes for me:
- An unconventional narrative structure which the author pulls off
- A well-realised setting which feeds into the puzzle plot
- A plot which is hard to predict, but which nevertheless encourages you to make predictions and armchair sleuth
- An inverted mystery which has plenty of twists and surprises in it
Which Hull mysteries have you read and would recommend?
Synopsis
‘Gregory Spring-Benson was an idle young man with no fixed desire to do anything – except possibly to drink Burgundy, for which he had a nice taste. The harsh reality of life, the necessity to do something in order to survive, he contrived to avoid by being incredibly self-centred and impervious to the criticism of his friends and the abuse of his creditors. The time had come, however, when it was really necessary for him to see what could be done in the way of regular employment, preferably of a kind that would leave him plenty of spare time – and cash. For some reason he imagined that journalism would suit his purpose, but the newspaper he applied to for a job was not of that opinion. Now it happened that at this time Gregory read in this very newspaper that his Uncle James, a wealthy and eccentric old man, had acquired an ancient country mansion, complete with ghost. He did not like his uncle – few did – but he sensed that here might be good “copy” of a kind to impress a newspaper, for that appeared to be necessary in order to get a job. So down to Uncle James’s place he went, there to encounter several other hopeful and hateful relatives, all bent on seeing that they were not forgotten in the will, and that Uncle James’s interest in ghosts should not be exploited to their detriment. It is of these events, ghostly and otherwise, that this book tells.’
Overall Thoughts
The Saturday Review was a bit lukewarm about The Ghost It Was, writing: ‘Impersonal yarn, with Gothic atmosphere, occasional flashing wit, and sundry shivers – but little life and less conviction.’ Its summary was ominously: ‘Take your chances’. Reflecting on the novel I don’t think I fully concur with this opinion, but nor would I say it is one of Hull’s better books either. However, let’s begin at the start…
The opening scene, rather than placing us on side with the initial protagonist, makes us sympathetic towards the deputy sub-assistant editor for The New Light, who has to deal with the arrogance offered by Gregory Spring-Benson, an interviewee who has been forced upon him by a letter of recommendation:
‘At the age of thirty – which is what he accurately estimated Gregory to be – in his opinion any man ought to have decided on what he wanted to be, not be trying to start in yet another new profession. Also, a man of thirty ought to have got over the youthful habit of regarding other people as being fools and of telling them that the work they did was so easy that anyone else could immediately do it (and do it well) without previous training.’
Gregory Spring-Benson reminded me a little of Edward Powell (from The Murder of My Aunt) in terms of his ego and the way he sort of thinks the world owes him something. Gregory is supremely confident in his own abilities:
“I’m not suggesting […] that I should write leaders for you or control the policy of the paper […] but only that I should be a reporter. Of course it’s not the sort of job I ought to take, but one must start at the bottom before working up […] I did not propose that I should do just simple hack journalism. You must have plenty of people who can do that sort of thing, and who are quite prepared to work long, regular hours every day for a most inadequate salary. I am content neither with the long hours nor the inadequate salary. I thought of giving you the opportunity to use me on more interesting work where initiative and resource and intelligence are wanted. Where, as you so well put it, only someone with my unlimited effrontery would be able to get you the story at all.”
Unsurprisingly, Gregory does not get the job, yet he decides that he might if he could find a story. The need for employment is acute as his bills are mounting up (a situation caused by expensive tastes and his inability to hold a job). He certainly has an interesting approach to budgeting:
‘He bought a copy [of The New Light] and took a taxi to the Savoy. After all, one must lunch somewhere, and one must get back from the East End slums behind Fleet Street, and the amount spent would really make very little difference to his creditors. It was only a drop in the ocean. As for the penny for the paper, it was positively a business expense. He almost felt as if he had begun to buy the foundations of a fortune. A chateau-bottled wine was necessary to make up for the effort expended.’
You probably don’t sympathise with Gregory Spring-Benson, but I don’t feel he is utterly and completely repellent. Moreover, you are interested to see what mess he lands himself in.
We soon move on to James Warrenton (Gregory’s uncle) and his household. The social class of the characters and their lifestyles is kind of Bertie Wooster-like, but without the humour. Nevertheless, the early chapters are engagingly told. One certainly feels sympathetic towards James’ niece Emily, who is a true book lover, when her uncle buys books for his library in a job lot, with the emphasis being on their uniform colour and their meeting a required overall weight. The books are not put in order nor kept in their series and a lot of books are placed on the shelves upside down. Unsurprisingly a lot of the books have very dull contents. Emily’s plea to pick some books she would be interested in goes unheeded and her uncle is convinced that reading 100 pages a day is too much. The very notion!
It takes a little while for any mystery to emerge, except for who put the article in The New Light, regarding the ghost legend attached to Amberhurst Place. Gregory Spring-Benson’s brazen attitude gets him into his uncle’s household, yet his uncle is far from trusting him and issues this challenge to him:
“I want to watch tricks he uses to try and get money out of me. I’ll tell you what, Gregory, I’ll make a sporting bet with you. You can have as long as you like to play your tricks provided you do through spiritualism. At least you can have up to six months.”
The mystery over who wrote the article is dispelled by the end of chapter six where we learn that it was written, by one of James’s relations, in order to cause a wedge between James and his other relatives. This introduces the idea of legatees jostling for favour in their uncle’s will, giving the atmosphere of the novel a slightly Victorian feel. The relative who wrote the article, does not stop there though and soon plans to oust Gregory from the household, via James Warrenton’s interest in spiritualism and the ghostly legend of his house. These plans lead to a great development in the middle of the book, which finally injects a criminal element into the story. The various reactions to this development are interesting and Hull is good at using the trope in which a too self-assured character gets their comeuppance.
One thing that did surprise me when reading this mystery is that Gregory does not maintain his role as the central character, and he is not on the page as much as I was anticipating. The second half of the novel also introduces new characters such as Mr Fenby whose occupation appears to be defending the reputation of ghosts. He deplores the idea that ghosts are violent, saying it “would be most improbable, and so unlike most spirits, who are, after all, such gentle and loveable creatures.” These sentiments place a bit of a strain upon James ‘who found it hard to envisage himself developing an affection for a ghost.’
The latter half of the story has continued twists and turns in the plot, and the narrative is sufficiently open that you don’t know for sure what will happen next. However, I must admit there is not a lot of on-page direct sleuthing (which put me in mind of the Jack Iams novel that I read last month). I feel Hull sort of makes this work, although maybe not as well as Iams does. The first half of the tale was better than the second half for me. I don’t feel this is a mystery for puzzle fan devotees, although those interested in fashion will appreciate that one of the clues is related to a historical piece of clothing. The final fifty pages sees an intense amount of detective activity and personally I feel like this should have been spread better through the narrative. The police inspector pulls the murder method out of a hat, and I am not a fan of the detective figure receiving sudden illumination from a phone call, whose conversation we are not privy to. I remain undecided as to how satisfying I find the choice of killer. I can understand it, but I can’t ignore the frustration it also gives me.
Rating:
