Todd Downing, like Douglas and Dorothy Stapleton, is an author that I have enjoyed in the past, but whose work I have not returned to for a while. To date I have read several books from Downing’s Hugh Rennert series: Murder on Tour (1933), The Cat Screams (1934), Vultures in the Sky (1935) (a particular favourite) and Murder on the Tropic (1936). In addition, I have read Clues and Corpses: The Detective Fiction and Mystery Criticism of Todd Downing (2013) by Curtis Evans. Death Under the Moonflower does not feature Hugh Rennert, although he is referenced. Instead, this mystery is the first instalment in Downing’s Sheriff Peter Bounty series. Buoyed up by the success of Late for the Funeral (1953) by the Stapleton duo, I decided to give today’s read a try, hoping it too would be a great read. Unfortunately, for me, this was not the case, which was a shame as I was intrigued by the blood donor premise. It seems I am not the only who struggled with this novel as The Saturday Review of Literature wrote that: ‘Plethora of plot and extraneous incident retards action of yarn with basically interesting idea.’ Their final verdict was that the book ‘gets by’.
Synopsis
‘A blood donor is killed, and Sheriff Peter Bounty must figure out why in order to find the murderer. Does someone have a grudge against the sick man’s family? Is it another potential donor? What about the strange doctor who has been shunned by the town?’
Overall Thoughts
Let’s begin with the ‘plethora of plot’ as The Saturday Review of Literature puts it. Now looking at the synopsis above, you might be scratching your head, wondering why anyone would find this plot complicated. It seems reasonably uncomplicated, but this is far from true, particularly regarding the first half of the book. The narrative is very dense in terms of incidences and characters, and this is made more confusing by the order in which information is revealed. It is not very linear, which means you have to concentrate a lot when reading, which in turn made it slow.
When I had reached the 40-page mark in this mystery, my husband happened to ask me how it was going and I duly started summarising what had gone on so far. You would think the first forty pages would not be hard to explain, but it was certainly challenging, and by the end my husband had to admit he had got lost. Now we can blame it on my explanation skills, or the fact it was 11pm, but here is a list of what occurs in those forty pages:
- Mallory Winters has followed her brother to Southern Texas, as his wife (Mallory’s friend) fears he is planning to do a bunk.
- However, when Mallory arrives she immediately thinks he has other shadier business in mind.
- Whilst worrying about that she receives a phone call from Sheriff Bounty, as he needs her assistance. Baffled why a sheriff would be contacting her, a stranger to the area, she assumes it is prank.
- It’s not a prank. The sheriff needs her to identify a man named Joseph Hieronymus. Was he at the airport when she landed the previous evening?
- Hieronymus might have burnt his shop down for insurance money. He is also the blood donor who is needed to save the life of a rich man’s son at a local hospital.
- However, despite initially agreeing, Hieronymus now claims he knows nothing about the nation-wide appeal for donors and he is reluctant to donate.
- Was he the anonymous caller who rang the sick man’s family the previous evening, who insists that he is being threatened not to donate and will need protection money? If so, why did he not show up for the money? But then equally why does Hieronymus have $500 on his person?
- Hieronymus then ends up in the custody of the sheriff.
- Meanwhile, we learn that Fred, Mallory’s brother, could donate but is holding back. Why? Also why does Fred want Mallory to lie about seeing Hieronymus at the airport?
- Mallory decides to ignore her brother’s request, tells the truth about Hieronymus and then finds this experience so horrifying, the mere presence of the sheriff across the room being all too much, she has to go to her room to recover. The first forty pages closes with Hieronymus collapsing on the hotel lobby floor.
I have streamlined and reordered the information to make it more linear and coherent, throwing in my own questions, to signify the possible relevance of events. It is not so simple to follow in the narrative, and importantly I have not named the majority of the characters, several of whom have subplots. The first forty pages offers a deluge of those for the reader to try and remember, including four different doctors, a doctor’s valet, a doctor’s daughter and the rich man’s right hand man. The sheer number of characters and the swift changing conversations makes the scenes long, dense and chaotic. This marred the reading experience for me.
To begin with the deputy sheriff, Bert Larrick, is the one liaising with the Winter siblings (he immediately falls for Mallory) and the other future suspects/witnesses at the hotel. And I have to admit that Bert is one of the biggest reasons why this book irritated me and why I nearly wanted to jump into the novel, just so I could slap him from here to next week. He is the nightmare many readers fear – the great plot inconvenience. Let me count the ways this fiend drove me up the wall:
- From early on, through our own observations and from Sheriff Bounty’s, we know Bert is a poor judge of people. He is naïve and thinks if you look respectable you must be respectable. Consequently, when Fred asks him for a gun, he is more than happy to get one from the sheriff’s office. The sheriff manages to intervene, but this is a rare moment where Bert listens to his superior, as very often he ignores his advice. Bert’s poor judgement shapes a lot of the early plot.
- Bert Larrick impedes the investigation as on multiple occasions he is adamant the sheriff should not meet Mallory Winters. Why you ask? Bert has no reason other than fancying Mallory, but even that is a poor excuse. What is all the more baffling is that the sheriff accedes to his demand. Why, I ask? Why?
- When it comes to the suspects that Bert does let the sheriff talk to, they are all remarkably well informed on the situation and what the sheriff has been doing. That is because Bert has been telling anyone and everyone each new development.
- You might wonder why the sheriff tolerates this, especially when Bert is ungrateful for his job and says how terrible it is to the sheriff’s face. It should be noted that before this job Bert was in with a bad crowd, his father’s death having pulled him from med school, and he didn’t have a job.
- When a witness tells Bert something which challenges another suspect’s alibi, Bert is so sure this person is innocent that he compels the witness to not share this information with the sheriff. I should point out that this oh so innocent person had previously thrown Bert under the bus, metaphorically speaking, and accused him of complicity in the ongoing crimes, to the sheriff. The sheriff does nothing about this.
- Could Bert get any worse, I wondered? Now in fairness, the second half is an improvement, as the sheriff gets more page time and Bert is elsewhere, but this was merely the calm before the storm. The level of annoying behaviour Bert reaches is so high that he reminded me of Josephine Tey’s Miss Pym (yes, it’s that serious!). THE FOLLOWING INFO IS IN ROT13 CODE TO PREVENT SPOILERS. Oreg vf gnfxrq jvgu univat fbzr oybbq fnzcyrf grfgrq, gb vqragvsl gurve glcrf. Ur snyfvsvrf guvf rivqrapr nf ur jnagf gb cebgrpg gur xvyyre jub unf cebzvfrq gb cnl uvz guebhtu zrq fpubby. Oreg vf unccl gb gel naq sbvfg gur oynzr bagb bar bs gur xvyyre’f qrnq ivpgvzf. Fheryl guvf vf gur hygvzngr orgenlny? Fb jul qbrf gur furevss abg fraq uvz gb wnvy? Guvf vf fb veerfcbafvoyr naq gb pnc vg bss Oreg trgf n unccl raqvat. Nabgure evpu zna cnlf uvf srrf sbe zrq fpubby naq gur furevss vf tbvat gb pbire gur pbfg bs uvf ratntrzrag evat gb Znyybel. Gur raqvat tnir zr gung frafr bs veevgngvba be erchtanapr gung lbh trg sebz gur pbapyhfvba bs Gur Terng Tngfol.
As mentioned above the second half of the novel sees the sheriff conducting his investigation, but it is hard to fathom its direction (and not in a good way). The sheriff darts at random, talking to people and not getting much from them. Not that this keeps the scenes short and sweet. The author almost keeps the sheriff treading water in a scene until a new character can come along. Moreover, there is excessive narrative description, and it takes too long for information be revealed, it is like pulling teeth, and even then, the information is not very useful or is semi-repetitive.
This was a plot with a lot of potential, as the underlying mystery and its solution is interesting, but it struggles to take shape and it is too long and too hard to solve and prove. The suspects are just that bit too much unhelpful and the detecting side is that bit too much soft-hearted or irresponsible.
So, all in all I would not recommend that new readers to Todd Downing start here. I would suggest trying one of his Hugh Rennert mysteries. Vultures in the Sky and Murder on Tour are the two titles I would propose trying first. To readers who have read more of the Sheriff Bounty series, do they get any better?
Rating: 3.25/5