Margot Neville was the penname of the Australian sister writing duo, Margot Goyder and Anne Neville Goyder Joske. They wrote 22 crime novels, most of which feature Inspector Grogan and Sergeant Manning, including today’s read. Curiously when this novel was serialised in the Australian Women’s Weekly, it went under the slightly different title Murder Was Her Welcome. [Later in this blog post I have included some photos of these serialised pages, as there is some great artwork. These can be seen in better detail on the TROVE website.] These two writers had several novels published this way, including one of their mysteries, which was serialised alongside a competition to win some tickets to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. If you want to find out more here is a link to a post that I wrote about it, back in 2019. To date I have now read 6 books by this writing duo:
- Murder in Rockwater (1943)
- Come, Thick Night (1951)
- Murder and Poor Jenny (1954)
- The Hateful Voyage (1956)
- Murder of Olympia (1956)
Synopsis
‘After a two-month trip to Europe Julia Wetherby returned to Sydney to take up once more the role of a rich man’s wife. It was a role she was not to play much longer, for within twelve hours of the plane’s touching down at Sydney airport, Edmund Wetherby was murdered. However unpleasant the thought, Julia realised that the murderer was to be found among their own circle of friends – the people who had welcome her home so gaily on that very day. Inspector Grogan and his lugubrious henchman, Sergeant Manning, took charge of the case and one by one the clues emerged. For whom was the opal, found in the dead man’s pocket, destined? What became of the Persian rug which disappeared from Julia’s bedroom? Why had Edmund prevented her from going straight home from the airport? Who was the red-headed man and what part did he play in the tragedy? Not an easy problem to solve, but slowly Inspector Grogan put the pieces of the jigsaw together and strange indeed was the picture that took shape.’
Overall Thoughts
The opening scene begins with Julia Wetherby on the plane home, busy trying to disentangle herself from a holiday acquaintance, Lindsay Barrett. Whilst some sparks have flown between them, Julia does not want to start an affair. I thought this angle of the story might have been included so that later on she would appear incriminated by her friendship with Lindsay, however, I don’t feel the writing pair mined this aspect of the plot overly well or effectively. In some ways Lindsay is a perfunctory love interest element.
Nevertheless, Julia’s impending arrival, a week early, allows the other connected characters to be introduced. The reader is given a snapshot of their current situations and the narrative hints at their predicaments, as well as how they might regard Julia and Edmund. Furthermore, the first few chapters are good at depicting the dynamic of Julia’s marriage to Edmund, a man who because of his wealth always gets his way. Moreover, there is a suggestion that he might not have been so faithful to Julia while she was on vacation. This is one aspect of the investigation after Edmund dies at the close of chapter 4.
The runup to the murder has several interesting features. Julia arrives at his workplace in the evening, as instructed, only to find his secretary of twelve years standing, Olive Lockwood, running from the office in search of brandy for her boss. Julia joins this task, but when the pair return (separately) Edmund is dead. Olive fears it is her fault as during a quarrel he collapsed when she hit him on the head with the phone receiver. However, the police soon uncover that he was poisoned. Was the killer one of the two women or did a third party take advantage of the situation? Given her proximity to the scene of the crime and her tendency to not tell everything to the police as it exactly was, nor in a timely fashion, I thought Julia would become a prime suspect, subject to much police scrutiny. But bizarrely this did not occur. Nevertheless, Julia is the character we stick with, so in some ways this means this was a far less suspenseful or tense read than I was anticipating.
The characterisation work opens a window into exploring the aftermath of a murder on the survivors (suspects/witnesses) and the emphasis is perhaps placed on how the murder changes some of these people. Furthermore, because Julia has been absent for two months and her social connections were somewhat superficial anyways, it is hard for her to fully trust those around her, as she realises how little she knows them. I think this is why we spend some much time with Julia, but again there is a part of me which feels like this structural approach was not used to its full potential. I think there was something of a plot development lag during the middle of the novel. There is endless visiting of friends and in-laws, but I never feel like we get close to any of them, which is problematic when they are all pretty much suspects. Julia’s experiences after the murder just aren’t that interesting. Even when peril finally meets her, it is a rather limp affair.
The police operate largely in the background, keeping their cards close to their chests. The solution is unfurled in a lump, and it requires one character to undergo something of a personality transplant and quite a bit of police theorising.
So, if you do happen to find some Margot Neville novels I would not recommend starting here. My three favourites currently are: Murder and Poor Jenny, The Hateful Voyage and Murder of Olympia.
Rating: 3.5/5