Rees was an academic and archaeologist, a background which permeates his mystery writing. During WW2 he worked in the RAF’s air photo unit, where his skills in interpreting aerial photographs of archaeologist sites were very useful. Glyn Daniel was his penname, but sometimes, as in the case of this penguin edition, his real name appears. Rees did not write much crime fiction, but back in 2016 I reviewed his only other mystery novel, Welcome Death (1954). However, in December I did read a short story of his tucked inside the British Library Crime Classics anthology, Who Killed Father Christmas? And Other Seasonal Mysteries (2023). The story in question was called ‘Death at Christmas’ (1959). Like The Cambridge Murders, it too is set in a university setting.
This book is the third title in my 2025 Green Penguin reading challenge.
Synopsis
‘Fisher College at Cambridge lies between St John’s and Trinity Colleges, a fact which may escape those who visit Cambridge trusting only to the official guide-books and seeing no more than a gap of twenty feet between those two great houses of learning. Here one morning the bedmakers and gyps clamouring for admission on the last day of term were admitted to find, lying across their path, the body of one of the College porters. The murder of the porter begins a mystery which is deepened when it is found that the unpopular Dean of the college is missing. The search for the murderer is conducted partly by the police and partly by the Vice-President of Fisher College, Sir Richard Cherrington, an eminent but slightly eccentric archaeologist with a penchant for amateur detection.’
Overall Thoughts
Reading this book when I did was an unplanned moment of timeliness as this story begins in March, albeit in 1939. The opening introduces us to the key characters at the university, students, academics, porters etc. and we learn that all is not well with the college dean. He reveals to the Vice President, Sir Richard Cherrington (our amateur sleuth), that his wife wants a divorce so she can marry another member of staff at the college, Evan Fothergill. The dean has no intentions of divorcing his wife. This initial drama sets up narrative expectations and anticipations – Will this love triangle draw blood? And if so, whose will it be? It is therefore all the more perplexing when the next morning a college porter is discovered shot. The writing pace is not brisk, but neither did it feel too slow. I think this is because the plot is kept moving and there is plenty to keep the reader occupied (something alas which is not maintained throughout the book).
Sir Richard, to begin with, is an active and on-the-page sleuth, and he gets on well with Inspector Wyndham. This allows early on for information to be exchanged, a process the reader is witness to. Sir Richard has the interesting theory that the killer was either on his way to commit a crime or that he had just done one, which opens up some intriguing narrative possibilities. Sir Richard suggests that his background in archaeology helped him formulate the theory since it’s “what I do all my life. I find some pottery or some metalwork in some strange place and I have to explain how they come to be there.”
Nevertheless, despite initial cordial relations, the police do not fully trust Richard Cherrington, which is probably not aided by him getting caught out in telling a lie. This moment is probably the start of the breakaway point between the amateur and professional sleuths. They are less working in harness with one another and Sir Richard operates much more independently. He does still bring new information to the attention of the police, although I would say some of it is fool’s gold rather than the genuine article. Richard is not an infallible sleuth.
The occasion when the second body is found is beautifully accomplished. I love how the butler (who has made the unpleasant discovery) wants to relay the news to the appropriate person, but he does not wish to blurt it out in the middle of the sherry party, so he instead he says: “There’s a gentleman to see Mr Giles, please. Could he come now?”
This is a mystery which is not short of sleuths, as aside from the two already mentioned, Scotland Yard also get in on the act, led by Superintendent Robertson-Macdonald. However, I feel having this many detectives was not an advantage, as it really slowed down the pace, as each new person involved has to go over the ground previously examined. In some ways this novel is too long, and its detection is too thorough, meaning some entertainment is lost. The detection does not necessarily lead to new and interesting developments, and instead it can fall back onto extended theorising. One thing that did surprise though is how Sir Richard recedes into the background for the middle of the story, only to really return properly in the final sequence. This finale again felt too slow and dragged things out.
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It is a shame that Sir Richard Cherrington is not as present in the book as I thought he was going to be, as I felt he was the most engaging sleuth, and I found his sporadic fallibility had interesting effects on the plot. It is a pity that he didn’t get the chance to go on to become a series sleuth, as I feel he had some mileage.
Rating: 3.75/5
See also: Aubrey and Bev have also reviewed this title on their respective blogs.