Et al.? Yes, whilst the 32nd American president may have come up with some of the original idea for this story, it was in fact written by several crime fiction writers, namely: Rupert Hughes, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Anthony Abbot, Rita Weiman, S. S. Van Dine and John Erskine. These six were the original authors involved in the project, but in the 1960s when this book was reprinted, Erle Stanley Gardner added a final chapter wrapping things up a bit more thoroughly. I would argue that the history behind the creation of this mystery, is more interesting than the plot itself, so another good reason for starting there first.
My copy of the book comes with an introduction by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. who shares how this tale came to be written. It all began on the 12th May 1935, at a dinner President Franklin D. Roosevelt was holding. One of the guests was Fulton Oursler, who was the editor of Liberty Magazine, and he also wrote mysteries under the penname of Anthony Abbot. During the dinner the lack of good detective stories was discussed, and naturally Oursler suggested to the president that he try a go at writing one. To which Roosevelt replied: “To tell you the truth, I have often thought about it. In fact, I have carried the plot for a mystery in my mind for years.” He further added, when asked why he had not written it: “I can’t find the solution to my own plot! And I’ve never found anyone else who could it solve it, either.”
Roosevelt’s idea was concerned with a rich man, fed up with his life, his wife and how he is spending his money, and he wants to start again under a new identity, with a view to acting philanthropically on a large scale. The rich man is said to want to ‘try out a certain experiment in public health and recreation in some small city’ where he would ‘not be recognised.’ In such a life he would be free of all previous ties, except he wants to be able to ‘disappear with five million dollars in any negotiable form and [to] not be traced’. It is this last bit which was presumably the sticking point.
Oursler suggested farming out the difficulty to a group of leading American authors, who could write up this story, taking a chapter a piece, round robin style. The tale began being serialised on the 16th November 1935 in Liberty Magazine and went on to be published as a novel and adapted for film in 1936. As mentioned above in 1967 the story was reprinted with the extra final chapter and it also came accompanied with illustrations by Arnold Roth, some of which I have included in this review.
Jim Blake is the name of the rich man yearning for a new life. I don’t feel his philanthropic desires are overly strong in the final piece, in some ways getting away from his unfaithful wife seems to be a more powerful motivator, particularly since early on we learn that she has designs to bump him off, with the aid of her tennis playing lover. I had thought perhaps this would be the start of a tense spine chilling ride, as husband and wife play cat and mouse with one another, reminiscent of Edna Sherry’s Sudden Fear (1948). But in this I was to be disappointed.
Rupert Hughes leads out in the round robin, and I must say it was not the most encouraging of starts. Jim Blake’s married life is depicted in the most two-dimensional and cardboard thin manner, with painful phonetic spelling for all of Jim’s wife, Ilka’s, dialogue. She is presented as a scheming, unfaithful and gold-digging spouse, and the remaining narrative doesn’t add any nuance to this picture.
One of the key weaknesses of this book is its bald and sparse prose which just doesn’t include those little details, which make you laugh, or make you engage with a character or fill you with terror, as danger gets ever closer. Given how much page time we spend with Jim, it is rather unfortunate that he is so bland, and even learning his wife wants to kill him, does not crank up the tension levels. Perhaps her lack of attempts made this aspect of the narrative less convincing.
The majority of the novel is focused on detailing each step of Jim’s journey as he plans his new identity (which involves voice coaching and plastic surgery). We see how his change in behaviour affects those around him, but this is not overly interesting. Due to his enormous amount of wealth, he never has any long lasting or stubborn problems, as he just throws his money at them.
The only time we get a glimmer of peril is during the 4th chapter written by Rita Weiman and the 6th chapter written by John Erskine. The former section details Jim faking his own death, and some events beyond his control here, do come back to haunt at the end of the story. With this kind of tale, we are expecting the protagonist who has everything worked out, to be tripped up by their own planning. It is often how inverted mysteries operate, for example. And there are some signs this might occur for Jim Blake, but none of the authors truly capitalise on it and instead everything becomes predictable, and the closing scene is painfully fairy-tale trite. Where is the tension? The peril? The jeopardy? It has been a while since I have read anything so flat.
Erle Stanley Gardner’s additional concluding chapter does round things out a little better. Without going into specifics, I liked how this chapter links back to the earlier chapters and the chain of events which have gone unnoticed by the authorities. However, I also feel like Gardner’s chapter rather undermines the purpose of chapter 6, as the character action in this section becomes rather unnecessary.
To write a round robin is not the easiest of projects. There are a number of challenges to be overcome to ensure that the final story is coherent, cohesive and does not contradict itself. I think this tale does achieve those goals, in a short quick read, and it feels like a seamless narrative. However, I think a lot of the sparkle is lost in the process.
Rating: 2.75/5