Having consulted my blog, it turns out that I have read one other mystery by this author, Two Names for Death (1945), which they published under the penname of E. P. Fenwick. She wrote two more mysteries as E. P. Fenwick: The Inconvenient Corpse (1943) and Murder in Haste (1944). As Elizabeth Fenwick she wrote 11 mysteries including the title I am reviewing today. I was intrigued going into reading The Make-Believe Man, as the blurb does not give too much away about the direction the plot will head in. This story has been reprinted by Stark House Press as a twofer along with A Friend of Mary Rose (1961) and comes with an introduction by Curtis Evans, which charts the ups and downs of Fenwick’s life well. In his introduction Curtis includes two interesting comments by reviewers at the time. Firstly, James Alexander Dunn, writing for Chapel Hill News, opined that:
‘Elizabeth Fenwick has successfully combined a believable situation with people who matter – not that they are important people […] On the contrary, there is not an entity in the lot. But they are familiar people whom you would not like to be in the situation Miss Fenwick places them in.’
Robert R. Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times backs this viewpoint with his own suggestion that: ‘The great gift of Miss Fenwick is to take the ordinary situation and translate it into nightmare.’ This put me in mind of another author, Celia Fremlin, as she has a similar approach to plotting and characterisation.
Synopsis
‘Norma Hovic is recently widowed and living with her 11-year-old son in her mother’s house. When her mother leaves to stay with Norma’s sister, who is expecting, Norma is at first pleased to have the house to herself. But then Cliff appears. Cliff had been her mother’s roomer until Norma came to live with her. She had heard all about Cliff. But the Cliff who shows up at her doorstep is another matter altogether. There is something not quite right here. This Cliff makes her nervous. His face is wounded and he keeps babbling about a man he had worked for who had humiliated him. He almost seems to resent Norma’s presence here. And that’s when he tells her that he wants to stay…’
Overall Thoughts
The story starts by establishing the central household and this is achieved well through the act of Norma’s mother packing at four in the morning to go help her other daughter, who is in labour. This opening scene highlights the positives as well the fracture lines within the family unit.
It does not take many pages until we get our first mention of Cliff. The initial description of him makes him sound innocent enough. Even by trying to read between the lines, it is a struggle to see why Norma gets crept out by what her mother said. It feels precipitous and misplaced based on the information given. However, this first impression is purely her mother’s picture of Cliff (a ‘make-believe man’ in the end), so when we see him in person, Norma’s on-edge feelings are quickly justified. You just know there is something not right, particularly the more he talks. There is a game of cat and mouse in their conversation, with Norma having to grasp the situation as she goes along, since her mother’s memory of him leaves her ill-prepared for the reality of Cliff. Norma manages to make him leave that night, but she realises the spare key has gone missing. Interestingly, changing the locks the next day angers Cliff in a very specific way and the reader becomes naturally curious as to what his next move will be and how the sense of danger will be increased.
Norma acts very sensibly and soon gathers a group of allies around her, making her better prepared than your average Had-I-But-Known heroine. Her eleven-year-old son is a fun character, as he is smart and mature for his age. At this stage in the narrative, it would be legally hard to prove Cliff had done anything wrong, yet the book does not go down that route of the protagonist struggling to be believed, as the Chicago police want to question him for a different offence. Consequently, the police also take Norma’s concerns seriously. Unfortunately though, and this did surprise me, I found her practical nature, her allies and the police support combined to mute the tension and the sense of potential peril decreased.
A true note of peril is introduced in the final quarter of the novel, but even then you know it has a time limit. It is like the tension never gets the bit between its teeth, always being cut off before it hits its peak. I don’t think I was fully convinced by the terror, except in a couple of scenes. The calvary is too near at hand the whole way through the story, for the feeling of dread to be sustained.
This made me curious as to the real purpose of the story. Was it, for example, about Cliff finally being seen in his true colours? As the narrative unfolds and Cliff’s plans become more frustrated, layers are peeled away from his personality until the real man underneath cannot be camouflaged or excused away. His game plan is not fully clear from the outset, as it takes a while for it to emerge and for new events to shape it. I found this approach to plotting interesting and engaging. I also wondered if a different purpose of the novel was exploring the effect a catalyst would have on helping Norma start a new life, as it is not only Cliff who develops and changes as a character over the course of the story. All in all, I would say Norma and her son make this an enjoyable read, but I would perhaps suggest having flexible expectations when it comes to the book’s tension levels.
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review Copy (Stark House Press)