June Wright was an Australian crime writer who published six novels between 1948 and 1966 and another of her mysteries was published posthumously in 2015. I have reviewed all seven of these titles now, with each book receiving no lower than a 4/5, so you could say I am something of a fan. Now that I have read all Wright’s oeuvre, this would be my rankings:
7. Reservation for Murder (1958) [First Mother Paul Mystery]
6. Make-Up for Murder (1966) [Third Mother Paul Mystery]
5. Murder in the Telephone Exchange (1948) [First Maggie Bryne Mystery]
4. Faculty of Murder (1960) [Second Mother Paul Mystery]
3. Duck Season Death (2015, but written in the 1950s) [Standalone]
2. The Devil’s Caress (1952) [Standalone]
1. So Bad a Death (1949) [Second Maggie Bryne Mystery]
I would be interested to see how other readers’ rankings compare with my own. June Wright is an author I had the pleasure of speaking about at the 2019 Bodies from the Library conference. You can see an extended version of this talk here.
Synopsis
‘As a schoolgirl Maisie Ryan was often bullied by her peers, but a decade later she’s a TV star, the glamorously renamed Rianne May. When she’s invited to be guest of honour at Maryhill College’s annual reunion, she has a chance to dazzle her old tormentors the way she does her adoring television audience. But as she’s holding court at the reunion tea party, old grudges and new jealousies swirl around her – and suddenly one of her tablemates drops dead, poisoned. Was Rianne the intended victim? She evidently thinks so – only that day she’d received a death threat. Rianne flees the scene and cannot be found. Who is the murderer? And what has happened to Rianne May? Fortunately, the school’s principal is Mother Paul, who immediately calls for Detective Inspector Savage. She assisted him (or was it the other way around?) in solving a previous case (Faculty of Murder), and between them the unlikely pair will unravel this one too. But there will be more drama – and more deaths – before the murderer is uncovered. Moving between the brash new realm of Australian television in the early 1960s and the cloistered atmosphere of a girls’ convent school, Make-Up for Murder is the third and final Mother Paul novel and a must-read for all fans of June Wright’s blend of intrigue, wit, and psychological suspense.’
Overall Thoughts
I think it is in her Mother Paul series that June Wright is best able to depict the changing times in Australian society from a cultural and social point of view. This is explored, among other things, in Derham Groves’ introduction to the Verse Chorus Press reprint of this novel. One aspect of social history that Derham delves into is television, which he writes ‘was introduced in Australia in 1956 and remained a national obsession for a decade.’ It was interesting to learn that three other Australian crime fiction novels were published around the same time as Wright’s book, with a TV theme: The Cold Dark Hours (1958) by Alan G. Yates, William H. Williams’ Marc Brody series where his newspaper reporter revolves into a ‘TV’s on-the-spot crime reporter’ and Sidney H. Courtier’s And Who Dies for Me? (1962). Televisions at this time were unsurprisingly an expensive commodity, as is the way with most new technology, and Derham Groves mentions how ‘June Wright was familiar with TV-watching etiquette’ and ‘included some of these little rituals in Make-Up for Murder’. For example, ‘many people worried that watching television would ruin their eyesight, so they watched in semi-darkness as if at the cinema, believing this would help.’ This is incorporated into Wright’s mystery as during one scene, the semi-dark state for TV watching, allows an intruder to enter a property without anyone noticing as the TV viewers are so engrossed in an appeal for information about the ongoing case.
I really enjoyed reading Groves’ introduction as he is very good at sharing relevant parts of June Wright’s own life, such as her experience of being on TV. Groves reveals that:
‘When she was promoting her latest book, Reservation for Murder, in February 1959, she appeared on the popular TV show Tell the Truth, hosted by quizmaster Danny Webb […] The show’s format entailed three celebrity panellists interviewing three ordinary people to discover which one of them was actually the person they call claimed to be.’
June Wright was to be the genuine individual, with the other two contestants pretending to be her. Wright managed to fool the celebrities and the concept for this TV show put me in mind of another British TV show, which appeared in the crime short story, ‘The “What’s My Line?” Murder’ (1956) by Julian Symons. It also transpires that Wright favoured the TV programme 77 Sunset Strip, whilst her husband found In Melbourne Tonight, a ‘“particular solace” after his nervous breakdown’. This latter show was the inspiration for the Rianne May Show in Wright’s book, as was the singer Elaine McKenna who appeared on In Melbourne Tonight.
The central character we follow around is Sue Berry. She is Rianne May’s secretary and they both went to the same school. Sue, at the start of the book, receives a school reunion invite (with the catch of trying to get Rianne to come too). June Wright was not the first to centre her mystery around a reunion, as prior to her novel, there was The Man Who Was Not There (1943) by Ethel Lina White, A Bullet for Rhino (1950), ‘There’s Death for Remembrance’ (1955) by Frances and Richard Lockridge and Murder Noon and Night (1959) by Kelley Roos, to name but a few. Reunion-set mysteries seem to be quite popular in modern crime fiction as well, such as Helle & Death (2024) by Oskar Jensen and The 12 Days of Murder (2023) by Andreina Cordani.
Having read all of Wright’s other mysteries, it was interesting to reflect on how Berry’s background differs to Wright other heroines. Sue is much more socially isolated. Her mother is dead, her father has re-married, and her brother has moved away. There is no place for her and her attempts to make a life for herself in the UK end poorly, so it is understandable why she clings to Rianne in a way, despite how difficult Rianne is, who is emotionally up and down all the time. Rianne has also been away from Australia for quite some time, so the pair of them are somewhat cut off and are limited to the social circle of the TV studio. Rianne is an orphan, who was looked after by an aloof grandmother. She was bullied at school and her success and wealth came after she left. She too has no “home” and there is a strong sense of reinventing herself. I would say of all the heroines in Wright’s universe these two seem the most insecure and vulnerable. Yet despite Rianne’s success, there is still something a bit dingy about her circumstances. For example, the furnished flat she lives in with Sue, ‘was the property of the television company, [and it] had housed other stars under contract and their imprints were everywhere – cigarette burns in the bathroom, darkened cushions and ring marks on the furniture.’ Again, there is no sense of either of the women having a true home.
The first chapter quickly establishes Rianne and Sue’s relationship, in particular how they got working together and their dynamic. It also reveals the threatening message within the pile of fan mail. Similarly, chapter two is prompt in its action, taking the plot to the day of the reunion. Rianne is deliberately late, so she can make her big entrance, and it does not take long for the poisoning to occur. Yet, the victim is not Rianne, but another reunion invitee, Moya Curran. But it is interesting to see how Rianne’s celebrity status means the victim is in danger of being overlooked, especially once Rianne disappears. Wright was a fan of Agatha Christie’s mysteries and Derham Groves’ introduction echoed my own idea that this plot has some parallels with The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962). However, I should stress that Wright offers a different solution.
Inspector Savage is the policeman on the case, although his name is not very apt. He is firm, but also friendly and efficient. Mother Paul is the amateur sleuth of the series and this book, although her page time is small. We spend more time with Sue, but she isn’t really a sleuth, although she does provide some information to the other two. Moreover, she lacks the dynamic personalities of some of Wright’s other female protagonists. For instance, when she hears from Mother Paul the day after the poisoning and Rianne’s disappearance ‘Sue burst[s] into tears, as a child weeps in the safe arms of its mother after a nightmare.’ Mother Paul is kind, but not gushing in sympathy, which I think works well for the story as a whole. In addition, in contrast to this moment, fear makes Sue snappy and unfriendly towards others, which on occasion can make her come across as patronising, such as when she is talking to Rianne’s chauffeur:
“Well, I hope you answered him truthfully […] He’s not a man to try to deceive and I wouldn’t like you to get into any trouble. I think he trusts me, so if there is anything you haven’t told him that he is likely to find out, you’d better tell me right away […]”
It is a pity Sue does not take her own advice later in the book! Sue rarely tries to actively seek out information, and she is a little too obsessed with other things such as looking nice for a date, so much so that she is oblivious to the suspicious behaviour of one character, despite the warning of others. When her hopes are dashed at one stage, her response makes her come across as immature, which I found less appealing. She is no one’s Maggie Bryne.
Female experience is a key aspect of nearly all of Wright’s books to a lesser or greater degree and this is something that I spoke about in my talk. Derham Groves opines that:
‘June chose female-specific settings, I believe, because they allowed her to depict the worst kinds of catty behaviour among women, something she enjoyed doing and was very good at.’
A review of Make-Up for Murder from 1966 touches upon this theme: ‘The envy and jealousy among the women characters, their pride, and scheming, give the authoress occasion to develop a study of these defects, as she weaves a story that holds interest to the last page.’ Nevertheless, I don’t think I fully agree, as I would argue that Wright was using these settings for more than depicting women gossiping. I find this idea quite limiting and reductive, as there is more to the female communities in Wright books. Her female protagonists must negotiate the competing priorities of having a home and raising a family or pursuing a career. I use the word ‘or’ deliberately, as for Wright’s heroines it very often is one or the other, not both and those who try to hold on to both are not necessarily successful. As Wright aged her optimism regarding these decisions seems to have declined, which is mirrored in the way her heroines become less pro-active and almost less in control of their own destinies.
Sue is more of an observer of Inspector Savage’s activities, than a sleuth in her own right, and she is also a conduit for relaying information between him and characters such as Mother Paul. It is quite irritating how Mother Paul asks Sue twice to get Inspector Savage to call/visit her and Savage just makes excuses, saying he will contact her in a day or two, thinking her request unimportant. Yet I wasn’t just exasperated with the inspector, as Mother Paul really should have made the effort to go to Inspector Savage herself, rather than wait for him to come to her. This felt like a narrative delaying tactic. There are reasons why Mother Paul is less present in the story, but this limits her visible detective work, and I felt this made it a weaker story in some respects.
The choice of second victim was surprising, as was the foolish behaviour of Sue, who when she finally figures out something important about the case, deliberately keeps the information to herself, and like a child gleefully informs Mother Paul she is doing so. She certainly tries the patience of Mother Paul and the reader. Nevertheless, despite this, Wright is mostly fair with her clues, (and her red herrings) although the reader needs to ask the right question to ensure they get off on the right foot, detection-wise. The one part of the case which needed more reinforcement was how the poison was supposed to have been administered. The explanation is rather vague and relies on chance. Finally, it was interesting to learn in Derham’s introduction, that Wright had planned a fourth Mother Paul book, and even a synopsis was prepared, but alas it never happened, due to changing circumstances within her home life.
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review Copy (Verse Chorus Press)
P. S. It is also interesting to note that the length of June Wright’s mysteries decreased over time. Her first mystery was around 368 pages long, whilst her final Mother Paul mystery was 168. Was this a reflection of changing attitudes within publishing? Or was it a consequence of the increasing demands she had to deal with in her personal life? Perhaps it was a combination of the two?