The Odd Flamingo - Nina Bawden

A real change of mood for my second reprint of the year nomination - Nina Bawden's The Odd Flamingo lands us in the sultry heat of August and gives us a much seedier overview of the 1950s. Only two years separate this one from Death In Ambush, but there's little room for nostalgia or the cosy certainties of village life. 

The heat of one particular day has been broken by a thunderstorm, solicitor Will Hunt is regarding his roses when the phone disturbs his tranquility. On the other end is Celia, wife of his best friend - and something is very wrong. Humphrey Stone is the charismatic headmaster of the local boys school, and here in their home, which comes with the job, is a girl claiming that he's got her pregnant and tried to push her into an illegal abortion. The stakes are high, if she's telling the truth the Stones lose reputation, his job, their home,and their place in local society. Humphrey is away, Celia wants Will to interview the girl and judge if she's telling the truth. 

Will thinks she is, and from there his carefully ordered life is pushed into nightmare territory. He tracks Humphrey down to a sordid little Soho club - The Odd Flamingo - they used to go to in their youth when it felt edgy. Will has long outgrown it; Humphrey seems not to have grown up at all. In the wake of Rose's claims, somewhat denied by Humphrey there will be blackmail, murder, brushes with drug pushers, criminal gangs, and more as Will steadily more disillusioned at each turn and watched over by a pitying policeman tries to help his friend and find somene left with some innocence.

The grittiness is an excellent counterpoint to the now more familiar and altogether more sanitised view of the 1950s that we get from Agatha Christie - or indeed Susan Gilruth and others. The British Library Crime Classics series have been brilliant at unearthing lost gems that do this, contemporary readers would have been well enough aware of this side of society, but I think we mostly imagine a safer time when we look back. 

Bawden instead gives us a brilliantly drawn portrait of extremely banal evil and she does it by letting us see Will struggle with each betrayal. It's elegant writing that does not dwell on sordid details but gives us time to think through the implications of each revelation. I could almost feel the humidity and grubbiness drifting up from the hot London streets and strongly identified with Will who really doesn't want to be involved in any of it, but at the same time can't see how to avoid the obligation. 

As a final note, a gay character is described in somewhat homophobic terms. I don't think this particularly reflects Bawden's views, but rather describes a character who is meant to be morally ambiguous on several levels and displays the imperfect side of Will's character. That said, you probably wouldn;t get away with it now

Death In Ambush - Susan Gilruth

My first nomination for Crime Reprint of the year is this year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas special. I loved this. In my opinion, it's one of the best Christmas mysteries I've found. There's a quote from Francis Iles on the back that could feel like faint praise: "Susan Gilruth has a pleasant, light touch." but actually is the perfect descriptor. 

Published in 1952 and set presumably around the same time (the Korean War is mentioned) this is a very satisfying slice of nostalgia. Liane (Lee) Craford is married to a soldier, Bill, who features not at all for the rest of the book. She has been invited to stay with friends for Christmas in a quaint English village and sets off sometime surprisingly early in December (about the 10th, maybe? Tolerant friends, Bill has to stay behind for some sort of training).

Down in Staple Green the local Doctor, who will be hosting Lee, can afford to keep his wife, two children, a cook, and a nanny in some comfort. I wonder what contemporary GP's would make of this? Lee arrives in time for a very awkward drinks party with the local gentry where we meet a full cast of characters from horrible husband and retired judge Sir Henry Metcalfe, to mysterious Russian widow Sonia Phillips. Sir Henry is not long for this world, and we'll soon find more or less everyone feels the world would be better off without him, and quite a few of them have a reasonable motive for doing something about it. 

It is always satisfying when the victim is a thoroughly unpleasant character in a murder mystery. And by a pleasing coincidence, Sir Henry is disposed of on the 13th of December - today. At first it looks like a stroke, but soon, Doctor Howard has some suspicions and Scotland Yard is called in. When Scotland Yard arrives, it's in the form of Detective Inspector Hugh Gordon, and Lee already knows him...

Lee is a light-hearted sort of main character, and Gilruth (a pen name for Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright) makes her amusing. This is presumably the light touch that Francis Iles praised because she's never too jolly, and it never jars which feels like a neat trick to pull off in what was only a second novel. It's this tone that goes a long way to making it such a fun Christmas read - nothing too heavy to darken the festive mood. 

The other thing that feels unusual and is handled well is the ambiguous relationship between Lee and Hugh. They're flirtatious and there are hints that Hugh might have made romantic declarations in the past. Lee's friends seem to accept Hugh as a sort of boyfriend - but at the same time it's all very wholesome. The exact nature of their relationship is as big a mystery as whodunnit.

Beyond that, it's a well put together mystery with the right amount of clues (I did not work it out, but with hindsight the breadcrumbs were laid) lots of atmosphere, a sense of peril for characters you like, some good red herrings, snow, decorations, and all the other trimmings of a good old-fashioned Christmas. Susan Gilruth genuinely feels like a lost gem; she's perfect for Christie fans specifically, classic crime fans generally, and anyone who loves a Christmas crime. The British Library team are indicating they might reprint more which I'm excited about. I really want more Lee and Hugh, but even more than that - I see this book as that rare thing, a regular crime re-read that could easily become part of my own Christmas traditions. Vote for it!

The Christmas Clue - Nicola Upson

December is exhausting, work is crazy right now and any writing time has been exclusively reserved for Christmas cards - all the ones to post go tomorrow. This is a job that I mostly love and slightly hate - it's taken 2 nights (around 60 cards, and I realise how seldom I write by hand these days - how it aches!) but I love getting cards and I won't give up on sending them however much stamps cost.

                                                  

Meanwhile, I'm deep in seasonal reading - ghost stories (the mildly weird sort, not all out terrifying) and classic crime are my escape of choice at this time of the year, and as it was a big book for work I gave 'The Christmas Clue a go. It's not normally something I'd have picked up, with the exception of Martin Edwards books, because he really nails the style, cosy crime set in the past normally disappointsor annoys me. I liked the Christmas Clue though for a few reasons.

The first is that it's short - three and a bit hours of reading maybe - which makes it an excellent Christmas book to escape into between bouts of sociability, or just when you have a few lazy hours to fill. Short books are underrated; I find a good novella a real treat. 

The second thing is that using Anthony and Elva Pratt - the real life couple who invented Cluedo as sleuths, and setting the book up as an homage to the game is a really fun approach. I saw another game Anthony and Elva had invented -Toteopoly a racing game in a charity shop recently. Sadly it was £80 and looked like there might be bits missing. Otherwise I'd have had that - we had an old racing game called Mineroo or Little Rosy when I was a kid that was much loved even if half the lead horses had lost a leg. 

I've never actually played Cluedo, but this book really makes me want to, for the purposes of the book it cleverly plays into layers of nostalgia without feeling manipulative about it. War-time setting, white Christmas, murder mystery, board game - check all the boxes. 

And the third thing I liked - some decent twists and a suddenly much darker than expected turn towards the end so it kept me guessing. There's a lot to like here, and this is the ideal stocking filler if you're looking for some last-minute inspiration.