The Heel of Achilles: A Golden Age Mystery Read online

  E. & M.A. Radford

  The Heel of Achilles

  It was at that moment that Jack knew he had to kill.

  The trouble began during a holiday in Paignton. When Jack met Mary, his future wife, he also met James Sprogson, a charming villain bent on destroying the couple’s happiness. Mary distrusted Sprogson but Jack regarded him as a good fellow who drank and gambled a little too much, perhaps, but was harmless and likeable. However, Jack’s association with Sprogson was to lead to robbery, blackmail and, at last, murder.

  This is the eighth of the Doctor Manson mysteries, first published in 1950. A classic example of the inverted murder story, it is in the best tradition of the golden age detective novel. It further enhanced the reputation which E. and M.A. Radford established for themselves as writers of ingenious ‘whodunits’.

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  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page/About the Book

  Dedication

  Contents

  Introduction by Nigel Moss

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright

  INTRODUCTION

  Doctor Harry Manson is a neglected figure, unjustly so, amongst Golden Age crime fiction detectives. The creation of husband and wife authors Edwin and Mona Radford, who wrote as E. & M.A. Radford, Manson was their leading series detective featuring in 35 of 38 mystery novels published between 1944 and 1972. He held dual roles as a senior police detective at Scotland Yard and Head of its Crime Forensics Research Laboratory. In 2019 Dean Street Press republished three early novels from the Doctor Manson series—Murder Jigsaw (1944), Murder Isn’t Cricket (1946), and Who Killed Dick Whittington? (1947)—titles selected for their strong plots, clever detection and evocative settings. They are examples of Manson at his best, portraying the appealing combination of powerful intellect and reasoning with creative scientific methods of investigation, while never losing awareness and sensitivity concerning the human predicaments encountered.

  Having introduced the Radfords to a new readership, Dean Street Press have now released a further three titles, each quite different in approach and style, written during the authors’ middle period but retaining the traditions of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. They include two Manson novels: The Heel of Achilles (1950), an inverted murder mystery; and Death of a Frightened Editor (1959), a baffling murder by poisoning on a London-to-Brighton train. The third, Death and the Professor (1961), is a non-series title featuring an array of impossible crime puzzles and locked room murders solved by the formidable mind of logician Professor Marcus Stubbs.

  The Radfords sought to combine in Doctor Manson a leading police detective and scientific investigator in the same mould as R. Austin Freeman’s Dr John Thorndyke, whom Edwin Radford keenly admired. T.J. Binyon, in his study of fictional detectives Murder Will Out (1989), maintains that the Radfords were protesting against the idea that in Golden Age crime fiction science is always the preserve of the amateur detective, and were seeking to be different. In the preface to the first Manson novel Inspector Manson’s Success (1944), they announced: “We have had the audacity to present here the Almost Incredible: a detective story in which the scientific deduction by a police officer uncovers the crime and the criminal entirely without the aid of any outside assistance!”

  The first two Manson novels, Inspector Manson’s Success and Murder Jigsaw (both 1944), contain introductory prefaces which acquaint the reader with Doctor Manson in some detail. He is a man of many talents and qualifications: aged in his early 50s and a Cambridge MA (both attributes shared by Edwin Radford at the time), Manson is a Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, non-practising barrister and author of several standard works on medical jurisprudence (of which he is a Professor) and criminal pathology. Slightly over 6 feet in height, although he does not look it owing to the stoop of his shoulders, habitual in a scholar and scientist. He has interesting features and characteristics: a long face, with a broad and abnormally high forehead; grey eyes wide set, though lying deep in their sockets, which “have a habit of just passing over a person on introduction; but when that person chances to turn in the direction of the Inspector, he is disconcerted to find that the eyes have returned to his face and are seemingly engaged on long and careful scrutiny. There is left the impression that one’s face is being photographed on the Inspector’s mind.” Manson’s hands are often the first thing a stranger will notice. “The long delicate fingers are exceedingly restless—twisting and turning on anything which lies handy to them. While he stands, chatting, they are liable to stray to a waistcoat pocket and emerge with a tiny magnifying glass or a micrometer to occupy their energy.”

  During his long career at Scotland Yard, Manson rises from Chief Detective-Inspector to the rank of Commander. Reporting directly to Sir Edward Allen, the Assistant Commissioner, Manson is ably assisted by his Yard colleagues—Sergeant Merry, a science graduate and Deputy Lab Head, and Superintendent Jones and Detective-Inspector Kenway of the CID. Jones is weighty and ponderous, given to grunts and short staccato sentences, and with a habit of lapsing into American ’tec slang in moments of stress; but a stolid, determined detective and reliable fact searcher with an impressive memory. He often serves as a humorous foil to Manson and the Assistant Commissioner. By contrast, Kenway is volatile and imaginative. Together, Jones and Kenway make a powerful combination and an effective resource for the Doctor. In later books, Inspector Holroyd features as Manson’s regular assistant. Holroyd is the lead detective in the non-series title The Six Men (1958), a novelisation of the earlier British detective film of the same name released in 1951 and based on an original story idea and scenario developed by the Radfords. Their only other non-series police detective, Superintendent Carmichael, appeared in just two novels: Look in at Murder (1956, with Manson) and Married to Murder (1959).

  The first eight novels, all Manson series, were published by Andrew Melrose between 1944 to 1950. The early titles were slim volumes produced in accordance with authorised War Economy Standards. Many featured a distinctive motif on the front cover of the dust wrapper—a small white circle showing Manson’s head superimposed against that of Sherlock Holmes (in black silhouette), with the title ‘a Manson Mystery’. In these early novels, the Radfords made much of their practice of providing readers with all the facts and clues necessary to give them a fair opportunity of solving the mystery puzzles by deduction. They interspersed the investigations with ‘Challenges to the Reader’, a trope closely associated with leading Golden Age crime authors John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen. In Murder Isn’t Cricket they claimed: “We have never ‘pulled anything out of the bag’ at the last minute—a fact upon which three distinguished reviewers of books have c
ommented and have commended.” Favourable critical reviews of their early titles were received from Ralph Straus (Sunday Times) and George W. Bishop (Daily Telegraph), as well as novelist Elizabeth Bowen. The Radfords were held in sufficiently high regard by Sutherland Scott, in his study of the mystery novel Blood in their Ink (1953), to be highlighted alongside such distinguished Golden Age authors as Miles Burton, Richard Hull, Milward Kennedy and Vernon Loder.

  After 1950 there was a gap of six years before the Radfords’ next book. Mona’s mother died in 1953; she had been living with them at the time. Starting in 1956, with a new publisher John Long (like Melrose, another Hutchinson company), the Radfords released two Manson titles in successive years: Look in at Murder (1956) and Death on the Broads (1957). In 1958 they moved to the publisher Robert Hale, a prominent supplier to the public libraries. They began with The Six Men (1958), before returning to Manson with Death of a Frightened Editor (1959). Thereafter, Manson was to feature in all but two of their remaining 25 crime novels, all published by Hale; the exceptions being Married to Murder (1959) and Death of a Professor (1961). Curiously, a revised and abridged version of the third Manson series novel Crime Pays No Dividends (1945) was later released under the new title Death of a Peculiar Rabbit (1969).

  Edwin Isaac Radford (1891-1973) and Mona Augusta Radford (1894-1990) were married in Aldershot in 1939. Born in West Bromwich, Edwin had spent his working life entirely in journalism, latterly in London’s Fleet Street where he held various editorial roles, culminating as Arts Editor-in-Chief and Columnist for the Daily Mirror in 1937. Mona was the daughter of Irish poet and actor James Clarence Mangan and his actress wife Lily Johnson. Since childhood she had toured with her mother and performed on stage under the name ‘Mona Magnet’, and later was for many years a popular leading lady appearing in musical-comedies, revues and pantomime (including ‘Dick Whittington’) until her retirement from the stage. She first met Edwin while performing in Nottingham, where he was working as a local newspaper journalist. Mona also authored numerous short plays and sketches for the stage, in addition to writing verse, particularly for children.

  An article in Books & Bookmen magazine (1959) recounts how Edwin and Mona, already in their early 50s, became detective fiction writers by accident. During one of Edwin’s periodic attacks of lumbago, Mona trudged through snow and slush from their village home to a library for Dr Thorndyke detective stories by R. Austin Freeman, of which he was an avid reader. Unfortunately, Edwin had already read the three books with which she returned! Incensed at his grumbles, Mona retaliated with “Well for heaven’s sake, why don’t you write one instead of always reading them?”—and placed a writing pad and pencil on his bed. Within a month, Edwin had written six lengthy short stories, and with Mona’s help in revising the MS, submitted them to a leading publisher. The recommendation came back that each of the stories had the potential to make an excellent full-length novel. The first short story was duly turned into a novel, which was promptly accepted for publication. Thereafter, their practice was to work together on writing novels—first in longhand, then typed and read through by each of them, and revised as necessary. The plot was usually developed by Mona and added to by Edwin during the writing. According to Edwin, the formula was: “She kills them off, and I find out how she done it.” Mona would also act the characters and dialogue as outlined by Edwin for him to observe first-hand and then capture in the text.

  As husband-and-wife novelists, the Radfords were in the company of other Golden Age crime writing couples—G.D.H. (Douglas) and Margaret Cole in the UK, and Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning, John and Emery Bonett, Audrey and Wiliam Roos (Kelley Roos), and Frances and Richard Lockridge in the USA. Their crime novels proved popular on the Continent and were published in translation in the major European languages. However, the US market eluded them and none of the Radford books was ever published in the USA. Aside from crime fiction, the Radfords collaborated on authoring a wide range of other works, most notably Crowther’s Encyclopaedia of Phrases and Origins, Encyclopaedia of Superstitions (a standard work on folklore), and a Dictionary of Allusions. Edwin was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of both the Authors’ Club and the Savage Club.

  The Radfords proved to be an enduring writing team, working into their 80s. Both were also enthusiastic amateur artists in oils and water colours. They travelled extensively, and invariably spent the winter months writing in the warmer climes of Southern Europe. An article by Edwin in John Creasey’s Mystery Bedside Book (1960) recounts his involvement in the late 1920s with an English society periodical for the winter set on the French Riviera, where he had socialised with such famous writers as Baroness Orczy, William Le Queux and E. Phillips Oppenheim. He recollects Oppenheim dictating up to three novels at once! The Radfords spent their final years living in Worthing.

  The Heel of Achilles

  Published in 1950, The Heel of Achilles is the eighth of the Doctor Manson detective novels and their last from the publishing house of Andrew Melrose. Thereafter the Radfords were to take a break of six years until their next detective story. Having established a reputation as writers of ingenious whodunits, this book represents their first attempt at the “inverted murder story form”, a sub-genre well suited to mysteries featuring scientific detection. With Doctor Manson, Head of Scotland Yard’s Crime Forensics Research Laboratory, already pre-eminent in this field, the premise is an intriguing one and the story does not disappoint. The inverted mystery novel reverses those features of the traditional whodunit concerned with working out the identity of the murderer and motive for the crime, usually kept hidden until the denouement when the detective reveals all. Instead, the murderer is known from the start, and their thoughts, plans and actions are shared. The reader knows everything and the detective knows nothing. The suspense comes in following the detective’s investigation at close hand, as he works to uncover the factual mistakes that upset the apparently perfect crime.

  The storyline of The Heel of Achilles falls into two parts. The opening section ‘Story of a Murder’ outlines the background events and motive behind the murder, together with its planning and execution. The protagonist is Jack Edwins, a likeable and decent young motor mechanic. While on holiday in Paignton, Jack meets and falls in love with a local girl, whom he later marries. By a cruel twist of fate, on the same holiday Jack also makes the acquaintance of James Sprogson, a charming but disreputable character. Their association is a disastrous one. Jack is inveigled by Sprogson into unwittingly assisting in a country house jewellery robbery which goes badly wrong. This ill-fated episode becomes Jack’s ‘Achilles heel’; a vulnerability he is unable to shake off, despite subsequently becoming an honest, hard-working owner of a garage business, happily married, and with a new identity.

  Some years later, fate intervenes again in Jack’s life. A chance encounter with Sprogson (also now living under an assumed name, James Canley) leads to a course of increasing blackmail demands about the robbery and to the destruction of Jack’s happiness. Jack becomes desperate as he perceives his livelihood and marriage to be threatened to the core and feels compelled to resort to murder as the only way out of his predicament. He conceives an ingenious plan to commit what he believes will be the perfect murder, with no personal traces left behind and made to look like an accident. The murder is carefully planned and rehearsed in meticulous detail. We witness the brutal act of murder and the surrounding events of that night, sharing Jack’s thought processes and emotions at each stage—concerns, fear, panic and finally relief when everything is over. The authors succeed in creating the compelling portrait of a murderer with whom the reader sympathises.

  The second half of the book ‘Cherchez l’Homme’ opens with the discovery of Canley’s decapitated corpse lying on the tracks of a railway branch line, a few hundred yards from his cottage in Thames Pagnall, the fictitious Surrey village which also featured in the Radfords’ earlier novel Murder Isn’t Cricket (1946). Initially the local police regar
d Canley’s death as an accident or suicide, but the railway company’s doctor is unsure and insists on Scotland Yard being called in. Enter Doctor Manson and his colleagues Detective-Inspector Kenway (CID) and Sergeant Merry (Lab Deputy). Manson’s careful examination of the body at the trackside is a masterclass in scientific deduction. His portable laboratory, known as ‘the Box of Tricks’, is put to good use. Manson rounds on the local police for having been blinded by superficial appearances, for having seen but not observed: “It was obvious to me within a few minutes of seeing the body that the man had not been killed by the train . . . From that moment I ceased any investigation into the cause of the man’s death and concentrated all my efforts into the circumstances of his death.”

  Subsequently, we follow step-by-step Manson’s painstaking piecing together of how the murder was committed and working out the identification of the perpetrator. The investigation is adroitly handled, a highly elaborate game of cat and mouse, and the story becomes an absorbing page-turner. But it is not a one-sided affair. Other suspects are identified, and each needs to be eliminated by process of deduction. In places the authors soften the tone of the investigation by introducing some gentle humour. The local Chief Constable, Colonel Mainforce, a bluff ex-military type with dialogue to match, joins the investigation (he previously appeared in Murder Isn’t Cricket). While the novel is firmly rooted in the Golden Age style, there is a more modern feel to the narrative.

  There is a steady remorseless and deadly probability about the way in which the investigation, using logic and scientific analysis, works its way inexorably towards Jack. The room in Canley’s cottage in which the murder took place, the reconstruction of the act of murder and removal of the dead body to the railway line—all are examined and considered thoroughly by Manson. The authors explain Manson’s thought processes and the various deductions he makes, so that the reader can follow each stage. The field is narrowed down and the net tightened. It is a masterly piece of scientific detection, erudite but never dull. The pursuit is gripping and enthralling. To make Manson appear more fallible, the authors catalogue a surprising number of mistakes and wrong assumptions on his part, usually in footnotes to the text. The ending is sombre and emotionally charged; a powerful conclusion to a morality tale which is reminiscent of the novels of Freeman Wills Crofts. The police always get their man, but sometimes at a heavy human cost.