Who Killed Dick Whittington? Read online

  E & M.A. Radford

  Who Killed Dick Whittington?

  “I think you had better telephone for the police,” he said. “This woman has been poisoned.”

  Norma de Grey, the Principal in the Christmas pantomime Dick Whittington, was not popular with the rest of the Pavilion Theatre company. But was she hated enough to be killed by prussic acid, during the performance itself?

  Suspicion immediately falls on the Cat, her fellow actor in the fatal scene. Until it transpires that the Cat too has been poisoned – and his understudy has a solid alibi. But someone must have donned the disguise and appeared on stage incognito. Detective-Inspector Harry Manson, analytical detective par excellence, is on the case.

  Who Killed Dick Whittington? was originally published in 1947. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Nigel Moss.

  To

  THE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE FOOTLIGHTS

  For so many years our very

  Good Companions

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page/About the Book

  Dedication

  Contents

  Introduction by Nigel Moss

  Frontispiece

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Interlude I

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Interlude II

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Interlude III

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  About the Authors

  Titles by E & M.A. Radford

  Murder Jigsaw – Title Page

  Murder Jigsaw – Chapter I

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Doctor Harry Manson is a neglected figure, unjustly so, amongst Golden Age crime fiction detectives. The fictional 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. A Chief Detective-Inspector of Scotland Yard and Head of its Crime Research Laboratory, Manson was also a leading authority on medical jurisprudence. Arguably the Radfords’ best work is to be found in their early Doctor Manson series novels which have remained out of print since first publication. Commendably, Dean Street Press has now made available three novels from that early period – 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 finest, portraying the appealing combination of powerful intellect and reasoning and creative scientific methods of investigation, while never losing awareness and sensitivity concerning the human predicaments encountered.

  The Radfords sought to create in Doctor Manson a leading scientific police detective, and an investigator in the same mould as R. Austin Freeman’s Dr John Thorndyke. Edwin Radford was a keen admirer of the popular Dr Thorndyke novels and short stories. T.J. Binyon in Murder Will Out (1989), a study of the detective in fiction, 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 they wanted to be different. In the preface to the first Manson novel Inspector Manson’s Success (1944), they announced: “We have had the audacity – for which we make no apology – 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, ladies and gentlemen, of any outside assistance!” The emphasis is on Manson as both policeman and scientist.

  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, a Doctor of Laws and author of several standard works on medical jurisprudence (of which he is a Professor) and criminal pathology. He is 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. His physiology displays 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 rule, to occupy their energy.”

  During his long career at Scotland Yard, Manson rises from Chief Detective-Inspector to the rank of Commander; always retaining his dual role of a senior police investigating officer as well as Head of the Forensic Research Laboratory. Manson is ably assisted by his Yard colleagues – Sergeant Merry, a science graduate and Deputy Lab Head; and by two CID officers, Superintendent Jones (‘the Fat Man of the Yard’) and Inspector Kenway. 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. 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, directed by Michael Laws and released in 1951, and based on an original story idea by the Radfords. Their only other non-series detective, Superintendent Carmichael, appeared in just two novels: Look in at Murder (1956, with Manson) and Married to Murder (1959). None of the Radford books was ever published in the USA.

  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 to give them a fair opportunity of solving the riddle of deduction. They interspersed the investigations with ‘Challenges to the Reader’, tropes closely associated with leading Golden Age crime authors John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen. In Murder Isn’t Cricket they claimed: “We have never, at any time, ‘pulled anything out of the bag’ at the last minute – a fact upon which three distinguished reviewers of books have most kindly commented and have commended.” Favourable critical review
s 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, writing in his Blood in their Ink (1953), a study of the modern mystery novel, to be afforded special mention alongside such distinguished Golden Age authors as Miles Burton, Richard Hull, Milward Kennedy and Vernon Loder.

  After 1950 there was a gap of five 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. In 1958 they moved to the publisher Robert Hale, a prominent supplier to the public libraries. They began with two non-series titles The Six Men (1958) and Married to Murder (1959), before returning to Manson with Death of a Frightened Editor (1959). Thereafter, Manson was to feature in all but one of their remaining 25 crime novels, all published by Hale. 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).

  During the late 1950s and early 1960s the Radfords continued to write well-conceived and cleverly plotted murder mysteries that remain worth seeking out today. Notable examples are the atmospheric Death on the Broads (1957) set on the Norfolk Broads, and Death of a Frightened Editor (1959) involving the poisoning of an odious London newspaper gossip columnist aboard the London-to-Brighton Pullman Express (a familiar train journey for Edwin Radford, who had worked in Fleet Street while living in Brighton). Death and the Professor (1961), the only non-Manson series book released after 1959, is an unusual exception. It features Marcus Stubbs, Professor of Logic and the Dilettantes’ Club, a small private dining circle in Soho which meets regularly to discuss informally unsolved cases. Conveniently, but improbably, the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard is among its members. The book comprises a series of stories, often involving locked room murders or other ‘impossible’ crimes, solved by the logic and reasoning of Professor Stubbs following discussions around the dining table. There are similarities with Roger Sheringham’s Crimes Circle in Anthony Berkeley’s The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1937). The idea of a private dining club as a forum for mystery solving was later revived by the American author Isaac Asimov in Tales of the Black Widowers (1974).

  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. Under the name ‘Mona Magnet’ she had performed on stage since childhood, touring with her mother, and later was for many years a popular leading lady in musical-comedy and revues until her retirement from the stage. She also authored numerous short plays and sketches for the stage, in addition to writing verse, particularly for children.

  An article in Books & Bookmen magazine in 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. Subsequently, 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 completed books were read through again by both, side by side, and final revisions made. 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.”

  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 husband Bruce Manning as well as Richard and Frances Lockridge in the USA. Their crime novels proved popular on the Continent and were published in translation in many European languages. However, the US market eluded them. 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 on the English South Coast.

  Who Killed Dick Whittington?

  Who Killed Dick Whittington? (1947) is the sixth book in the Doctor Manson series. The early choice of a murder mystery in an atmospheric theatrical setting was perhaps predictable, given Mona Radford’s acting background and writing for the stage, coupled with Edwin’s role as an Arts journalist on Fleet Street. Indeed, they dedicated the novel to ‘the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Footlights – for so many years our very Good Companions’. The first edition of 1947, published by Andrew Melrose, has a striking dust wrapper showing Dick Whittington lying asleep (or already murdered?) on a darkened stage, bathed in a light blue spotlight, with the Cat staring ahead at the audience.

  Engagingly, the novel is prefaced with a theatre playbill for the Pavilion Theatre, Burlington-on-Sea, announcing the popular Christmas season pantomime Dick Whittington by the Henri de Benyat theatre company and listing the leading cast members. The Principal Boy playing Dick Whittington was a highly unpopular choice; and she had quarrelled publicly with several fellow artistes earlier in the run. Her demise occurs, in dramatic fashion, during an evening performance of the pantomime. In the well-known scene, Dick and the Cat are resting on a grassy bank by the milestone on Highgate Hill, where Dick sleeps and dreams of Bow Bells ringing “Turn Again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.” But that evening the bells were not heard, for in the full glare of the stage lights and within sight of the large audience, Dick had been murdered by a fatal injection of prussic acid. Suspicion falls on the Cat, but this is quickly ruled out. Other cast members within easy reach of Dick when she was killed each had impenetrable alibis which made it impossible for them to have been the murderer.

  Scotland Yard are called in by the local police. As Chief Detective-Inspector Manson is already preoccupied with investigating a complex series of commercial fraud cases involving arson, his CID colleagues Superintendent Jones and Inspector Kenway are assigned to the murder. But the respective investigations soon merge as links between the two are established, demonstrating some skilful plotting by the Radfords. Manson assumes overall charge and works out the solutions to both the murder mystery and related fraudulent fire-raising cases, deploying the powerful combination of forensic investigation, thoughtful analysis and logic. Several ke
y findings result from scientific techniques used by the Doctor. The different strands of investigation tie in and the pieces of the overall picture gradually fall into place, with clever detection leading to a satisfying resolution. The denouement is handled in retrospect: on the opening night of a new theatre production by the Henri de Benyat company at the Pavilion Theatre, Burlington-on-Sea, the cast gather backstage to read the press report of Doctor Manson’s evidence at the murder trial of the accused. Manson’s measured and persuasive logic, delivered with great clarity of exposition, seems almost audible! The story-line is strengthened by the powerful and tragic human issues which underpin the motivation for the murder; these are woven into the plot with sensitivity and understanding, and make compelling reading. The Radfords follow their established practice of encouraging readers to follow the trail with Manson and providing them with all the vital clues and evidence which emerge from his investigations to reach their own conclusions. The novel is interspersed with ‘Interludes’, which serve as challenges to the reader.

  The theatre is a popular milieu in which to set crime stories. It has a garish glamour, attracting flamboyant though often vulnerable and volatile artistic characters who work together in a confined atmosphere and are prone to personal and professional jealousies. There is also plenty of scope for satire. Stage production trappings, scenery, props and equipment, warrens of backstage dressing rooms and storerooms, and the crucial timings of actors entering and leaving the stage during a performance, offer prolific opportunities for the fertile minds of crime writers when it comes to devising plots and setting clues. The theatrical milieu has featured in some prominent Golden Age detective novels, including among others the following. Agatha Christie adapted several of her short stories into acclaimed stage plays, including Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap (Three Blind Mice). Ngaio Marsh, creator of the Inspector Roderick Alleyn mysteries, was a celebrated theatre director as well as accomplished crime novelist, and wrote some excellent theatre-based murder mysteries: Enter a Murderer (1935) and Overture to Death (1939) both have performers murdered in full view before the audience. Marsh’s Vintage Murder (1937) and Opening Night (1951) focus on murderous activities within small theatre companies; as do Douglas G. Browne’s The Looking Glass Murders (1935), John Bude’s Death of a Cad (1940) and Clifford Witting’s Measure for Murder (1945). The latter is highly praised by the critics Barzun and Taylor, who regard it as Witting’s best. Hamlet Revenge (1937) by Michael Innes, involves a country house performance of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet during which an actor is murdered on stage by being stabbed through a curtain at the very moment Shakespeare’s directions call for the same action. The theatrical superstitions around Shakespeare’s Scottish play Macbeth are used to effect by Ngaio Marsh in her final novel Light Thickens (1982). Edmund Crispin (pseudonym of film composer Bruce Montgomery) featured a clever locked room murder amidst conflicts within a group of actors in Oxford in The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944), and later tackled the world of opera with a backstage murder in Swan Song (1947).