Tangled Web UK Review November 2000
Murder at School by
James Hilton
pbk out June 00
(Swallowtail Books)
at £7.95
Colin Revell, a would-be poet, receives a latter from Robert Rosaveare, the Headmaster of his old school, Oakington, asking him to pay a weekend visit to the school to solve a mystery. Revell has been asked because he had displayed a talent for detection when at Oxford. A valuable manuscript had disappeared and Revell had been successful in tracing and recovering it. Rosaveare had been advised of this and decided to seek Revell's help. He wanted Revell to hold a watching brief, as he put it.
The mystery at the school concerned the apparently accidental death of a pupil. It is followed soon after by the death of the pupil's elder brother. This second death looks like suicide, but the police find that the boy has been shot. Revell stays on at the school, ostensibly as the Headmaster's secretary, and continues his watching brief. He becomes friendly with one of the staff, Lambourne, who provides him with useful information. Then Lambourne dies from what looks like natural causes, but the police inform Revell that the master has been murdered. Revell feels himself a little out of his depth, but is flattered by the attention of the police and their willingness to confide in him.
Murder at School was first published in 1931 as by Glen Trevar. This was,in fact, James Hilton, author of the famous school novel, Goodbye Mr Chips and other best sellers of the time like Lost Horizon and Random Harvest, all of which were filmed. Hilton's foray into detective fiction occurred at the height of the golden age and his book displays many of the conventions of the time, the most obvious being the minimal police presence. Indeed we are never even told the chief policeman's rank: he is merely referred to as "Detective Guthrie". Moreover he is very friendly, even deferential, towards Revell, who hardly shines as an amateur detective. There are only a handful of suspects, but we all know that Revell's prime suspect is not the murderer who is, of course, the person he least suspects. The reader knows it, too.
This is an enjoyable read. The school background is unobtrusively etched in and Revell is a pleasant character and certainly nothing like the silly ass amateur of the time. What’s more the book is very sturdily bound, a nice example of what a paperback should be, but so often isn't. Quite the best piece of paperback binding that I have seen for some time.
(
John Boyles
)
