"Case with Four Clowns"

It's really a peculiar problem. You're a former police detective. You are warned - by someone you trust - that there is going to be a murder, in a small traveling circus. But you do not know who is supposed to be committing the murder - or, just as importantly, who is supposed to be the victim.

That's the situation at the heart of "Case with Four Clowns," by Leo Bruce, a 1939 mystery from the so-called Golden Age, set in a rather colorful and exotic traveling circus, which goes from small English town to small English town. It is the subject of today's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the whole thing here.

The detective is Sergeant William Beef - lately fired as a policeman, but still carrying on as a private investigator. Sergeant Beef may sound like the perfect name for one of those stolid fictional slow-thinking police officers - but you'd be mistaken to think so. He is, in fact, remarkable in his ability to see through the peculiarities of a murder case and find the truth, even if the people around him remain skeptical about his abilities.

In this case, Sergeant Beef receives a message from a young relative, who has gone to work with a traveling circus, one of those outfits that move to a new town each morning, setting up its tents and sideshows, putting on a show or two during the day, then tearing everything down and preparing to move to another town the next day. His relative has been told by one of the circus performers - a self-styled psychic - that someone in the circus is going to be murdered - but the psychic can not or will not say who, or who will be committing the murder. So Sergeant Beef joins up with the circus, and he finds a small, tightly-knit community with so many hatreds and passions that it's a wonder nobody has been killed yet.

Can the sergeant head off the threatened murder? Read it and find out. In true "Golden Age" fashion, you'll find a great many fair and honest clues - if you can spot them. And Sergeant Beef himself is a delightful character, and the members of the touring circus are equally memorable. It's a very good book. It is another entry in the ongoing Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge at the My Reader's Block blog.

Comments

[Bev]

I've read three of the Sgt. Beef stories (Case with Three Detectives, Case with Ropes & Rings, & Case with No Conglusion). My favorite is still Case with Three Detectives. I love the tongue-in-cheek send-up familiar Golden Age detective. I also really love Bruce's Carolus Deene series (and have read far more of those--percentage-wise).

Thanks for high-lighting another of my favorites!

[Les Blatt]

I agree about "Case for Three Detectives" - it's very funny and a great send-up. I have only read one Carolus Deene - "Our Jubilee is Death" - but I do have more lined up in the ever-growing "To Be Read" pile.