It seems a pity that British author Dorothy Bowers died so young - she was only 46 when she died of tuberculosis in 1948. Some critics say that, had she lived and continued writing her excellent mysteries, she could have become another Dorothy L. Sayers. As it is, we have only five mysteries by Dorothy Bowers, intricate, brilliantly plotted, detailed traditional mysteries to savor.
Of these, most agree that her masterpiece was "Fear And Miss Betony
," first published in 1941, and certainly one of the highlights from the years just beyond the so-called "Golden Age." "Fear and Miss Betony" is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to that review here.
The story centers on Miss Emma Betony, an elderly woman, looking forward with some resignation to what appears to be a certain future of slow decay in a gentle spinsterhood. She is rescued - if that is the word - from that fate by receiving an urgent appeal for help from a former student, Grace Aram, now the headmistress and proprietor of a small and struggling school for girls, now occupying what used to be a nursing home. Grace needs Miss Betony to come help her try to determine who may have been trying to murder one of the two remaining nursing home patients.
As Miss Betony probes deeper into the mystery, she finds a great deal of unexplained and seemingly unexplainable trouble at the school - including an overwhelming, pervasive sense of fear which appears to be affecting almost everyone. She will find that, in some way, everything seems to be linked to the presence in the nearby town of a handsome, charismatic and quite possibly dangerous fortune-teller called The Great Ambrosio. She will also discover her own life to be in grave danger.
Dorothy Bowers's detectives, Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe and Detective Sergeant Tommy Salt don't come into the story until the last few chapters. Most of the detective work and the unraveling of a dazzling and dangerous plot is carried out by Miss Betony, who is - fortunately - a great deal tougher and more intelligent than her enemies would have hoped.
"So the tale started to run, like water. It gathered volume and speed as it ran, it carried with it the flotsam and jetsam of other people's lives and characters, hopes and fears, affections, jealousies, hates, ambitions, all the impertinences of the living that Death no longer resents."
All this is brilliantly told by a woman whose talent for creating memorable characters is truly remarkable. The Times of London called "Fear and Miss Betony" the best mystery of 1941. The twists and turns of the plot are very likely to catch the reader completely unaware; he or she may be as thunderstruck as Miss Betony when the true nature of the plot is revealed, even though Bowers has carefully planted her clues throughout the story for the reader to find. It's a wonderful book.
"Fear and Miss Betony" is another of my entries in the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge at the My Reader's Block Blog.