In some ways, I think, a busybody is more of a public (and private) nuisance than a blackmailer. After all, a blackmailer usually is out for cash, or has some other direct need that the victim must fulfill. A busybody often is far more demanding, seeking to reform his or her victim. Take the fictional case of Miss Ethel Tither, a woman cordially detested by virtually everyone in the English village of Hilary Magna. As she is described by author George Bellairs, Miss Tither was:
about fifty years of age and had sufficient means to pay for the domestic help which released her to poke her nose into the affairs of everyone for miles around. She was scorned and snubbed by most, but carried on her secret investigations and remedial campaigns against vice and sin with abhorrent fortitude. The village quaked in fear of her.
Readers of Golden Age mysteries will undoubtedly expect something terrible to happen to Miss Tither. They are quite right, as we will find in Death of a Busybody, a 1942 novel by George Bellairs, being published in the United States next week as one of the British Library Crime Classics, which are published in the U. S. by Poisoned Pen Press. The publisher has made an advanced reading copy available to me for this review. Death of a Busybody is also the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
As described in Death of a Busybody, Miss Tither is a truly awful person. But nobody really deserves the doom ordained by the author for Miss Tither: she is found dead, floating in the vicar’s cesspool – which, I fear, is every bit as unsavory as it sounds. She was, among other things, a religious zealot convinced that she knew – and would carry out – divine will. Having once discovered someone’s guilty secret, she would generally harangue them, while calling on them loudly and publicly to repent their perceived sins. When Miss Tither died that most unpleasant death, Scotland Yard sent Inspector Thomas Littlejohn to Hilary Magna to investigate and to help the local police. He learned very quickly that there was no shortage of potential killers, for it was pretty much impossible to find anyone with a good word to say about Miss Tither, with her religious tracts and her all-too-successful efforts to uncover personal secrets and expose wrongdoers. His investigations, however, take him down some unexpected paths before reaching a solution to the mystery.
Inspector Littlejohn was the series detective in Bellairs's novels. The author was extremely popular with mystery readers, writing nearly sixty mystery novels between 1941 and 1980. Since his death, however, he has been virtually unknown and forgotten; it's good to have some of his books being republished as part of the British Library series. Bellairs writes wittily, and his detective is remarkably smart while generally remaining good-humored. You'll like meeting him.
Mystery historian Martin Edwards has provided a new introduction for this edition. It's due to be published next week, the day after Labor Day, and your favorite mystery bookdealer would be delighted to locate a copy for you. I think you would enjoy it very much.
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