Councillor Henry Grayling was not a particularly nice or pleasant person. He was building his own little empire of sorts from his home in the London suburb of Croxburn. He was also something of a prig when it came to other people's morality. He was quick to see malice or illegality or both among the people around him and just as quick to take offense at anything and everything. He was heartily disliked by almost everyone who knew him. The question facing Inspector Holly of the local police, however, would be: did any of those people dislike him enough for that dislike to become a motive for murder? It's the central issue in another Golden Age mystery by Raymond Postgate, originally published in 1943, called Somebody at the Door. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here. It's another of the British Library Crime Classics series of classic Golden Age mysteries written by authors who have pretty well been forgotten in the half century or more since their work was popular and published. This new edition of Somebody at the Door is being published in the U.S. this week. by Poisoned Pen Press, which made an advance copy available for this review.
Councillor Grayling had taken his usual train home to Croxburn that Friday evening. He was carrying a fair quantity of cash in an attaché case, planning to use the cash to pay salaries to the staffs of the offices where he worked. It was wartime. The trains were crowded - jam-packed, actually - and with the wartime blackout under way, there was virtually no light anywhere once he got off the train. He vanished in the night. And that is all we know of Councillor Grayling until his wife called the doctor: could he please come over at once? The councilor had arrived home quite late and in very bad shape – in fact, when she had opened the door, her husband had fallen inside, unable to stand, covered in blood, obviously sick, and without that attaché case or its contents. He appeared, in fact, as she told the doctor, to be dying. And that is exactly what happened very shortly afterwards.
Inspector Holly quickly determines that not only did Grayling have a real knack for making enemies - he also had had the ill-fortune of riding home in that overcrowded train car with many of those enemies. Inspector Holly soon finds himself focusing on those fellow-passengers. The author uses an interesting technique in dealing with that investigation: the focus is primarily on flashbacks from many of these characters (and others), looking into the backgrounds of each suspect in turn. Some of the stories are quite grim as we examine each one's relations with Grayling, the sources of their grievances against him and the often devastating consequences for all involved. It's an effective technique, helping the reader find a way to a logical, if painful, solution to the mystery. Along the way, we get a picture of the tribulations of English life during the bombing raids of the Second World War.
The British Library Crime Classics edition features an introduction by mystery writer and historian, Martin Edwards. Somebody at the Door is worthy of a place on your To Be Read list.
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