"Murder Isn't Easy"

Nicholas Latimer was an unhappy, frustrated and angry man. A partner in a small advertising agency, Latimer was convinced that his two business partners weren't doing their fair share of the work involved in making their agency successful. As far as Latimer was concerned, neither Paul Spencer, who was supposed to go out and recruit new clients for the agency, nor Sandy Barraclough, who was supposed to be in charge of the business side of the business, so to speak, made any contribution to equal, or even approach, the work that he, Latimer, did as the creative genius behind the agency. He particularly loathed Spencer:

There is a limit to the extent to which the folly of any man can be allowed to ruin a business, and beyond that limit Paul Spencer has certainly gone.

Having tried, as Latimer said, to get rid of his partners in general and Spencer in particular by all legal means, he decided that the only rational solution would be to murder Spencer. Unfortunately for Latimer, he seemed to forget that Murder Isn't Easy, which is the title of a bitterly funny Golden Age (1936) mystery by Richard Hull. 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. Murder Isn't Easy has just been re-published by Ipso Books, and the publisher provided me with an electronic copy of the book for this review.

When we meet Nicholas Latimer, we find a remarkably vain, self-centered individual, a man, moreover, who feels that he and he alone is carrying the entire weight of the small advertising agency called "NeOaD," on his back. It is worth noting that Latimer is very proud of that oddly-spelled name (he says it stands for their slogan, NeO-aD NeVeR NoDs), and you are free to judge from that for yourself just how useful other of Latimer's great ideas may prove to be. I should also add that Latimer is indeed as delusional as all that – and his partners, who are getting increasingly fed up with Latimer’s attitude, certainly reflect their own contempt of what they see as Latimer’s laziness and lack of useful creativity.

It's not exactly one big happy family, and the book is written with some lovely backbiting and sniping back and forth among the three men. We get to watch Latimer’s plans to get rid of the irritating Spencer (and perhaps Barraclough as well) as those murderous plans begin to take shape. But, of course, the course of murder rarely runs quite as smoothly as Latimer seems to think. As the book's title and many of the characters remind us with some regularity, murder isn't easy. And if Latimer is an egotistical and vain individual, his partners do seem capable of finding their own solutions to the agency’s problems...

Murder Isn't Easy, by Richard Hull, is a savagely funny book. I think you'd enjoy it.

Comments

[Ronald Smyth]

I finished this one myself only a few days ago. It's the fourth book of his that I've read and all of them have been extremely well written and also original in both structure and plot. I used to have some qualms about the surpassing ineptitude of some of his characters but that was before Trump. Now I am more able to believe that such persons can be found in positions of responsibility. Hull has the ability to make a character reveal himself in his own words by ostensibly saying one thing but allowing the reader to see an entirely different effect that I only wish more authors were able to achieve.

[Les Blatt]

"The Murder of my Aunt" is due out in the States in September, and I'm looking forward to it - it seems to follow the same general pattern you mention. That's what I like best about Hull's books, and you're right - it's a great way to reveal a character's character, so to speak.