Edward Powell has not had an easy life. Well, certainly that's how he feels about it. A young man with apparently no prospects for employment - at least no employment of a type which he would consider suitable for an aspiring poet like himself - he is forced to live with his maiden aunt in the little Welsh village of Llwll. (What? How is that pronounced? I haven't a clue. Edward says he pronounces it "filth," which is how he views the town.) Edward dislikes his family. He detests the neighbors. He loathes, and shows contempt for, the servants and tradespeople. And, above all, he hates his Aunt Mildred, who keeps him on an allowance that she thinks is adequate and he knows is merely a pittance. Surely he deserves so much better from life! His aunt, he says, has become simply intolerable. And so he proposes to murder her, preferably in a way which avoids his being caught and punished for the crime. And he begins to keep a diary, as his plans for murder mature. Or, perhaps, don't mature. For it's not necessarily going to be as simple as Edward thinks. The story is found in The Murder of My Aunt, by Richard Hull. It is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
Richard Hull is another Golden Age mystery author whose books are becoming popular again, after slipping into obscurity during the 1950s. The Murder of My Aunt was his first novel, published in 1934, and it quickly earned praise from mystery critics, including Dorothy L. Sayers. It is being republished in the United States this month by Poisoned Pen Press as part of the British Library’s Crime Classics series. The publisher provided me with a copy for this review.
By now, you may be starting to realize that Edward is not the innocent victim of life’s unfair ways that he sees himself to be. He is, to be blunt, a thoroughly obnoxious, spoiled, lout. While Edward rails against his Aunt Mildred for just about everything, most readers will find her quite sympathetic. And as Edward begins to get the not-very-bright idea that murdering his aunt would solve all of his problems, we read in his diary of how his plans begin to form, of the steps that he will take to try to accomplish the murder while avoiding suspicion himself, and what I think may be described as unforeseen and often very funny difficulties.
Readers are likely to find Edward Powell completely obnoxious and charmless – which is, to be honest, the point. He is most proud of what the reader will see as his worst character flaws; the plans he makes and his rather peculiar interpretation of events will cause readers of The Murder of My Aunt to cringe – and, I suspect, to laugh. This new edition, available in paper as well as e-book formats, has an introduction by mystery historian Martin Edwards, who calls the book "a slyly entertaining read." Indeed it is.
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