"The Belting Inheritance"

There is nothing quite like the prospect of an inherited fortune to provide a motive for all sorts of mischief in a traditional or classic mystery plot. Here's a very good example for you. Consider the case of a British family that lost two sons in the battles of World War II. Hugh and David Wainwright, the two older sons of the Wainwright family, were duly reported, first as missing in action, then presumed dead. The Wainwright family, as with so many other families caught up in that conflagration, mourned their dead, but tried to pick up the broken pieces of their lives and continue at Belting, their family home, under the influence of Lady Wainwright, the family's rather autocratic matriarch.

And then, many years later, as Lady Wainwright's health began to fail, and her two younger sons, Miles and Stephen Wainwright, began to anticipate inheriting a legacy that might be considerable, a letter arrives at Belting one morning, signed by someone claiming to be David Wainwright - who, according to the letter, had survived the war. He had been captured early in the war, lived through horrible experiences including torture, first as a German prisoner of war and later, for many years, in a Russian prison camp. But he was now free and planned to return to Belting to rejoin his family.

Lady Wainwright was overjoyed that her son had survived and was returning. Stephen and Miles were horrified, seeing what they believed to be an impostor attempting to grab the family inheritance when their mother died. And it wasn't too long before the man calling himself David Wainwright came to Belting and the family began trying to prove - or disprove - his claims. And it wasn't very long after that until someone was murdered at Belting...

The story may be found in The Belting Inheritance, by Julian Symons, first published in 1964. The book is the latest in the British Library Crime Classics series and it is set to be published in the U.S. next week by Poisoned Pen Press, which sent me an advance reading copy for this review. The Belting Inheritance is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Julian Symons is remembered today primarily for his literary criticism of mysteries – he was a powerful and influential critic whose book called Bloody Murder (or, in the United States, Mortal Consequences) is still a subject for discussion (and not a little contention). But Symons was also a very talented and popular mystery writer. His work came well after the end of the Golden Age – The Belting Inheritance was published in 1965 – and there is a much greater reliance on psychological portraits of the characters rather than upon a puzzle-plot which is at the heart of the book. As with other books in this excellent series of mysteries, British author and mystery historian Martin Edwards has contributed a useful and highly readable  introduction.

Comments

[Colin McGuigan]

I just finished this the other day and found it pretty good, Les. OK, the ending is a bit on the weak side, not quite living up to the build up in my opinion but it's an excellent page turner overall and Symon's writes extremely smoothly.

[Les Blatt]

I'm glad you did enjoy it, Colin. I understand your feeling a bit let down by the ending - I felt an awful lot got thrown at us in the last few pages - but I did think the Wainwrights were an interesting lot of people.