I love to be fooled.
I guess I'd better qualify that a bit: I love to be fooled by a talented author of mysteries who constantly leads me up a red-herring-scented path and then, at the last moment, twists me around suddenly and brings me to a place that I had no idea I was approaching. Only a handful of authors could really deliver that kind of surprising revelation. One of them was Elizabeth Daly. And one of the books in which she performed that kind of wizardry was called Any Shape or Form. It's a great place to meet her series sleuth, biblio expert Henry Gamadge. I wrote and recorded an audio review of that book for the Classic Mysteries podcast nearly eight years ago. Here's a transcript of what I wrote, slightly edited (as usual):
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The best word to describe the statue in the garden may be “grotesque.” It was a statue, apparently human-like in form, made of wood, but the wood had deteriorated to where the statue’s face was hardly visible. It looked as if it had once been alive, but decayed. It may have been meant to represent the sun-god, Apollo. Or perhaps not. But it certainly played a central role in some very sinister events – including murder – at a country estate fairly near New York City. Unfortunately for the killer, one of the guests at the estate was Henry Gamadge. And the story of what happened may be found in Any Shape or Form, by the American author, Elizabeth Daly. Between 1940 and 1951, Daly wrote sixteen mysteries featuring Henry Gamadge, an expert on old books and manuscripts who has a flair for solving difficult mysteries. The ninth book in that series, published in 1945, was Any Shape or Form, and I think it is one of the best.
It begins in a very straightforward manner: Gamadge is invited to the country estate of an old friend, Johnny Redfield, to meet Redfield’s aunt, an elderly woman who appears to have become some kind of sun worshipper. She asks to be called by her “astral” name – Vega – and she wears some kind of strange costume, apparently part of this peculiar cult. Naturally – for the sake of a story like this one – she is very wealthy indeed.
It becomes quite obvious that there are a great many divisions and strains among the guests at Redfield’s estate – including a serious rift between his aunt and her two stepchildren, Cora and David Malcolm. Gamadge is aware of the strained atmosphere – but he is barely established on the scene before there is a murder, practically in front of his eyes. There are almost too many potential killers, for nobody appears to have a particularly good alibi.
The police are called in, of course – but in this small community, the police feel they must tread warily, for most of the guests are influential local residents. Ultimately, it will be Gamadge who must pursue the clue which holds the key to the murder – though he will be powerless to stop another killing.
If you’re not familiar with Elizabeth Daly – well, you have a treat in store for you. She was said to be Agatha Christie’s favorite American writer. It’s pretty clear why that should be: Daly was a first-rate mystery writer, coming up with difficult and ingenious problems but providing readers with the clues collected by Gamadge. That’s certainly the case here.
Daly was also expert at creating memorable characters. Not just Johnny Redfield’s eccentric aunt – the whole household of upper-middle-class residents and guests are made quite memorable through Daly’s writing. That extends, by the way, to that peculiar statue in Redfield’s garden which I mentioned earlier. Here's part of Daly’s description:
Its outstretched hands were fingerless, half its raised left foot was gone, and except for the suggestion of a rudimentary nose and half a lip, it was faceless. Blackened where it had been gilded, worm-eaten and rain-sodden, its short tunic falling back from a knee that had weathered to a leprous gray, it did indeed look like something that had once been alive, and was now dead and exhumed.
“Lovely,” said Gamadge.
Is that important? Yes – but probably in ways that will surprise you. One of the things I enjoy most about all of Daly’s books are the surprises and twists that she employs along the way. The climactic scenes of this book, for example, take place in a confrontation with all of the major characters on hand – one of those scenes that will be familiar to readers of Nero Wolfe or Hercule Poirot mysteries. But this confrontation proves to be quite harrowing – as Gamadge twists the threads of the story line into something quite different from what most readers will have been expecting. It is a talent that Daly exercised in almost all her books, and I think it is particularly well done here.
The 1940s, when this book appeared, were an interesting time for American mysteries, as the traditional, puzzle-oriented mysteries of the Golden Age – particularly in its American incarnation – gave way to the more action oriented, darker stories of noir writers. While the hard-boiled school had been around at least since the 1920s, it really became dominant during and after World War II. It is purely a personal taste, but I prefer Daly. I recommend Any Shape or Form without reservation. It has been brought back into print in both paper and e-book formats by Felony & Mayhem Press and should be quite available.
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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: Dead Men Don't Ski, by Patricia Moyes.
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