From the Vault: "The Golden Dagger"

My trip into the Classic Mysteries vault this week has brought back a thoroughly likeable and capable detective, Scotland Yard Commander Bobby Owen. He was the series detective created by Ernest Robertson Punshon - E.R. Punshon, a master of intricate and sometimes bizarre plots. He could also create memorable characters. The first one I ever read, The Golden Dagger, came quite late in his half-century long writing career, appearing in 1951. I gave it an audio review several years ago for the Classic Mysteries podcast, and I bring it to your attention in the hope that you'll be intrigued enough to get it and read it. Here's an edited version of the transcript of that review:

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The case really began with two telephone calls to the police from a pay phone along a quiet country road. The first caller was blunt: There’s been a murder, the anonymous caller said, at Cobblers – the name of a local estate. Police weren’t inclined to pay too much attention until a second call came in from a local woman who reported finding a knife at that pay phone location…a golden dagger with what appeared to be bloodstains on it. Clearly a visit to Cobblers was in order. But what the police found there might surprise you. It all happens in The Golden Dagger, by E. R. Punshon.

I will admit that I was completely unfamiliar with the mysteries written by E. R. Punshon until I discovered The Golden Dagger. Writing in the Golden Age of Detection wiki, mystery scholar Nick Fuller calls Punshon, "one of the most shamefully neglected writers of detective fiction." I must say that after reading The Golden Dagger, I can see why Fuller might feel that way. Certainly the plotting of this 1951 mystery is quite well done, providing a fascinating and complex story in the form of a puzzle for readers.

It begins as I outlined earlier with those two calls to the police. After the discovery of that bloody dagger – a very valuable collector’s piece, by the way – the police, in the person of Scotland Yard Commander Bobby Owen, pay a call at Cobblers, the home of  Lord Rone, the man who owns that mysterious dagger. But when they arrive at the house, they are told, in no uncertain terms, that nobody appears to have been murdered there. Certainly, there’s nothing in the way of a dead body anywhere on the premises – or any signs of violence.

At the same time, however, they do discover that a couple of people seem to be missing, including a best-selling author. And while they begin searching for the missing men, they also learn of a hat – a very expensive hat – which may or may not be a clue to the odd events that seem to be centered around Cobblers…and around that Golden Dagger.

Oh…and have no fear…there has, indeed, been a murder…though perhaps not quite what you have been expecting. And let me emphasize – as the characters do – don’t take your eyes off that mysterious hat.

All this happens amid some very good and thoroughly enjoyable writing. Punshon was quite good at dialogue, and his characters – particularly some of the people living at Cobblers or nearby – are well-drawn and well-rounded. And a lot of the mystery is centered around the relationships among those characters. For example, there’s the missing author and his housekeeper, an embittered woman who has a habit of wandering around clutching a small hatchet. There’s Lord Rone’s daughter, a young woman who appears to have a remarkably flexible set of morals, at least when it comes to telling the truth. There are a number of theater people as well, who seem to be doing their best to confuse the police – and, for that matter, the reader. All are quite interesting and keep the pot well-stirred until the final confrontation with the killer…for, let me assure you, there is, indeed, a killer.

[The following has been updated as of February, 2020, to reflect changes in this book's re-publication]

I am aware of at least two current editions of The Golden Dagger. In Britain, Dean Street Press is publishing the book as one in a series of Punshon's Bobby Owens books. In the U.S., another small publisher, Ramble House is publishing it among a somewhat smaller collection. By comparison, when I wrote this original review, there was only one Punshon title - this one - available. Both publishers deserve gold stars for the work they do finding and re-publishing gems like this one.

In the blurb on the back of this Ramble House edition, the editor notes,

"E. R. Punshon wrote this engaging cosy back in 1951 and it hasn’t been available since, but when you have a plot as tricky as this one, and dialogue that charms the knickers off you, it begs to be reprinted for modern readers who have had too much of the bloated potboilers of today."

I’d have to agree (though I’d hardly call it a cosy). I enjoyed the plotting of The Golden Dagger and I was thoroughly entertained by the characters and the setting. I’d love to try some more.

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You can listen to the original audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast by clicking here.

Next: The Case of the Gilded Fly, by Edwin Crispin.

Comments

[Jon Blake]

Hullo there; been reading your blog for well over a year now and can say that anything you like, I like too. I retired last year and so am reading very much more. You have introduced to me a lot of authors whom I never knew about, and like. A writer I have liked since age 20 is Crispin; he is called Edmund (though it wasn't his real name anyway). Best wishes, Jon.

[Les Blatt]

Thanks, Jon, and I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. Crispin has long been one of my favorites - I've reviewed ten of his eleven books (counting the two collections of short stories). The only one I've missed so far is "The Glimpses of the Moon," his last novel. My favorite is "Swan Song," but they're all excellent. Glad you enjoy him as well!