A grim solution to a grim problem: how to deal with a loathsome blackmailer who may also be a serial killer? For half-a-dozen young English gentlemen, the answer appears to be a well-plotted murder, one where it will be impossible to tell who struck the fatal blow. Only things may not always go quite as smoothly as planned.
Consider the situation at the beginning of Brian Flynn’s excellent 1931 mystery, The Orange Axe. A young woman is being threatened and tormented by a blackmailer. Six young men, all friends and/or relatives of the victim, are determined that the blackmailing villain, André de Ravenac will be put to death as the result of a complex and – they feel quite sure – foolproof plan to end de Ravenac’s blackmailing exploits. The young men will draw lots to decide which one of them will actually commit murder, while the others play lesser roles in a carefully developed conspiracy to cover up the crime and mask the real criminal. Nobody in the group will ever know who carried out the murder.
And so the plan is carried out. De Ravenac is murdered – the victim of a knife thrust through the heart. And that’s when bits and pieces of the plan start going wrong. It happens in The Orange Axe, by Brian Flynn. It's the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to that complete review online by clicking here.
With a state visit under way in London from the President of a small political republic, Sir Austin Kemble, the director of Scotland Yard, agrees to invite his friend and semi-official investigator, Anthony Bathurst to take over the investigation. (Bathurst is the principal detective in nearly all of the mysteries written by Brian Flynn.) He - and readers - will soon discover that there's a great deal more going on here than meets the eye.
And we’re off on a race, first to follow the clues left by the murderer…then, perhaps, to develop a logical response. It will all end in a highly dramatic confrontation between Anthony Bathurst and the killer, as Bathurst tries to find proof of the guilt of a suspect whose identity, I think, when finally revealed, is liable to surprise the reader. The Orange Axe, by Brian Flynn, is a remarkably clever mystery that I think you would enjoy. This new edition from Dean Street Press also features an introduction by mystery historian Steve Barge to both the author and this book.
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