Falling Star

Inspector Henry Tibbett Mystery #5

by Patricia Moyes

It seemed an easy enough scene for Bob Meakin to play. The handsome but aging star was to jam the eyeglasses on his nose as he rushed down the subway stairs, then look around wildly for his girl. The producer of Northburn Films thought they might be able to shoot it in one take. But with the crew in position and the camera rolling, Meakin tripped on the stairs, and fell directly beneath the wheels of the incoming train. At first this appeared to be no more than an appalling accident, but subsequent events convince Inspector Henry Tibbett that murder was added to the script.

Henry Tibbett, Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard, has for years delighted those who love a classic Brittish detective story. A modest self-effacing man, Tibbett possesses an almost uncanny "nose" for crime, and those who know him well realize that his gentlemanly demeanor masks a shrewd mind and a fearless spirit. When he teams up with his wife, Emmy, a cheerful but formidable woman, there isn't a criminal anywhere who can rest secure.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, British Literature, Procedural, Crime

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Moyes was born in Dublin on 19 January 1923 and was educated at Overstone girls' school in Northampton. She joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his film School for Secrets. She became his personal assistant for the next eight years. In 1960 she wrote the screenplay for the film School for Scoundrels starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, and Alastair Sim. She married photographer John Moyes in 1951; they divorced in 1959. She later married James Haszard, a linguist at the International Monetary Fund in The Hague. She died at her home on the island of Virgin Gorda (British Virgin Islands) on 2 August 2000.

Her mystery novels feature C.I.D. Inspector Henry Tibbett. One of them, Who Saw Her Die (Many Deadly Returns in the US) was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1971. She also wrote several juveniles and short stories.

Series:
* Inspector Henry Tibbett Mystery

Reviews

[Jeremy Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other reviewers have commented on the personality of Pudge, the narrator (whom many seem to find off-puttingly spoiled, snobbish, and annoying, which I can certainly understand). For what it's worth, I think it should be noted that in giving us Pudge, Moyes is (I presume) deliberately evoking the spirit of Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster. While this Wodehouse influence is generally understated in the book, here's a passage where I think it's very explicit:

She did not take the monkey, which was now jumping up and down in my arms, chattering and begging to be swung again.
"Can't you stop playing with that animal?" Keith asked.
"Since you ask," I said, "no. It has taken a fancy to me and it is extremely adhesive."
"Oh, well then, keep it if you want to."
"I do not want to," I pointed out. "It is merely that..."
"Look," said Keith, "there are serious things I want to say to you, and you will keep on talking about monkeys."

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

And now for something completely different. Falling Star (1964) is a different kind of Patricia Moyes book than I've read to date. Till now each detective novel has been told in the third person, but Falling Star adopts Anthony "Pudge" Croombe-Peters as its first-person narrator. Pudge is a rather annoying fellow--both to the other characters in the story and to the reader. And quite a bit of time is spent trying to figure out if he's just an annoying, self-absorbed, snobbish member of the upperclass with too much time on his hands or if he's the unreliable narrator that he appears to be. This may be part of Moyes's plan to keep the reader too busy to spot the clues she obligingly provides.

There is also the fact that Moyes makes a fairly successful venture into the "impossible crime" genre for the second death. No, we don't have a locked room, but we do have an apparent suicide-turned murder (this isn't really a spoiler--it doesn't take long to realize there's something fishy about that death) where it appears that none of the likely suspects could possibly have committed the crime. Inspector Henry Tibbett spots a few clues here and there that tell him how the deed was accomplished. I missed it completely. Despite being shown exactly what he found.

It all starts on the set of a movie filming in 1960s London. Pudge Croombe-Peters represents the money angle of the production. He is a bored, wealthy middle-aged man who doesn't want to settle down to manage his father's estate. Getting himself talked into backing a brand-new film-company put together by his military buddy Keith Pardoe, his writer wife Biddy, and friend (and Producer-to-be) Sam Potman. They get the company off the ground and start filming a version of Biddy's script Street Scene. There are the usual cast conflicts with a prima donna leading lady who is determined to have her way about everything and to have her way with every available man and an aging (though still handsome) leading man who wants everything his way.

The critical moment comes when they are prepared to film a crucial moment in the relationship between the two leading roles. It should be a very easy scene for Bob Meakin to play. All he needs to do is jam his eyeglasses on his nose, rush down the subway stairs, then look around wildly for his girl. But with the crew in position and the camera rolling, Meakin trips on the stairs, and falls directly beneath the wheels of the incoming train. The inquest declares it to be no more than an appalling accident and an insurance company is convinced enough to pay up on the policy which ensured the film company against just such accidents. But when a former member of the crew dies after falling out of her kitchen window, her mother shows up to dispute the ruling of suicide. This and subsequent events convince Inspector Henry Tibbett that murder was added to the script.

If it weren't for the annoying Pudge, this would be a full four-star book. The plot is quite good with plenty of twists and well-planted clues. Moyes does a very good job with her first impossible crime (the first I've read, anyway) and manages to come up with a fairly ingenious method for the killer to manage an alibi. I was quite taken in by the red herrings thrown across my path by the rather dim narrator--which would seem to be his best quality as far as the story goes. Henry Tibbett doesn't shine quite so well in this one, but I think that's because we're seeing him through Pudge's self-absorbed lens. Solid story earning ★★★ and a half. (Rounded-up)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It seemed an easy enough scene for Bob Meakin to play. The handsome but aging star was to jam the eyeglasses on his nose as he rushed down the subway stairs, then look around wildly for his girl. The producer of Northburn Films thought they might be able to shoot it in one take. But with the crew in position and the camera rolling, Meakin tripped on the stairs, and fell directly beneath the wheels of the incoming train. At first this appeared to be no more than an appalling accident, but subsequent events convince Inspector Henry Tibbit that murder was added to the script.

"Henry Tibbett, Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard, has for years delighted those who love a classic British detective story. A modest, self-effacing man, Tibbett possesses an almost uncanny 'nose' for crime, and those who know him well realize that his gentlemanly demeanor masks a shrewd mind and a fearless spirit. When he teams up with his wife, Emmy, a cheerful but formidable woman, there isn't a criminal anywhere who can rest secure."
~~back cover

A very satisfactory murder mystery, complete with ins and outs and various clues strewn along the way. The author cleverly had the man "narrating" the plot because he was an outsider to the inner clique of the director, the scriptwriter and her husband. Was Bob Meakin's death an accident? Or the first in a series of murders? Only the ending will tell ...

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot kept me guessing - definitely falls in line with the quote that Moyes "put the who in whodunnit". But Pudge, the narrator, was just too annoying. He's definitely a snob, and kind of oily. There's some suggestion at the end that this was due to his upraising (never had to work for anything before) and that he had seen the light. Too bad it didn't happen earlier.

I thought as I read that this must have been written during Moyes' "annoying key character" phase, but the other two books I was thinking of are #10 (Many Deadly Returns) and #11 (Season of Snows and Sins), while this is #5.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth Henry Tibbett mystery and is a bit different from the previous books as it has a first person narrator. This is ‘Pudge’ an aristocrat who is part owner of a small independent film company. When the star of their latest film dies in an apparent accident, Pudge and his colleagues are anxious to conceal any rumours of foul play so that they will get the insurance money that will enable them to remake the film with another actor. But then things begin to get complicated. This is quite a good mystery with several unexpected twists and some interesting characters. ‘Pudge’ is a bit pompous, but an amusing narrator. It is a pity though that we don’t see much of Emmy in this one.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book. It is best if you have read other Inspector Tibbett mysteries. You might get to wondering when Tibbett will ever get involved but just wait for it.

The story is told in the first person by "Pudge" Croombe-Peters in his role as bean counter and main financial backer for the film in progress, Street Scene . Pudge is detail oriented but not always honest. Who else is lying? Is Pudge any judge or character?

The descriptions of movie making in the 1960's are detailed, enjoyable, and easy to visualize.

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic mystery in which the Scotland Yard detective doesn’t show up until mid-book. I was motivated to read this by a positive mention in Read Like the Wind in NYT just as I was looking for a less intense, and frankly shorter mystery, after just finishing Happiness Falls. Although Falling Star shows its age, it held my attention, and can’t be faulted for being a “classic.” 😊

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was very different and also kept me guessing. This time the mystery unfolds through the first person recollections of Anthony "Pudge" Croombe-Peters, the major investor in a start-up film company who has insisted on a role of executive producer. Pudge is pompous and often officious but he is also aware of that tendency and at heart touchingly eager to belong.

Really skillfully done and a treat to read.

[Steph (loves water) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book several times a long time ago and really enjoyed it. To this day, picturing Mrs. Arbuthnot makes me laugh. So glad to have found this here on Goodreads, I'm going to look up more of Patricia Moyes books.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony "Pudge" Croombe-Peters narrates this mystery in a departure from Moyes early installments in the Tibett series, which all feature a third person narrator. This approach created a mixed result.
Moyes means for Pudge to irritate and he does to great effect! A small sample from page one:
"As soon as I started to speak, I knew that I sounded pompous, which had not been my intention. I often think there is no way for a young man as stout as I am to avoid appearing pompous, especially if he has the added disadvantages of a pink-and-white complexion and very fine fair hair with such a tendency to recession that he is half-bald at twenty-eight. The only alternative to pomposity seems to be to turn oneself into a buffoon, and that I am not prepared to do. On some days I feel that there must be a middle course; on others I admit that there is not. This was one of the other days."
He's so self centered, and really it boils down to his insecurities. He's so busy trying to prove himself all the time that he totally fails to consider the perspective of literally any other human being around him. He's emotionally UNINTELLIGENT and has no concept of how to read a room. The idea would never occur to him. Also, the savvy mystery reader is instantly alert: is he an unreliable narrator in addition to being self absorbed? Is he willfully unobservant or intentionally omitting crucial details? Is he just an ass or is he an ass AND a murderer?
Pudge is avoiding managing his family estate by investing in another venture - Northburn Films. He's executive producer and Chief Penny Pincher, which is partly his right as he's funded the bulk of the company.
This is another installment from Moyes that could have benefitted from a cast list of characters at the preface. There's Keith Pardoe, artistic director and old military buddy of Pudge, which is how Pudge was approached in the first place as financier of the enterprise. There's Keith's wife author Bridget "Biddy" Brennan (yes she kept her maiden name, very avant garde for the time) who curses like a sailor and makes Wellingtons look soignée. There's Sam Potman, director with a North Country accent that only emerges when advantageous. The rag tag group is filming a movie called Street Scene with it's starring role going to Bob Meakin, a big name in show business even though he might be slightly past his prime. His love interest on screen is Fiametta Fettini, an Italian bombshell who's worked her way up from the slums of Naples though some in the industry are loathe to let her forget it. She's a prima donna in the fullest sense of the word - traveling with an entourage including her soft spoken husband and her pet monkey. These are the main players, with an assortment of periphery characters with cameos and small bit parts.
While filming a scene where Meakin runs down an escalator in the London Underground there's a terrible accident - he falls down the stairs and underneath the tracks of an oncoming train. Gruesome and tragic, but the accident also brings to bear an unexpected windfall. The film was almost broke. With the insurance payout from the tragedy the film company gets a very necessary cash infusion to keep the cameras rolling... does this create a motive?
The inquest rules the case an accidental death and the insurance company reluctantly pays out and things move forward under a strange spell. Until the second death.
Margery Phipps, the Continuity Girl on the film, falls to her death from her apartment. It seems like a suicide but with the death count mounting there's an air of uncertainty. Especially when the dead girl's mother demands an interview with Henry Tibbett because she's so sure her daughter's death was suspicious.
About this point Bob Meakin's widow turns up asking uncomfortable questions - her presence is a surprise as everyone assumed Meakin was an eligible bachelor, it was part of his movie star appeal. Motives, suspects, and red herrings abound, Tibbett shrewdly trying to unravel it all while Pudge intentionally and unintentionally obfuscates things along the way.
Once again Moyes excels at creating an immersive setting and compelling, realistic characters. I was guessing until the end on several points of the mystery and pleasantly surprised by the reveal. At least one of the murders is a locked room mystery and the resolution was quite ingenious if a little unrealistic. Pudge's finale was definitely a shock but a just ending for him and rather comical in retrospect. I have seen other reviewers compare him to Bertie Wooster, but Pudge has none of the good nature, wit, fashion (non?) sense, self deprecation, or willingness to help his friends that softens Bertie's incompetence! Pudge does have the entitlement that comes with a family title and the exasperation of being forever misunderstood - from his perspective at least. What Moyes does brilliantly is make it very clear that Pudge in most cases is being perfectly understood as just as abrasive as he thinks/feels internally but he's trying and completely failing to mask in his external interactions with others. It's a comedy of a sort if you squint just at the right angle, but an uncomfortable one, and the only thing that kept the mystery from being a five star read.

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pudge needs better friends, man.

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly plotted vintage whodunit (originally published in 1964) delves into the troubled production of an independent British film called STREET SCENE, being shot on a shoestring budget in swinging London. The novel is narrated by the film's executive producer, pompous and vain "Pudge" Croombe-Peters, who is supplying the funds for the apparently jinxed film. As a narrator, Pudge is honest with the reader, but he is far from the brightest bulb in the chandelier; the reader quickly realizes that Pudge's interpretation of events is preposterous, but the challenge (a delightful and considerable one) is to interpret these events correctly, uncover the motives, and solve the murder. Because when the film's leading man dies in a fall as the camera turns, it's no accident . . . .

A fine cast of suspects, witty dialogue, fair-play clues, lots of plot twists, and the eventual appearance of sensible, low-key Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett--who can read nuance--makes FALLING STAR a very satisfying puzzle.

[Deepa Nirmal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book via the Read Like the Wind newsletter from the NYT. Clearly a lot of people read it, because whenever a book is featured, there is a line at the library for it.

I thought this book was really super fun. Set in the early 1960s, it is many decades removed from Bertie Wooster, but Pudge Croombe-Peters certainly has a Wooster-ish air. When things start to go horribly awry on the set of the film he is executive producing, and people begin dying like flies, Pudge finds the plot thickening like a béchamel sauce around him (I am quoting the book directly).

I did not have a clue as to who or how done it, and all is hurriedly revealed in the last few pages by Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett. Tibbett is quite the anti-Poirot, he sort of blends in with the wallpaper, and we don't see much of him in the book, yet his little grey cells are hard at work the whole time. The ending is appropriate if unsatisfactory... a person who kills repeatedly is clearly unhinged, after all.

Anyway, I liked this book enough that I plan to read all the Tibbett books in order. This one was #5.

[Heatherinblack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t like the narrator but great other than that

This book is told from the perspective of the “main” character, Pudge. The rest I have read are anonymous narrator. Somehow this didn’t work well for me. While Henry doesn’t tell the story, no one gets the attention more. I like Henry’s logic. We got very little of his thought process and actions in solving the murder. And there were certainly too many in on all the crime. I guess it is a good mystery?

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Henry Tibbett is a likable character. He and his wife provide sweet entertainment. This book had another character narrating the story and describing Tibbett in less than satisfactory terms. The narrator was offensive to me, and his misunderstanding and criticisms of Tibbett were irritating until about three-fourths through the book. He didn’t change but Tibbett was more to the front of the story. It was a good plot, and I did finally enjoy the book. I am glad I did finish it.

[Christine PNW · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mediocre entry into the series, IMO. Not enough Henry - he really only shows up after the midpoint. The narrator was obnoxious. The characters were generally unlikeable, and the fact that the murderer is the most working class, but brilliant, member of the cast of characters feels deeply classist.

Meh.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific tale of “Pudge” Coombe-Peters who joins friends to finance the making of a film. When the lead actor "Pudge" can't do right for doing wrong as he attempts to save the movie but looks more and more like the murderer. Patricia Moyes writes very clever murder mysteries and certainly the best author I've found in the last twelve months.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay read, not one of her best, though. The narrator isn't a totally nice person, and a little too into himself. I thought the book could have been trimmed a bit and tightened up with more "detecting" from Tibbett.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

A possible 4 stars because this is one of the few books in literature narrated by a remarkably stupid person, but really 3 because the plot is so cumbersome and the set up takes too long to get going. Also having the narrator’s stupidity - he’s weak as well - complicate the investigation is not very satisfying.

[Calum Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

B–:

A bit of a risk to make the narrator a totally unreliable buffoon, albeit funny in spells. The mystery itself is open but a couple of deaths lack credibility and - like the last instalment - it just feels a tad lightweight compared to the first three.

[Panu Mäkinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elokuvamaailmaan sijoittuva perusdekkari.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an early version of the "unreliable narrator", Pudge is an obtuse delight.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, but the story is told in the first person - and the first person is a pompous ass. Hard to get around but I'm sure the author meant it to be funny.

[DJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting- i loved that she told the book from one of the characters, rather than Emmy or Henry's, point of view- made for a good read.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love this series. This was a behind the camera look at movie making in England in the 60's.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Bird Book Deal

[Dogsandbooks]

2022 is rereading

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Movie Making

Is fraught with danger & rife with dilemmas! Intriguingly written in first person by one of the leading suspects - Oh!

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, different use of first person perspective for a Henry Tibbett story. Delightful read, really enjoyed it.

[Kathleen Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heard of this author as recommended along with Dame Agatha. She is not in the same league, but it was a nice little mystery.