Ebony Bed Murder, The

by Rufus Gillmore

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our narrator, who is apparently a journalist or writer looking to write up murder mysteries for publication, has gone to Griffin Scott's home to get the inside scoop on what really happened in a previous murder (referred to as "the Lopez murder"). Scott, who is an advertising man by day, moonlights as an amateur detective While there, Scott is called upon by D.A. Hutchinson to join him at the site of a new mystery: the death of Helen Brill Kent. And for reasons mysterious to me, Scott takes the narrator along for the ride.

Helen, a beautiful woman, has been known for the way she has gone through five husbands--marrying and discarding them and collecting as much as possible in divorce settlements. She's found shot in her own ebony bed after prematurely leaving a birthday celebration in her honor. Her relatives and the police (in the person of Sergeant Mullens) insist that it's suicide due to neuralgia but Scott immediately recognizes signs that point to murder.

Investigation shows that there are several motives for murder hanging about the Brill Kent premises. She had given the boot to her leech-like father and brothers--cutting them off without anymore handouts. She had also given notice to her "stage-mother" friend and confidante who had helped her build the image that had drawn in monied men like flies to honey. There was also a mysterious man whose voice was heard in Helen's bedroom after she left the party--who was he and what motive might he have had? Scott will have to work quick if he's to prevent the police from following up the wrong clues and arresting the wrong person.

I can't decide what to think of this book. At the beginning I was sure that this thing had originally been written in a foreign language that had a vastly different grammar and word arrangement system from English and then translated by someone who transcribed it word by word with no regard for how it would read/sound. The writing was stiff and ungainly. Word choices jarred--someone please tell me how eyes can "bristle." And when were penguins ever glum and how did we know?

But then we settled down into the story and--though the writing was still not stellar--things picked up. The murder seemed to be ingenious--after all, how did the murder manage to get their victim to sit there calmly and let them shoot them in the mouth without a struggle or a peep? The amateur was going to hunt the clues and break alibis and generally show the officials how it's done. Except....he didn't. For pages and pages Griffin Scott didn't seem to get anywhere. Or when he did, it didn't matter. And Sergeant Mullens takes the prize for most obnoxious, pig-headed, single-minded policeman that I've had the (a--hem) pleasure of meeting in fiction. Once Scott convinces him that the death couldn't possibly be suicide (and that took some doing, let me tell you) then he latches onto a suspect and absolutely nothing will make him think about anything else. Every single clue Scott picks up either gets twisted to point to the suspect of choice or is simply ignored as if it doesn't exist.

The narrator of the book (the Watson character) is also annoying as all get-out. How many times does Scott have to tell him that he (Scott) doesn't believe that Mullens' favorite suspect (a lovely young lady that our narrator has a soft spot for) is guilty before he'll believe Scott and trust that Scott is working towards the truth--which will, incidentally, clear the lovely lady? I got tired of the narrator-in-shining-armor jumping all over Scott every time he (Scott) asked a question that Mr. Narrator (apparently Gillmore himself) feels makes things look sketchy for the lady.

The best part of the book is Scott's interview with the man who was next on Helen's husband list. Watching him outsmart the man who manipulated both Mullens and Hutchinson into leaving him out of it, was a treat. This is when things really started to get good and I have to hand it to Gillmore for a nice plot with an even better ending. I just wish that the first 2/3rds of the book had been better. It's been said that this was written in the style of S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance novels--but there's far more tough-guy talk going on here than you'll find in a Vance story and Scott is nowhere near the gentlemanly amateur of a Vance. He's a down-to-earth adman who just happens to have a Batman-like cave full of gadgets, gizmos, and chemistry projects.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please requested permission before reposting portions of the review. Thanks.

[Gabriele Crescenzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Il letto d'ebano" è un gradevole romanzo di Rufus Gillmore di chiara ispirazione vandiniana (infatti il detective, Griffin Scott, viene spesso elogiato come un genio dall'acume brillante, come avviene spesso per Philo Vance nei romanzi che lo vedono protagonista, e questo è seguito da una sorta di assistente "ammiratore e celebratore" che porta lo stesso nome dell'autore). La vicenda è scorrevole, con personaggi ben delineati (alcuni cadono forse eccessivamente negli stereotipi del genere) e colpi di scena ripetuti. Purtroppo la meccanica del delitto "in camera chiusa" (che diventa tale solo nel finale, in quanto in realtà circolano ben 6 chiavi della stanza della vittima) è sì carina anche se sfruttata eccessivamente, ma buttata lì senza alcun appiglio logico. Inoltre il metodo impiegato dal colpevole aveva alte possibilità di non riuscita a mio parere (evidentissime, ma che l'autore ha senza dubbio ignorato, sintomo di scarsa cura nei dettagli importanti). L'individuazione del colpevole non è un vero colpo di scena, in quanto fin troppo canonica (basta che il lettore stia attento al fatto che quella persona viene citata poco ed è la colpevole più improbabile, facendola così diventare la potenziale sospetta) ma senza alcun indizio per poterci arrivare. Dunque 3 stelle solo per la lettura gradevole.

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have noted, dilettante Griffin Scott is a kindler, gentler version of Philo Vance (from the S. S. Van Dine novels of the same period), minus the snobby condescension; making him a lot more likable. Scott's batcave-like apartment contains all the latest anti-crime tech gadgets (chem lab, workshop, grand piano) as well as a giant chessboard painted on the floor (guess he didn't worry about the security deposit).

Lots of sixes: Six people present at the murder, Five ex-husbands with a sixth in the pipeline, six keys to the apartment. A floor plan of the apartment is provided (p. 41) which is helpful, but darned if I can find the rear entrance, which plays an important role, indicated on it.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

More entertaining than anything by Van Dine, still a far cry from the masters of the genre such as Carr or Christie. The style was clunky with lots of epithets (may be partly the translator's fault). The police seemed a little too keen to apprehend one suspect even before the evidence started to pile up against her and the "good guys" seemed too convinced of her innocence for equally no reason. The middle part looking for more suspects, when it's abundantly clear that the killer is one of the six present, could use some trimming. There was a point in the second half with gas and poison shenanigans where I wondered what I was reading. The culprit was too obvious but at the end it still managed a decent twist and psychological portrait of victim and killer which earned it a pass.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty awful 1930s pulp mystery. I kept reading in the naive hope it would get better.