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Mr. Evan Pinkerton Mysteries #1
Mr. Pinkerton und der nette alte Mann
Heyne Crime Classic Band 1495
Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
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43 people want to read
About the author
David Frome
44 books2 followers David Frome is the nom de plume of Zenith Jones Brown (or Zenith Brown), who also wrote as Leslie Ford.
She wrote several books under the pen-name David Frome while living in England, the most endearing of these featuring timid and elderly widower Evan Pinkerton. Her other series (also based in England) is the Major Gregory Lewis Mysteries.
She wrote several books under the pen-name David Frome while living in England, the most endearing of these featuring timid and elderly widower Evan Pinkerton. Her other series (also based in England) is the Major Gregory Lewis Mysteries.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 5, 2021
This is a 1930 book written by American author Zenith Jones Brown writing using the pseudonym David Frome. It features her series amateur detective Evan Pinkerton even though Pinkerton only played a minor role in this book. Most of the book is of a police procedural nature and features how Scotland Yard detective Inspector J. Humphrey Bull solved a multiple murder case. Bull goes by Humphrey instead of his first name John for obvious reasons. Interesting, Bull has been a paying guest / lodger in Pinkerton’s house for the past nine years. I am quite disappointed in the book. While the plot is quite interesting, I find Bull frustrating to read. It is like following a bumbling detective who was infatuated with a potential suspect. While Bull has an occasional moment of brilliance and inspiration, most of the time he came across as very average. It is also not a fair play mystery. A significant portion of the backstory that led up to the crimes were not provided to the readers until the murderer has been identified. The beginning part of the book is quite interesting. However, it drags on once from the middle till almost all the way to the end.
Spoiler Alert. The story started with Inspector Bull’s boss Commissioner Debenham having received an anonymous letter warning him there will be murder at 60 Caithness Road in Hammersmith. Bull was sent to investigate. He found a young man Lawrence Sprague has just died of tetanus in the house. Bull got suspicious and soon realized young Lawrence was deliberately poisoned. Someone has stolen a cache of germ cultures from a medical researcher, Dr Jeffries Fortescue. The stolen cultures include tetanus culture, flu culture, and hyoscine culture, all dangerous bacteria that could be used as chemical weapon or poison. As Bull continues looking into the Sprague household, which includes young Lawrence’s sisters Beatrice and Margaret, Bull fell in love with Margaret. Also involved in the case are the Spragues’ aunt Emily and a black sheep cousin Eric Cutler. Soon more crimes happened. The Spragues’ house was burgled and ransacked as if somebody was looking for something. Later, aunt Emily’s house in Roehampton got the same ransacking treatment. Later Adam Benn, an old family friend of Lawrence Sprague, Senior (the father of young Lawrence, Beatrice and Margaret) came down with a bad flu which made Bull wonder if someone had used the stolen flu culture on Benn. Another poisoning case happened when Beatrice was murdered with hyoscine poison put into her milk. Then a third burglary occurred when someone ransacked Benn’s antique shop.
All through these, Bull was constantly one step behind the murderer. In the end, Benn took Margaret away from London from all the madness to Wales, where Benn had his ancestral home. In a dramatic and abrupt ending, Benn tried to murder Margaret in Wales but Margaret was saved by the unexpected showing up of Evan Pinkerton and later Bull himself. Apparently Pinkerton has been following the case in the background since Benn is the half-brother of Pinkerton’s wife. After Benn was arrested, the whole story came out. It turns out the story involves two separate and unconnected plots and two separate criminals with different goals.
Benn’s younger brother David Benn was in love with Margaret’s mother Blodwyn Evans years ago and the two were going to get married. Margaret’s father Lawrence Sprague, Senior than appeared and he and Blodwyn fell in love. While the love triangle was going on, Lawrence senior shot David Benn dead in a hunting accident. Adam Benn (who loved his brother David) never agreed with the official verdict of accident and was convinced Lawrence senior murdered David because of Blodwyn. Outwardly, however, Adam Benn pretended to be resigned to the fact and became very close to the Sprague family after the marriage of Lawrence senior and Blodwyn. Benn hid his rage all these years. A few months before the story started, Lawrence senior was killed in a traffic accident. Benn then decided to start a campaign of murder to kill off all the Sprague offsprings. It was Benn who stole all the cultures and poisoned Lawrence Sprague, junior by putting the tetanus culture on his shaving cream brush. It was also Benn who put the hyoscine culture in Beatrice’s milk. He used a little of the flu culture on himself to try to make himself look like a victim. Bull also suspected that Blodwyn might have been killed by Benn a few years ago using arsenic but Frome never went into any details on that.
The various burglaries were committed by a different criminal for a different reason. Years ago, Lawrence Sprague, senior bought some bonds in a United States oil company called Peninsular and Northwest Oil Company. For a long-time the bonds were thought to be worthless. After Lawrence Sprague, senior died, his former business partner, a Mr. Macklin, received a letter from the company to Sprague senior to redeem the bonds for 20000 pounds. Since those are bearer bonds and not registered bonds, whoever holds the bonds can redeem the bonds for cash. Macklin, who created an alias for himself called Mr. Dunn, got the help of the black sheep cousin Eric Cutler and the two committed the burglaries to try to find the bonds. In the end, their efforts failed. They never found the bonds and the bonds ended up in Bull’s hands, who gave it to Margaret as the heir. After all the dust is settled, Bull finally started dating Margaret.
One interesting aspect of the book is the leadership skill of a police Commissioner portrayed by Frome. In most detective stories, little attention is ever given to how a boss of a detective inspector can help guide the investigation in a positive manner. Most of the time they are incompetent or politically corrupt and more a hinderance than help to the investigator. Here, Commissioner Debenham is portrayed as a very able leader. He gave Bull enough room to do things his way, but guide Bull in critical junctures to stimulate his thinking. It was Debenham who got the idea this may be a case of a family vendetta. He hinted that to Bull by sending him to see a play that has that particular theme. That got Bull to start looking into the Sprague family history in Cardiff and discovered the David Benn shooting death, which gave a motive to Adam Benn.
Spoiler Alert. The story started with Inspector Bull’s boss Commissioner Debenham having received an anonymous letter warning him there will be murder at 60 Caithness Road in Hammersmith. Bull was sent to investigate. He found a young man Lawrence Sprague has just died of tetanus in the house. Bull got suspicious and soon realized young Lawrence was deliberately poisoned. Someone has stolen a cache of germ cultures from a medical researcher, Dr Jeffries Fortescue. The stolen cultures include tetanus culture, flu culture, and hyoscine culture, all dangerous bacteria that could be used as chemical weapon or poison. As Bull continues looking into the Sprague household, which includes young Lawrence’s sisters Beatrice and Margaret, Bull fell in love with Margaret. Also involved in the case are the Spragues’ aunt Emily and a black sheep cousin Eric Cutler. Soon more crimes happened. The Spragues’ house was burgled and ransacked as if somebody was looking for something. Later, aunt Emily’s house in Roehampton got the same ransacking treatment. Later Adam Benn, an old family friend of Lawrence Sprague, Senior (the father of young Lawrence, Beatrice and Margaret) came down with a bad flu which made Bull wonder if someone had used the stolen flu culture on Benn. Another poisoning case happened when Beatrice was murdered with hyoscine poison put into her milk. Then a third burglary occurred when someone ransacked Benn’s antique shop.
All through these, Bull was constantly one step behind the murderer. In the end, Benn took Margaret away from London from all the madness to Wales, where Benn had his ancestral home. In a dramatic and abrupt ending, Benn tried to murder Margaret in Wales but Margaret was saved by the unexpected showing up of Evan Pinkerton and later Bull himself. Apparently Pinkerton has been following the case in the background since Benn is the half-brother of Pinkerton’s wife. After Benn was arrested, the whole story came out. It turns out the story involves two separate and unconnected plots and two separate criminals with different goals.
Benn’s younger brother David Benn was in love with Margaret’s mother Blodwyn Evans years ago and the two were going to get married. Margaret’s father Lawrence Sprague, Senior than appeared and he and Blodwyn fell in love. While the love triangle was going on, Lawrence senior shot David Benn dead in a hunting accident. Adam Benn (who loved his brother David) never agreed with the official verdict of accident and was convinced Lawrence senior murdered David because of Blodwyn. Outwardly, however, Adam Benn pretended to be resigned to the fact and became very close to the Sprague family after the marriage of Lawrence senior and Blodwyn. Benn hid his rage all these years. A few months before the story started, Lawrence senior was killed in a traffic accident. Benn then decided to start a campaign of murder to kill off all the Sprague offsprings. It was Benn who stole all the cultures and poisoned Lawrence Sprague, junior by putting the tetanus culture on his shaving cream brush. It was also Benn who put the hyoscine culture in Beatrice’s milk. He used a little of the flu culture on himself to try to make himself look like a victim. Bull also suspected that Blodwyn might have been killed by Benn a few years ago using arsenic but Frome never went into any details on that.
The various burglaries were committed by a different criminal for a different reason. Years ago, Lawrence Sprague, senior bought some bonds in a United States oil company called Peninsular and Northwest Oil Company. For a long-time the bonds were thought to be worthless. After Lawrence Sprague, senior died, his former business partner, a Mr. Macklin, received a letter from the company to Sprague senior to redeem the bonds for 20000 pounds. Since those are bearer bonds and not registered bonds, whoever holds the bonds can redeem the bonds for cash. Macklin, who created an alias for himself called Mr. Dunn, got the help of the black sheep cousin Eric Cutler and the two committed the burglaries to try to find the bonds. In the end, their efforts failed. They never found the bonds and the bonds ended up in Bull’s hands, who gave it to Margaret as the heir. After all the dust is settled, Bull finally started dating Margaret.
One interesting aspect of the book is the leadership skill of a police Commissioner portrayed by Frome. In most detective stories, little attention is ever given to how a boss of a detective inspector can help guide the investigation in a positive manner. Most of the time they are incompetent or politically corrupt and more a hinderance than help to the investigator. Here, Commissioner Debenham is portrayed as a very able leader. He gave Bull enough room to do things his way, but guide Bull in critical junctures to stimulate his thinking. It was Debenham who got the idea this may be a case of a family vendetta. He hinted that to Bull by sending him to see a play that has that particular theme. That got Bull to start looking into the Sprague family history in Cardiff and discovered the David Benn shooting death, which gave a motive to Adam Benn.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2017
Old-fashioned, fun detective yarn.
August 25, 2021
Hmm. It was a good story but I found it a little hard to follow in spots. Not bad. Pinkerton isn’t really in this one much.
Want to read
December 25, 2018Synopsis: residents of a non-descript house are falling victim to horrible diseases. Scotland Yard is stymied but Evan Pinkerton comes to the rescue.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews