Het Klopsignaal

by Helen R. Hull

Here is an unusual mystery novel about a professor, involved with a shapely young assistant, who is goaded into a plot to murder his wife--and how the thought of murder breeds more murder, until--But why spoil a good story--read the book.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Helen Rose Hull was brought up in Michigan, the eldest child of a schools superintendent and a former teacher. Early on she and her brother became financially responsible for their family. She went to Lansing High School and Michigan State University and was a schoolteacher; after graduate work she went to Wellesley College to teach creative writing. Here she met Mabel Louise Robinson with whom she lived for the rest of her life. Their home was in New York and, in summer, in North Brooklin, Maine. She joined the Department of English at Columbia in 1916 and taught there for the next forty years, becoming professor. In New York she was a key member of the Heterodoxy Club, a group of outstanding and unorthodox women. She published numerous short stories and the first of her 17 novels came out in 1922, the last in 1963.

- from the back cover of 'Heat Lightning' published by Persephone Books

Reviews

[Geert Daelemans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak attempt to write a psychological crime novel

Professor Macameny endured the whimsies of his constantly moaning wife without complaining. His wife was not feeling like herself when she couldn't show that she suffered from a strange, unknown disease, which most often had only infested her mind. Macamery just played along with her imagined diseases until one day a young, divorced woman starts working at the university. Slowly the professor realises that his wife is better off dead than alive, certainly when she tries to get rid of this young rival. The only question on the mind of the professor is: how to murderer my wife?

Do not expect a classic detective story. A Tapping on the Wall is more a psychological crime novel, that a whodunit. That is to say such was probably the intention, because it clearly missed its point. After thirteen times reading that the professor doubts his own actions, you can only shout: kill her and get on with the show. But no! Helen Hull (1888-1971) keeps delaying any type of action and when you close the book you still wonder what the point was to this story.
Amazingly enough this novel earned Helen the Dodd-Mead award ($3,000) for the best mystery or suspense novel written by a professor.