Death Knocks Three Times

Arthur Crook #22

by Anthony Gilbert

A mystery thriller novel by Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of British writer Lucy Beatrice Malleson. The twenty second in her long-running series featuring the unscrupulous London solicitor Arthur Crook, one of the more unorthodox detectives of the Golden Age.

Our favorite criminal lawyer, Mr. Crook, gets caught in a violent storm on the Moors while visiting a police-spy client. While on his way home, he is forced to seek shelter at an isolated house in Chipping Magna and is grudgingly given it for the night by eccentric old Colonel Sherren who lives there alone with one servant.

On Crook's return to town he reads that his reluctant host has been found dead in his bath. Accident, murder or suicide? Crook's suspicions are aroused when he hears of the recent deaths of two other members of the same family, so, he starts investigations on his own account -- even though there is nothing in it for him, which is strictly against his principles, but is in itself eloquent testimony to Anthony Gilbert's plot.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

155 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Anthony Gilbert was the pen name of Lucy Malleson an English crime writer. She also wrote non-genre fiction as Anne Meredith , under which name she also published one crime novel. She also wrote an autobiography under the Meredith name, Three-a-Penny (1940).

Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.

She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.

Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.

Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.

The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.

Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very pleased to say that Death Knocks Three Times has been my favorite mystery so far by Anthony Gilbert. Gilbert is a pseudonym for Lucy Beatrice Malleson, a very prolific British mystery writer (over 60 novels written under this pseudonym alone--she had several others). Her primary detective is Arthur Crook--a lawyer whose clients are always innocent. Always. Crook is a likable rogue who cheerfully says that he doesn't mind who he sets up as the murderer--provided he can get his client off.

In this outing, he doesn't really have a client--at least not directly related to the crimes in question. He is on his way back to London while traveling on a case when a terrific storm forces him to take shelter with the very unwelcoming Colonel Sherren in Chipping Magna. The colonel is an odd, reclusive man who thinks modern conveniences such as heat and hot water will sap the manliness right out of you. Crook manages to take a liking to the elderly gentleman anyway and they spend a long evening talking.

Crook is back in town just two days before he is called back to Chipping Magna to give evidence at the old boy's inquest. Colonel Sherren had a very strange, Victorian bath with some sort of lid contraption which bashed him over the head on the morning of his weekly bath. There was an unexpected visit from the colonel's nephew, John, and an argument to account for the night before, but the jury brings in death by misadventure. Then Crook learns that Sherren isn't the only member of the family to have met an untimely end.

John's Aunt Isabel had an unfortunate accident with a balcony. Coincidentally, her devoted nephew had just visited the night before and warned her that the balcony's railing looked a bit unsound. Poor Aunt Isabel apparently didn't take the warning to heart and leaned a bit too far. Death by misadventure again. And now John's remaining relative Aunt Clara has been receiving anonymous letters with vague threats, but displaying an uncomfortable knowledge of Clara and Isabel's affairs.

Clara calls upon an old family friend, Frances Pettigrew, for support and advice and John shows up for a surprise visit as well. Clara is also approached by a former suitor of Isabel's with what can only be called blackmail. Soon Arthur Crook is hovering in the neighborhood and manages to be on the spot when Aunt Clara dies of a barbiturate overdose. This time John didn't leave before his loved one passed on--but is he the one responsible for the diminishing numbers of Sherrens? The police are prepared to think so. But what does Arthur Crook think?

This mystery was much faster paced than the previous two Gilbert novels that I've reviewed. The plot moved along at a nice steady clip and there was lots of character interaction. It helped that Crook makes his appearance right from the start. I really enjoy his character and was glad to have him involved beginning on page one. Gilbert's primary downfall is hiding the culprit. I once again spotted the ultimate villain of the piece well before the end, but I missed the how of the crime--making for a very worthwhile read. Three and 3/4 stars.

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

[Linda Brue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Crook of Scotland Yard is caught up in a terrible storm on the moors in the middle of nowhere. When he comes upon a crumbling old house, he decides to stop and ask to stay the night to ride out the storm. An elderly man and his caretaker live there and grudgingly allow him to stay the night. When Crook returns to London, he reads that the old man has been found dead in his bath. Crook is intrigued by the old man's death and when subsequently two other members of the same family are found dead under suspicious circumstances, he decides to look into the deaths personally.

This is a first-rate mystery that will surprise most readers in the various turns it takes. Gilbert really fleshes out his characters and makes them human enough that the reader can recognize people they may know in his characters. Although the book was written long ago, the reasons behind family dynamics are exactly the same today.

[Quỳnh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Cuốn này có điểm mạnh là không quá dở, điểm yếu là không quá hay, ấn tượng chung của mình là nó thường thường bậc trung. Từng có những cuốn trinh thám nâng mình lên mây rồi đạp xuống đất như ‘Enter Without Desire’, nhưng ‘Death Knocks Three Times’ ở một chiều hướng ngược lại.

Có lẽ cuốn truyện sẽ xuất sắc hơn nếu ở độ dài của truyện ngắn thay vì tiểu thuyết. Vụ án chính chỉ chiếm hơn ⅓ thời lượng, động cơ ổn, thủ pháp gây án khá, nếu tinh ý thì độc giả có thể tìm ra vài manh mối được cài cắm. Mình cho là sẽ hay hơn nếu tác giả mạnh tay khoản “cá trích đỏ” để khiến độc giả nhiễu loạn giữa các nghi phạm.
⅔ thời lượng còn lại được dùng để đi sâu vào các nhân vật, đáng tiếc là câu chuyện của họ khá xoàng và việc miêu tả tâm lý không có gì đặc sắc. Có thể vì đây là cuốn thứ 21 trong series, tác giả không buồn giới thiệu chi tiết luật sư Arthur Crook nữa. Anh này không giống hình mẫu luật sư đạo mạo mà giống kiểu nhân vật thám tử tư ngổ ngáo, hơn nữa truyện lại không có cảnh pháp đình. Nhân vật tay Don Juan già với bà giáo khá thú vị nhưng ít đất diễn, trong khi anh chàng John tẻ nhạt thì xuất hiện quá nhiều. Vụ ông Đại tá lẩm cẩm đầu truyện cũng không cần thiết, hoàn toàn có thể lược bỏ.

Nhìn chung, nếu các bạn muốn một cuốn truyện trinh thám lôi cuốn vừa đủ với một vụ án mạng tươm tất để đọc giải trí, ‘Death Knocks Three Times’ là sự lựa chọn phù hợp.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...