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Sergeant Beef #5
Case with Ropes and Rings
The coroner’s jury found that the boy hanged in the school gymnasium had killed himself, but Sergeant Beef disagrees. He takes a job as a temporary school caretaker, abetted by the reluctant Townsend, Beef’s biographer, whose brother is a master at the school. Beef’s methods entail endless games of darts and beer all around in the local pub, much to Townsend’s dismay of course. But when another remarkably similar murder occurs elsewhere, Beef bestirs himself to uncover the guilty.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 19, 2024
Sergeant Beef goes back to school.
This is the fifth in the series and a very good one. To avoid confusion, let's agree on terms. What our English cousins call "public schools" are private boarding schools. Some (like Eton and Harrow) have been educating the sons of the aristocracy (and anyone else with the price of tuition) for centuries. What we call "public schools" are called state schools across the Pond. Are we clear?
Naturally, Sgt Beef (a middle-aged, retired policeman) completed his education many decades ago. A man of the people, he's proud to have matriculated from a state school where basic reading, writing, and math were considered adequate for youngsters destined for manual work or lives as servants. He remembers with glee the tortures he and his classmates inflicted on the "toffs" who wore the silly uniforms of the public schools.
Now Beef is a private investigator and forced to embrace those he once scorned in the sacred name of drumming up business. So when a boy is found hanging at venerable Penshurst School, the experienced copper smells a case. So what if the coroner called it a suicide? Beef sees no reason why the son of a wealthy Lord would want to off himself. It was obviously murder and Beef's assigning himself to the case.
Lionel Townsend, who turns Beef's successes into books, is a graduate of a minor (meaning cheaper than Eton) public school and regards public schools and the aristocrats they educate as the backbone of Western civilization. He's appalled at the idea of the semi-literate Beef dealing with graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. Worse, Townsend's brother Vincent is a school master there and the two brothers are even less compatible than Townsend and Beef.
Still, there are fees to be earned and books to be written, so off they go. The boy's father seems untouched by his son's death, but anxious that the family name not be besmirched by a suicide. Beef fills in for the ailing porter (security guard) and to Townsend's disgust, quickly becomes pals with the school boys and townspeople alike. Soon sons of noble families are learning to play pub darts, a sport Townsend deems worthy only of working class people.
Beef learns all about the dead boy, his family, and his contacts at school and in the local village. Meanwhile, another young man has committed suicide by hanging. He's a working class kid and Townsend insists that there can be NO connection between the two deaths, but Beef doesn't see it that way. The two dead boys are of the same age, both were avid boxers, and both were found hanged in gymnasiums. Beef calls on his old rival Inspector Stute of Scotland Yard and gets a surprisingly warm reception.
Stute knows nothing about the Penshurst death, but he knows that the second death was no suicide and he's happy to work with Beef to learn more about the young man and how his family's involvement with the Spanish Civil War might play into the death. Stute knows from experience that Beef can get information from people who dislike and distrust police officers too much to give them the time of day. Sure enough, Beef finds some valuable info, although he and Stute come to different conclusions.
This book was published in 1940, when WWII had been raging in Europe for several years. Like many mystery writers, Leo Bruce decided to ignore the war and give his readers a break from the tensions they lived under daily. He brought in the Spanish Civil War, but few of his countrymen would have been interested in that.
Of course, Beef solves both murders by the end of the book. Inspector Stute is generous with his praise and Townsend is no more aggrieved than usual. A firm believer in the superiority of the upper classes, no evidence of Beef's efficiency will ever convince him that the Sergeant's successes are more than good luck.
This series appeared during the Golden Age, but Bruce was NOT a "fair play" enthusiast. As Sergeant Beef says, his job is to solve crimes and the reader's job is to read and admire. His attitude is, if you want all the facts, write your own book! I can see his point.
I'm deeply grateful to BLCC editor Martin Edwards for introducing me to this wonderful series. Sergeant Beef is a oner. Watching him gain the confidence of people from all walks of life is charming. Inspector Stute has the Yard and all its resources behind him, but the instincts of an experienced officer with a broad knowledge of human nature can never be discounted. The snooty, inept Townsend is a perfect foil and their relationship supplies endless opportunities for humor.
The only comparable books I know of are Joyce Porter's hilarious Inspector Dover mysteries. If you haven't discovered them, you're missing some great reading.
This is the fifth in the series and a very good one. To avoid confusion, let's agree on terms. What our English cousins call "public schools" are private boarding schools. Some (like Eton and Harrow) have been educating the sons of the aristocracy (and anyone else with the price of tuition) for centuries. What we call "public schools" are called state schools across the Pond. Are we clear?
Naturally, Sgt Beef (a middle-aged, retired policeman) completed his education many decades ago. A man of the people, he's proud to have matriculated from a state school where basic reading, writing, and math were considered adequate for youngsters destined for manual work or lives as servants. He remembers with glee the tortures he and his classmates inflicted on the "toffs" who wore the silly uniforms of the public schools.
Now Beef is a private investigator and forced to embrace those he once scorned in the sacred name of drumming up business. So when a boy is found hanging at venerable Penshurst School, the experienced copper smells a case. So what if the coroner called it a suicide? Beef sees no reason why the son of a wealthy Lord would want to off himself. It was obviously murder and Beef's assigning himself to the case.
Lionel Townsend, who turns Beef's successes into books, is a graduate of a minor (meaning cheaper than Eton) public school and regards public schools and the aristocrats they educate as the backbone of Western civilization. He's appalled at the idea of the semi-literate Beef dealing with graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. Worse, Townsend's brother Vincent is a school master there and the two brothers are even less compatible than Townsend and Beef.
Still, there are fees to be earned and books to be written, so off they go. The boy's father seems untouched by his son's death, but anxious that the family name not be besmirched by a suicide. Beef fills in for the ailing porter (security guard) and to Townsend's disgust, quickly becomes pals with the school boys and townspeople alike. Soon sons of noble families are learning to play pub darts, a sport Townsend deems worthy only of working class people.
Beef learns all about the dead boy, his family, and his contacts at school and in the local village. Meanwhile, another young man has committed suicide by hanging. He's a working class kid and Townsend insists that there can be NO connection between the two deaths, but Beef doesn't see it that way. The two dead boys are of the same age, both were avid boxers, and both were found hanged in gymnasiums. Beef calls on his old rival Inspector Stute of Scotland Yard and gets a surprisingly warm reception.
Stute knows nothing about the Penshurst death, but he knows that the second death was no suicide and he's happy to work with Beef to learn more about the young man and how his family's involvement with the Spanish Civil War might play into the death. Stute knows from experience that Beef can get information from people who dislike and distrust police officers too much to give them the time of day. Sure enough, Beef finds some valuable info, although he and Stute come to different conclusions.
This book was published in 1940, when WWII had been raging in Europe for several years. Like many mystery writers, Leo Bruce decided to ignore the war and give his readers a break from the tensions they lived under daily. He brought in the Spanish Civil War, but few of his countrymen would have been interested in that.
Of course, Beef solves both murders by the end of the book. Inspector Stute is generous with his praise and Townsend is no more aggrieved than usual. A firm believer in the superiority of the upper classes, no evidence of Beef's efficiency will ever convince him that the Sergeant's successes are more than good luck.
This series appeared during the Golden Age, but Bruce was NOT a "fair play" enthusiast. As Sergeant Beef says, his job is to solve crimes and the reader's job is to read and admire. His attitude is, if you want all the facts, write your own book! I can see his point.
I'm deeply grateful to BLCC editor Martin Edwards for introducing me to this wonderful series. Sergeant Beef is a oner. Watching him gain the confidence of people from all walks of life is charming. Inspector Stute has the Yard and all its resources behind him, but the instincts of an experienced officer with a broad knowledge of human nature can never be discounted. The snooty, inept Townsend is a perfect foil and their relationship supplies endless opportunities for humor.
The only comparable books I know of are Joyce Porter's hilarious Inspector Dover mysteries. If you haven't discovered them, you're missing some great reading.
May 29, 2023
“You can’t have a detective novel in which there are two murders, two of the most obvious suspects possible, and both of them guilty. It would practically be defrauding the public. They expect surprises for the twopence they have paid to their lending libraries.”
This is just one of the many quite wonderful quotatations to be found in this fifth outing for Sergeant Beef and his chronicler, Townsend.
It is set primarily in the public school where the first murder takes place, and a lot of the fun comes from the boy's ready acceptance of Beef and disparagement of Townsend, as here:-
“You’re both nosing round after someone to pin a crime on, aren’t you? God, how that sort of thing bores me! All these fearful women writers and people like you, working out dreary crimes for half-wits to read about. Doesn’t it strike you as degrading?”
I found the other part of the book, dealing with the second murder in a seedy East End gym, less convincing: its conveniently similar scenario roused my suspicion immediately and alerted me to the twist in the tale.
Nevertheless, there is much to be enjoyed, despite the "all interviews and no action" type plot against which Townsend so vociferously rails.
3.5 stars.
This is just one of the many quite wonderful quotatations to be found in this fifth outing for Sergeant Beef and his chronicler, Townsend.
It is set primarily in the public school where the first murder takes place, and a lot of the fun comes from the boy's ready acceptance of Beef and disparagement of Townsend, as here:-
“You’re both nosing round after someone to pin a crime on, aren’t you? God, how that sort of thing bores me! All these fearful women writers and people like you, working out dreary crimes for half-wits to read about. Doesn’t it strike you as degrading?”
I found the other part of the book, dealing with the second murder in a seedy East End gym, less convincing: its conveniently similar scenario roused my suspicion immediately and alerted me to the twist in the tale.
Nevertheless, there is much to be enjoyed, despite the "all interviews and no action" type plot against which Townsend so vociferously rails.
3.5 stars.
December 26, 2018
Seperti seri-seri sebelumnya, premis di buku ini menempatkan (Sergeant) Beef pada posisi underdog. Beef menyelidiki kematian seorang siswa di salah satu sekolah asrama, kasus yang disimpulkan sebagai peristiwa bunuh diri oleh polisi. Beef diminta oleh ayah siswa tersebut untuk menyelidiki ulang, dan Beef menemukan bahwa kematian siswa tersebut adalah kasus pembunuhan.
Tapi apakah kesimpulan Beef itu benar? Didampingi Townsend, Beef's own personal Watson, Beef memulai penyelidikan ulang untuk menguak kebenaran dari kematian siswa tersebut.
Dibandingkan seri Sgt. Beef yang terakhir saya baca, cerita yang disuguhkan di sini lebih memuaskan, tidak berputar2. Meskipun pada beberapa chapter akhir ada red-herring, pembunuh yang sebenarnya sudah bisa ditebak.
Tapi apakah kesimpulan Beef itu benar? Didampingi Townsend, Beef's own personal Watson, Beef memulai penyelidikan ulang untuk menguak kebenaran dari kematian siswa tersebut.
Dibandingkan seri Sgt. Beef yang terakhir saya baca, cerita yang disuguhkan di sini lebih memuaskan, tidak berputar2. Meskipun pada beberapa chapter akhir ada red-herring, pembunuh yang sebenarnya sudah bisa ditebak.
May 26, 2022
I enjoyed two previous entries in this series, but found this tedious and the narrator/chronicler an infuriatingly stuck up prig whose method of telling the story focused far too much on what he (a willfully blind, narrow-minded, old-fashioned bigot) thinks and not enough on the story or his detective. I know he's "supposed" to be a fool, a kind of Nigel Bruce-style Watson, but there are limits. He's such an ass that he's insufferable, and the book suffers for it. I cannot recommend this, despite the fact that the solution is clever and unexpected.
Want to read
December 16, 2019Synopsis: the Coroner's Jury found that the boy hanging in the school gymnasium had killed himself, but Sgt. Beef disagreed.
July 26, 2020
Another delightful take off of the detective novel, and a not too subtle dig at snobbery and elitism. I didn't see the twist coming until right at the end. Well done Sergeant Beef!
November 8, 2019
For my full review click on the link below:
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https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
September 9, 2007
This book is a fairly close parody of a "Golden Age" (c.1920s-30s) mystery, but also an honest puzzle that plays by the "rules of the game" as understood in those days --the clues really were there, and when the detective put them together at the end, I had to admit they had all been presented fairly, yet I had failed to catch the significance of most of them at the time -- the solution was, in fact, more honest and intellectually satisfying
than those of many real "Golden Age" mysteries, particularly some of J. D. Carr's.
The parody aspect works less well for me. The supposed "author" is a rather feeble snob who has attached himself to the earthy Sgt. Beef, a retired policeman, and has been writing up his cases for money. He disdains Beef as vulgar and aspires to an upper-class lifestyle he cannot afford. I frankly found him rather tiresome. Obviously the real writer intended his pretensions to be funny, but for me
they were merely irritating.
The mystery involves two deaths, one a young aristocrat at a
"public" (i.e. elite private) school, the other a working class borderline criminal, both found hanged in boxing gyms.
There turns out to be a connection between the cases, but it
was far from obvious (at least to me). In the ingenious ending, the obvious suspect in each murder is arrested, but Beef demonstrates that in fact the obvious suspect in one case was the murderer in the other, and vice-versa, a twist
I do not recall seeing used before (partly because most
classic detective fiction --aside from some police procedurals--does not involve two separate crimes).
than those of many real "Golden Age" mysteries, particularly some of J. D. Carr's.
The parody aspect works less well for me. The supposed "author" is a rather feeble snob who has attached himself to the earthy Sgt. Beef, a retired policeman, and has been writing up his cases for money. He disdains Beef as vulgar and aspires to an upper-class lifestyle he cannot afford. I frankly found him rather tiresome. Obviously the real writer intended his pretensions to be funny, but for me
they were merely irritating.
The mystery involves two deaths, one a young aristocrat at a
"public" (i.e. elite private) school, the other a working class borderline criminal, both found hanged in boxing gyms.
There turns out to be a connection between the cases, but it
was far from obvious (at least to me). In the ingenious ending, the obvious suspect in each murder is arrested, but Beef demonstrates that in fact the obvious suspect in one case was the murderer in the other, and vice-versa, a twist
I do not recall seeing used before (partly because most
classic detective fiction --aside from some police procedurals--does not involve two separate crimes).
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews