The Last Vanity

Glenn Bowman #3

by Hartley Howard

Edwin Newsome was pretty worried about his brother's health - so worried that he hired Glenn Bowman to work his way into Harold Newsome's household to do some unofficial sleuthing.

Harold was suffering from an obscure sickness, and though he's recently married a pretty girl much younger than him, Edwin didn't think it was just blonde fever!In fact, he suspects that the lovely Moira is taking a short-cut to wealthy widowhood by putting poison in her husband's food.

Bowman's first step forward brings him up against a corpse, and even he can't make a dead man talk.This is only the beginning of a dramatic case that takes Bowman down a dark and slippery road to a startling denoument.There are some mysterious undercurrents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, leading to a conclusion much more sinister than a scheming wife after her husband's money...

253 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Hartley Howard (1908–1979) was the pen name of Leopold Horace Ognall, a British crime novelist. Ognall was born in Montreal and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. He wrote over ninety novels before his death in 1979. As Harry Carmichael, Ognall's primary series characters were John Piper (an insurance assessor) and "Quinn," a crime reporter.

Reviews

[B.V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leopold Horace Ognall (1908-1979) was a prolific author with close to 90 novels under his two pseudonyms, Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. He was born in Montreal, educated in Scotland and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. His primary series characters under the Harry Carmichael name are insurance assessor John Piper and crime reporter Quinn. The main focus of his Hartley Howard line are Philip Scott, head of a successful toy company and secretly the head of a British spy unit, and the New York private eye Glenn Bowman. The author once declared thirty-eight year old Bowman to be "the toughest wise-cracking private eye in the business."

One of the earliest Bowman novels is The Last Vanity from 1952, the third in that series. The novel opens with Edwin Newsome, a man worried about the health of his brother, Harold, fearing he may be the victim of steady poisoning by his brother's new—and much younger—wife, Moira. Edwin hires P.I. Glenn Bowman to investigate, and Bowman poses as an ex-con to get himself hired as a second chauffeur in the Harold's household. He soon discovers many under-currents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, much more than a scheming young wife after her husband's wealth.

Hartley Howard's style is solidly in the Golden Age era, with the British author trying valiantly to emulate the American hard-boiled detective writing of Raymond Chandler and the others who followed in Chandler's footsteps. There are a few British-isms that creep in here and there, although they're relatively minor. The novel doesn't rise to Chandler's level, perhaps, but it's still entertaining and Bowman's character is sympathetic and engaging.

Although Ognall/Howard's books were apparently never published in the States and weren't even all that easy to find in the U.K. The Thrilling Detective site notes that Howard at some point moved to Italy during the Sixties and his Glenn Bowman private eye books were very popular among Italian readers during that period. They apparently did well in Germany, where almost his entire output was translated.

Both Leopold Horace Ognall and his books appear to be largely forgotten (save perhaps his novel Assignment K, made into a movie starring Stephen Boyd as spy Philip Scott), but the author's son Harry became a high court judge and conducted the hearings regarding former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.