The Brandon Case

Sir Clinton Driffield #9

by J.J. Connington, Curtis Evans (Introduction)

It was at the hidden stone wall in the spinney that Johnnie Brandon, rabbit shooting with a party of guests, was instantly killed by a shotgun charge. That day he had attained his majority, but the night before he had been discovered in a compromising situation with the wife of the man who had been his mentor. The inquest ruled 'accidental death' but Inspector Hinton was soon to discover that it was murder that was the motive ...

Genres: Mystery

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Pseudonym of Alfred Walter Stewart.

Reviews

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over-complicated plot involving lots of technical stuff about shotguns. It didn't really engage me and I thought that the characters, with the exception of the police inspector, were paper thin.

[Calum Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

B:

A really engaging and well-orchestrated puzzle. I just keep expecting Connington to get past that quaint, antiquated 1920s style and he hasn't managed it yet. The characters are as bland as parsley.

But it's still clever.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most enjoyable Connington, only marred by the all-too-late appearance of Sir Clinton Driffield and the reduction of Wendover to a few walk-on appearances. The device of allowing the bumptious Inspector Rufus Hinton to make all the running, and to formulate his case before its almost casual demolition by Driffield, makes for interesting reading.

The story is very loosely based on the notorious Ardlamont Murder which resulted in a not-proven verdict. Here a knowledge of ballistics is helpful, as is an understanding of the importance of a somewhat obscure point of English inheritance law which was done away with in 1925. I had to look this up as it is not dealt with in the Introduction , nor, for reasons which become obvious, is it properly clarified by the author. However that does not unduly detract from one's enjoyment.

Recommended.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English are odd.

Meaning no disrespect and I have English ancestors myself, but it's hard for a level-headed American to understand some of their customs. I simply can't imagine the point of digging a ditch and putting a fence down in the bottom of it, instead of putting the fence where a fence is supposed to be - starting at ground level and sticking up as far as needed.

A ha-ha isn't a snicker, but a sunken fence. Perhaps the idea is that a sunken fence doesn't break up the view. Also, if you're into bird hunting (and all English aristocrats are) a fence or road breaks the pattern of the land and makes the game birds fly in different patterns. I guess that makes them harder to shoot.


But the whole point of a fence is to keep livestock from straying. If the ditch will keep the cows or sheep from crossing to the other side, why bother to put a fence at the bottom? And what's keeping the cattle or sheep (neither known for their brilliance) from falling into the ha-ha? If a cow or sheep breaks its leg, it isn't a matter of the vet putting it in a cast, which all the other cows or sheep autograph. You have to shoot the stupid thing, which is a loss to the owner.

This estate has a ha-ha so that man can fall into it, causing his gun to discharge accidentally, killing him. At least, it looks like an accident until the police start investigating. Then they wonder why, if John Brandon fell into the ha-ha and was killed by his own gun, there isn't any blood in the bottom of the ditch. Good question, isn't it?

The victim is the youngest (and stupidest) of the three Brandon brothers. The eldest (Oswald) is employed on a cruise ship. The middle son (James or Jim) works in an office in London. John (or Johnny) is just turning twenty-one. He's living on an estate rented by his tutor Mr Laxford.

The reason the Brandon brothers have to work is that their father is a financial incompetent who frittered away his fortune. He still owns the family estate, but he can't sell it and it's heavily mortgaged.

Ordinarily, the coming of age of a third son is an unimportant affair. Most aristocratic English families observe the ancient custom of primogeniture, where the oldest son inherits the estate and all the money. The idea is to keep large estates intact and financially viable.

The Brandon family is locked into a rare entail called "borough English", in which the youngest son inherits everything. The rationale was that the older sons would already be established in careers by the time Pop croaks and the youngest son would have stayed home to look after the old folks and would need to be provided for.

So since the dim-bulb Johnny Brandon is turning twenty-one and will be in a position to make decisions that effect his whole family, everyone is interested in him. His brother Jim is concerned because Johnny is influenced by his tutor Mr Laxford. Jim Brandon suspects (correctly) that Laxford and his friend Hay are running a scam to get control of Johnny's money. Looks like he might have signed some papers in favor of Laxford and his wife. If he signed them yesterday, it's invalid since he was a minor. If he signed them this morning, then they stand.

The four men do what all English countrymen do when they get together. They go out to kill something. All four have shotguns and they spread out. Perhaps they spread out further than usual since Johnny Brandon is careless with guns and no one wants him to mistake them for a rabbit. Ironically, it's Johnny who ends up dead.

In addition to Laxford, Hay, and the two Brandon brothers, a fifth man shows up with a shotgun. He's a genial fellow who escaped from a nearby mental institution. Everyone is inclined to discount his story, but it's also possible he saw more than anyone else and that he's reporting more honestly than the other three.

Having given us three intelligent, likable CID inspectors working in Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield's county, the author decided it was time to put in one we could dislike. It's not that Inspector Hinton is stupid. He's a good interrogator, having a talent for making non-comittal sounds that encourage people to tell him more than they intended to. His reports are models of clarity and he has enough sense not to withhold information from his superiors.

He's also conceited and eager to be promoted. The Brandon murder (if that's what it was) is a big case and could gain him a promotion. He's not anxious to share the credit with anyone, even his supervisor, Sir Clinton.

With Inspector Hinton providing the comic relief and Sir Clinton intervening to steer him in the right direction, the case gets solved. As usual, some of the people we suspected of being bad guys turn out to be bad guys. Conniving to influence an easy-going young man to sign over his money to them is a nasty crime, but did they commit the actual murder? They had a motive, but so did others.

This series won't have you on the edge of your chair or cause you to lose sleep because you can't put it down, but Connington had a talent for creating intriguing characters and this book is no exception. This one marks the half-way point in the series and I'm looking forward to the rest.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.J. Connington is another lost author discovered in the pile marked Golden Age Murder Mystery. It even had a somewhat baffling title having to learn a ha-ha is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier but crucial to the plot. The Brandon family are land wealthy but in reality they are poor with an insurance company owning their debt. Middle son, Jim Brandon runs the business, at Edghill, on a day to day basis but when his younger brother Johnny turns with a mysterious benefactor; Maurice Laxford and his wife Diana alarm bells ring particularly as Johnny would eighteen the following day. The next day Johnny is dead, while hunting rabbits, apparently suicide after falling from a ha-ha. Not so, Inspector Hinton thinks differently and he has the Laxford's and their shady friend Hay in his sights. The most enjoyable part of the book is Hinton's investigation while Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield doesn't appear until the final third of the book but it's certainly worth waiting for. I really like out this book was put together with plenty of characters to spare.

[Anna Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was struck by the unique way Connington introduced characters, starting with Jim Brandon- we know he's an angry young man with something on his mind, but it takes a few chapters before it's clear why or what. This pattern holds true with all other players in the drama; we see them interacting with each other without any idea of their motives, which are only revealed long after they first enter the scene. I suspect this was done purposefully, to leave the reader in a state of slightly menaced confusion. It's hard to become sympathetic to a character without any notion of their inner life. The exception to this rule seems to be the detective who finally solves the case; he's logical and detached to an almost superhuman extent, though it's softened somewhat with some obvious displays of emotional intelligence. On the whole I found this to be a clever puzzle with an interesting structure, but I didn't engage deeply with any of the characters, and thought the author didn't really provide enough information for a reader to solve the puzzle. I will be reading another Connington work, though, to see if it's similar.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Brandon dies in what appears to be a shooting accident. The police are not satisfied with the inquest verdict and continue to collect information uncovering a somewhat fraught family situation. Brandon was being tutored by a man called Laxford and he seems to have been in love with Di Laxford, his tutor's wife. But had he been trapped into a situation where he could be blackmailed?

Involving strange insurance policies, archaic systems of inheritance and some very unpleasant people all of whom have their own agendas, this is a well written crime novel with an excellent plot. I didn't work out who the murderer was so it was a complete surprise to me when Sir Clinton Driffield revealed who did it.

I must say I am really enjoying this series of crime novels though the reader has to bear in mind that police investigations were completely different when the books were published. If you like tradition crime novels then try this series.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-plotted little mystery. By the end of the second chapter I thought it was all going wrong but the author had it under control. I worked out who the murderer is but I was a bit hazy about the motive and I couldn't work out how it had been done; for a while I was worried that the 'how' might be resolved by an authorial trick but no, there is a proper solution which is very satisfying.

[Trevor Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly engaging story which keeps you reading to the end to discover whether the death was accidental, suicide or murder. If the latter, there were few suspects to choose from and therefore the reader has a good chance of suspecting the real culprit about three-quarters of the way through the book. You don't need to know anything about shotguns or ancient English inheritance law to enjoy this book, all is eventually explained.

[Puzzle Doctor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if not spectacular Golden Age mystery. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Jim Brandon is concerned that his brother is being exploited. When a mysterious death occurs, the investigation gets complicated.

[Tina Benagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very neat

Excellent—suspense, misdirection, character development, all the bits accounted for. Understated, British style. This is one of Connington’s best. Quite satisfying

[M. Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of complex English inheritance law in this decent whodunit.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/3

[Cidney]

I have the paperback version of this book, well I think it is this book, it is entitled "The Brandon Case" by J J Connington, there is a line drawing of a dead rabbit hanging from a bit of string, but the story is about Johnnie Brandon and his death and the investigation of it by Chief Constable Driffield, a version of Sherlock Holmes.

What is so confusing is that J J Connington wrote two books called "The Brandon Case" and "The Ha-Ha Case". The copy I have is dated as first being published in 1934 as formerly "The Ha-Ha Case" or so it says in the blurb but this edition was reprinted in 2016 by Coachwhip publications as "The Brandon Case" which makes sense as it's about the death of Johnnie Brandon. But on searching for my read book on goodreads I found one called "The Brandon Case" but is an entirely different story about the Dangerfield Talisman. So two books with different stories but exchanged titles!? No wonder I'm confused.

So I am reviewing the "Ha-Ha Case" which was retitled as "The Brandon Case" with the dead rabbit picture and the story of Johnnie Brandon's death, and NOT the current issue of the Brandon Case which is the story of the Dangerfield Talisman. Got it!? Grief.

Anyway this actually was a good book! I was involved with the story, a young man Johnnie Brandon on his 21st birthday would inherit his family home despite being the youngest of 3 brothers, it was sort of entailed to him, however two men were trying to influence him as they were after his wealth. On a shooting expedition with 2 dubious men and his middle brother he is found dead of a gunshot wound. A patient who has escaped from the nearby psychiatric hospital is standing by him with a gun in his hand. The patient didn't do it, spoiler alert. The question is who did? One or both of the two dubious men or his brother Jim?

I won't give away the ending here, but it did keep me alert, however the pages and pages of bullets and guns and descriptions of the tests which were made left me bamboozled and I skim read these. I admit that I didn't see the ending coming! It's sometimes nice to get the answer wrong, it shows that I wasn't paying as much attention as I thought, as when it was gone through by the Chief Constable Driffield it all made perfect sense!