The Eel Pie Murders

Mr. Evan Pinkerton Mysteries #4

by David Frome

First edition bound in red cloth with black lettering and front pictorial endpapers. A VG copy in a Good dust jacket. The book has mild dust soiling and a slight spine lean. Small rubs to the spine tips and to the outer corners. The dust jacket is a Grosset & Dunlap DJ which retitles the book Mr. Pinkerton Solves the Eel Pie Murders. Soiling and tanning to the DJ's spine and panels. Chips to the outer corners and to the head and heel of the spine. The G&D dust jacket usues the same front panel illustration as the original, but the rear panel has a list of G&D titles for sale.

Genres: Mystery

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

David Frome is the nom de plume of Zenith Jones Brown (or Zenith Brown), who also wrote as Leslie Ford.

She wrote several books under the pen-name David Frome while living in England, the most endearing of these featuring timid and elderly widower Evan Pinkerton. Her other series (also based in England) is the Major Gregory Lewis Mysteries.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably no man in the C.I.D. ever had a more unimpressive Watson than Inspector Bull had in the little gray Welshman who had been waiting at Strand Corner House long past the hour Bull had appointed for lunch. In fact it might be said that as a Watson Mr. Pinkerton was positively insignificant, except of course that he had frequently helped out, which Watons, properly speaking, seldom or never do.


First off--let me just say that I don't know what book that blurb on the cover of my edition (pictured here) is supposed to be for, but it's definitely NOT The Eel Pie Murders. There is no chic spa. No "exploding" scandals. And Mr. Pinkerton doesn't "confront" anybody. Mr. Pinkerton is, quite frankly, as insignificant to the story as the quote above implies. He does, randomly, follow one of the suspects and that helps Inspector Bull (who is the true hero of the piece) sort out who did what to whom. But honestly, if Mr. Pinkerton weren't around, I'm quite sure that the good inspector would still get his man (or woman). I'm still trying to figure out why the books are billed as "Mr. Pinkerton Mysteries."

The back of the book is a little better:

[Inspector Bull and Mr. Pinkerton] find the body when the tide goes out. It is the best-dressed corpse Eel Pie Island has ever seen, and even Mr. Pinkerton has to admit the dead girl is beautiful. She is also the the victim of an extraordinarily clever killer.

Good so far...but then the blurb-writer takes another flight of fancy:

Before long, the shy sleuth wanders too deeply into the scandal-laden maze of Eel Pie Island. First a young woman runs for her life {Huh?}; then Mr. Pinkerton himself becomes the target of the very persistent, very brutal murderer. {Double Huh? Mr. Pinkerton is about as far from being in danger as one can get....}

You'd think that Mr. Pinkerton is the intrepid man of action taking on all perils instead of the of the shy, gray policeman wannabe that he is.

So...what is the story really about? Glad you asked. Mrs. Sheila Campbell's red & white silk pajama*-clad body is found early one morning on the shore of Eel Pie Island. She was stunned by a blow on the back of the head and then drowned. Once Inspector Bull (and his shadow, Mr. Pinkerton) get down to cases, they find that various people might have wanted her out of the way. There's her ex-husband whose finances have taken a sudden down-turn and could stand to be relieved of the £500 payments he's been forced to make to her. There's the owner of the gambling den that she'd managed to do out of quite a sum of cash when she discovered how to use his own rigged game against him. There's her own sister whose arguments weren't quite as private as she thought...At first, it looks all neat and tidy--the ex-husband is found to have been on the spot with his whacking great motive. But Inspector Bull isn't convinced of his guilt, especially after another murder and an attempted third, and decides to set a clever trap. No one is more surprised then he when the trap is sprung and he sees whom it has caught.

Despite my comments about Mr. Pinkerton above, this really was an enjoyable book. I happen to think it would have been even better without Mr. Pinkerton--but that's neither here nor there. I don't have anything against the shy little man and he's not a detriment to the book, but I also don't see that he's essential to the story. Even though there is just a small handful of suspects, Frome manages to keep the reader guessing and Inspector Bull is a very satisfactory protagonist. He's a smart copper with a bit of intuitive flair--but not too many leaps of logic. He's very indulgent of his Watson and doesn't mind Pinkerton tagging along on investigations. Most of the clues are fairly displayed and sharp readers have every chance to identify the culprit. ★★★


*think 1930s/40s Hollywood lounge pajamas in the movies

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

[Dave Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light book for warm late-summer days. I chose the book simply because I rented a home on Eel Pie Island, and the island brings fond memories . . . but not of murders.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 4th book of 12 in this mystery series. I have not read these in order (or all of them as yet) and this one is a bit of a switch. In this story, Mr. Pinkerton is secondary to Insp. Bull. Usually we follow Pinkerton around in the the story only to find Bull stumble into him as he finally catches up to what Pinkerton has uncovered. In this mystery we follow Bull more and stumble upon Mr. Pinkerton from time to time at what I found to be really perfectly zany moments.

The story has some really wonderful characters who die and live and actually do well to not have Pinkerton about. The author tends to use Pinkerton's POV a lot when he's in the scene and it would have certainly diminished the really strong women characters at play in this story.

This is a bit shorter of a story and much more tightly written than others I've read. Really nice mystery here and the characters are wonderful. No eel pies to eat, and no explanation of why anyone would refer to an small island as Eel Pie Island. Perhaps it's just a comment upon the food by the author.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspector Bull is called in when a young woman's body is found on a tiny island in the Thames called Eel Pie. His friend, timid Welsh Mr. Pinkerton, wants to help with the investigation, but really doesn't seem to have much to do. It seems that the victim had antagonized a number of people--her ex-husband, her sister, her lover's wife--but not enough to kill her. Yet not only was she dead, but so was another man. Although Frome was really a woman (Zenith Brown), the book is imbued with the casual sexism of the period, which can get a little wearisome.