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Family Matters
Robert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artifacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs. Robert’s wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public. Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering. Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams in their peaceful hometown Shufflecester.
Everything is wrong – and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha’s eye, they take a turn for the worse. Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams’ lives.
This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.
Everything is wrong – and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha’s eye, they take a turn for the worse. Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams’ lives.
This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
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296 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
April 27, 2017
Do you enjoy stories of people stepping, inching, toward murder? This is one of those, and I don’t particularly care for that style; so I’m afraid my review won’t be as favorable as it might be if I did. It is intriguing, and the style is excellent. The characters are perfectly horrible, and the setting is drear enough. If you’re looking for a suspenseful read, here is the book for you. Even disliking every character and the style, I found it very hard to put down.
There was one thing about this story. (This is a serious spoiler. It will give away the ending.)
Other than wicked people, flirtations between people who had no business flirting, and a murder, it was relatively clean. I could have done without the mild swearing though.
I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press. No review was required, but it was my pleasure to write it.
There was one thing about this story. (This is a serious spoiler. It will give away the ending.)
Other than wicked people, flirtations between people who had no business flirting, and a murder, it was relatively clean. I could have done without the mild swearing though.
I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press. No review was required, but it was my pleasure to write it.
October 6, 2019
Poisonous relationships...
Even the most kind-hearted of Robert Arthur Kewdingham’s family have to admit he can be quite annoying. Having lost his job in middle-age, he now spends his time on his collections of second-rate Roman artefacts and dried-out beetles, while telling anyone who will listen about his past life as a priest in Atlantis. Opinions on his wife, Bertha, are divided. Some, mostly the men, feel that her husband doesn’t deserve such a handsome, spirited wife and that he treats her badly. Others, mostly the women, feel that if she had any sort of wifeliness about her she’d shake Robert out of his eccentricities and back into the world of useful employment. Robert and Bertha live in a state of constant quarrelling, tired of each other, dissatisfied with their lives but unable to change. It’s a pity that Bertha is attractive to other men, and that Robert keeps a pharmacy-size stock of poisons readily to hand to treat his rampaging hypochondria. Things are bound to get nasty...
This is a lot of fun and a real step up from the only other Rolls I’ve read, Scarweather . It’s a kind of inverted mystery – we know a murder will be done, and it’s not too long before we can guess who the victim will be. But such are the divided opinions on this unhappy couple that several people could have reason to do away with either one of them. In fact, the question is almost one of who will murder the victim first!
The characterisation is excellent, not just of the awful Robert and Bertha (who got some sneaking sympathy from me even though I didn’t feel she really deserved it), but of the various members of the extended family. Robert’s old father lives with them and an unpleasant old codger he is, constantly reciting quotations to Bertha of how an ideal woman should behave. Uncle Richard is a decent man and feels Bertha has more to put up with than any woman deserves, even moody ones like her. Cousin John is firmly on Bertha’s side – too much so perhaps. The Poundle-Quaintons, mother and spinster daughter, feel it’s their duty to drop little hints to Bertha on how she should manage her husband better. And Robert’s sister, clear-eyed about her brother, does her best to befriend the unhappy wife.
There is much here to do with various drugs and poisons in use at the time. Robert’s genuine illnesses, topped up by his enjoyment of his hypochondria, mean that Dr Bagge is a frequent visitor to the house, partly as physician and partly as friend. Dr Bagge likes to make up his own medicines and tries to stop Robert from dosing himself up on quack preparations, with little success. Once the murder is done, the presence of all these various medicines and drugs will complicate the matter badly for the authorities, and there’s a good deal of wit in the way Rolls handles all the various effects and side-effects of the different poisons around the house, not to mention in how Dr Bagge views his patients as good subjects for him to try out his latest concoctions on.
The idea of living in this house full of rather unpleasant people is pretty awful but I must say they’re a lot of fun to watch from the outside. The mystery is handled very originally – usually with an inverted murder, in my limited experience, the reader knows who the murderer is, but here Rolls manages to keep to that kind of style while still keeping the reader somewhat in the dark. As a result, I found it much more of a page-turner as I really wanted to know who was the guilty party and how it would be proved. Vague, I know, but deliberately – this is one where it would be easy to give accidental spoilers.
Another very enjoyable read from the British Library Crime Classics series, and of course it has the usual informative introduction from Martin Edwards. Good stuff – I’ll be looking out for more from Rolls, though unfortunately he wasn’t as prolific as many of the Golden Age writers. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Even the most kind-hearted of Robert Arthur Kewdingham’s family have to admit he can be quite annoying. Having lost his job in middle-age, he now spends his time on his collections of second-rate Roman artefacts and dried-out beetles, while telling anyone who will listen about his past life as a priest in Atlantis. Opinions on his wife, Bertha, are divided. Some, mostly the men, feel that her husband doesn’t deserve such a handsome, spirited wife and that he treats her badly. Others, mostly the women, feel that if she had any sort of wifeliness about her she’d shake Robert out of his eccentricities and back into the world of useful employment. Robert and Bertha live in a state of constant quarrelling, tired of each other, dissatisfied with their lives but unable to change. It’s a pity that Bertha is attractive to other men, and that Robert keeps a pharmacy-size stock of poisons readily to hand to treat his rampaging hypochondria. Things are bound to get nasty...
This is a lot of fun and a real step up from the only other Rolls I’ve read, Scarweather . It’s a kind of inverted mystery – we know a murder will be done, and it’s not too long before we can guess who the victim will be. But such are the divided opinions on this unhappy couple that several people could have reason to do away with either one of them. In fact, the question is almost one of who will murder the victim first!
The characterisation is excellent, not just of the awful Robert and Bertha (who got some sneaking sympathy from me even though I didn’t feel she really deserved it), but of the various members of the extended family. Robert’s old father lives with them and an unpleasant old codger he is, constantly reciting quotations to Bertha of how an ideal woman should behave. Uncle Richard is a decent man and feels Bertha has more to put up with than any woman deserves, even moody ones like her. Cousin John is firmly on Bertha’s side – too much so perhaps. The Poundle-Quaintons, mother and spinster daughter, feel it’s their duty to drop little hints to Bertha on how she should manage her husband better. And Robert’s sister, clear-eyed about her brother, does her best to befriend the unhappy wife.
There is much here to do with various drugs and poisons in use at the time. Robert’s genuine illnesses, topped up by his enjoyment of his hypochondria, mean that Dr Bagge is a frequent visitor to the house, partly as physician and partly as friend. Dr Bagge likes to make up his own medicines and tries to stop Robert from dosing himself up on quack preparations, with little success. Once the murder is done, the presence of all these various medicines and drugs will complicate the matter badly for the authorities, and there’s a good deal of wit in the way Rolls handles all the various effects and side-effects of the different poisons around the house, not to mention in how Dr Bagge views his patients as good subjects for him to try out his latest concoctions on.
The idea of living in this house full of rather unpleasant people is pretty awful but I must say they’re a lot of fun to watch from the outside. The mystery is handled very originally – usually with an inverted murder, in my limited experience, the reader knows who the murderer is, but here Rolls manages to keep to that kind of style while still keeping the reader somewhat in the dark. As a result, I found it much more of a page-turner as I really wanted to know who was the guilty party and how it would be proved. Vague, I know, but deliberately – this is one where it would be easy to give accidental spoilers.
Another very enjoyable read from the British Library Crime Classics series, and of course it has the usual informative introduction from Martin Edwards. Good stuff – I’ll be looking out for more from Rolls, though unfortunately he wasn’t as prolific as many of the Golden Age writers. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
December 3, 2017
This is a variant of the inverted mystery, a genre I've never cared for, filled with mostly unsympathetic characters, but beautifully written (even sometimes with a feminist slant, astonishing for a male writer from the Golden Age). Unpleasant, ineffectual Mr. Kewlingham has annoyed so many people that there are two people trying to murder him by poisoning him. Neither can understand why he's not dying. When he finally does die, the pathologists decide (SPOILER) it's been caused by two poisons--but neither are the two he's been regularly getting. Of course, only the reader knows about those two. One can draw one's own conclusions about the two that killed him, but it is not spelled out, nor is the ending what one might expect.
November 16, 2024
I'm unsure whether it's legal to end a Golden Age mystery in this way ...
August 21, 2017
I think it must be have been meant as satire, because of all the double-barreled aristocratic names, the unredeemingly unpleasant victim, and the totally ridiculous situation. (In the introduction, Dorothy Sayers is quoted as calling it "grimly farcical".) 1 1/2 stars, because I did actually finish it, but I didn't like it.
December 15, 2017
Another in the series of British Crime Classics. Not the most exciting of plots and felt that it was a bit rushed and ‘convenient’ at the end. But not a bad read.
October 24, 2019
DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
Colwyn Edward Vulliamy is the true name/identity of the author: he served in World War 1, penned a number of non-fiction books before turning to crime novels, according to an introduction by Martin Edwards. This work seems to have faded from view since its publication in 1933.
CAST - 3 stars: "Like many engineers, Mr. Robert Arthur Kewdingham was a mystic." But when the book opens, he is unemployed, so I figure being a mystic may have seemed like a great thing to Kewdingham, but not-so-great to employers, and absolutely not great for his friends and family. He also is a member of 'The League' and they keep a secret list of Bolsheviks. Yea, he's really popular at the dinner table. His wife, Bertha, is "a quick, intelligent woman" and has no problems with calling her husband out in public. "But look at the woman-you can see she's half a foreigner." (Yes, Bertha is half Canadian.) They have 2 children: Phoebe lives away in London and Michael has been sent away to school (no surprise there!). Dr. Bagge runs his own pharmacy because he claims the town chemist is too expensive. Kewdingham's cousin, John Harrigall, is handsome, has many affairs, but chooses "nice intelligent women who knew how to manage him." And that pretty much describes Bertha. Another set of friends, Mr. and Mrs. Chaddlewick, provide fodder for further entanglements. No one is likable, and really no one is very interesting except Kewdingham with his numerous eccentricities and Bertha when she decides to take action.
ATMOSPHERE - 4: A small town outside London could be a small town anywhere. But it's the drugs/poisons here that are all over the place and fascinating. At one point, Dr. Bagge "quickly mixed for himself an exciting compound of strychnine, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, manganese dioxide, cannabis indica and acetum cantharidis. After swallowing his ingenious concoction he felt very much happier." Fun Times! Where does one find a doctor that personalizes compounds for you in his own lab? The author tosses out lines like "Who could have known that a pig looking through a gate meant so much?", thus we know it isn't just Bagge having a compound or three...often. An atmosphere of drugs hovers all over the place and Rolls has a blast with concoctions. In 1952 or so, "A Dram of Poison" by Charlotte Armstrong won an Edgar, and as I recall she did so with just one poison. Armstrong shoulda read Rolls take first, I think, to spice up her story. A courtroom, finally, is part of the story and "As for the walls of this ghastly chamber, they were painted a thick anchovy-paste red...choking the very daylight and adding to the general impression of tawdry horror." Somebody on compounds is mixing their own paint, one can only assume.
PLOT - 2 stars: This is a slow-build kind of novel. Eventually, 2 people are using 2 compounds to do away with the same person, but items in the compounds counteract each other, so the victim just feels better...for a while. This is such a good premise and it mostly works, but you need to be patient before anything BIG happens...and then suddenly the book stops with no explanation. I wanted to know SOMETHING. 2 problems: reads a bit slow and then has a fast final chapter that simply stops.
INVESTIGATION - 2:Readers pretty much know everything that is happening, and since the BIG CRIME doesn't occur until late in the book, there is just a bit of investigation ("the redoubtable Professor Pulverbatch was terribly puzzled..."!) from outside, but it's the family investigating itself mostly.
RESOLUTION - 1: Not here!
SUMMARY: 2.4 stars. This is a book heavy on atmosphere (drugs everywhere...and how can you not like the name Pulverbatch in this context?) and really is more of a farce than a mystery. Perhaps that's why there is no real ending: it's all a farce, all fun and games. But the cover SAYS "British Library Crime Classics", so I expected a, well, "Crime Classic." It's fun, it's fine, it's just okay for 2 stars.
Colwyn Edward Vulliamy is the true name/identity of the author: he served in World War 1, penned a number of non-fiction books before turning to crime novels, according to an introduction by Martin Edwards. This work seems to have faded from view since its publication in 1933.
CAST - 3 stars: "Like many engineers, Mr. Robert Arthur Kewdingham was a mystic." But when the book opens, he is unemployed, so I figure being a mystic may have seemed like a great thing to Kewdingham, but not-so-great to employers, and absolutely not great for his friends and family. He also is a member of 'The League' and they keep a secret list of Bolsheviks. Yea, he's really popular at the dinner table. His wife, Bertha, is "a quick, intelligent woman" and has no problems with calling her husband out in public. "But look at the woman-you can see she's half a foreigner." (Yes, Bertha is half Canadian.) They have 2 children: Phoebe lives away in London and Michael has been sent away to school (no surprise there!). Dr. Bagge runs his own pharmacy because he claims the town chemist is too expensive. Kewdingham's cousin, John Harrigall, is handsome, has many affairs, but chooses "nice intelligent women who knew how to manage him." And that pretty much describes Bertha. Another set of friends, Mr. and Mrs. Chaddlewick, provide fodder for further entanglements. No one is likable, and really no one is very interesting except Kewdingham with his numerous eccentricities and Bertha when she decides to take action.
ATMOSPHERE - 4: A small town outside London could be a small town anywhere. But it's the drugs/poisons here that are all over the place and fascinating. At one point, Dr. Bagge "quickly mixed for himself an exciting compound of strychnine, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, manganese dioxide, cannabis indica and acetum cantharidis. After swallowing his ingenious concoction he felt very much happier." Fun Times! Where does one find a doctor that personalizes compounds for you in his own lab? The author tosses out lines like "Who could have known that a pig looking through a gate meant so much?", thus we know it isn't just Bagge having a compound or three...often. An atmosphere of drugs hovers all over the place and Rolls has a blast with concoctions. In 1952 or so, "A Dram of Poison" by Charlotte Armstrong won an Edgar, and as I recall she did so with just one poison. Armstrong shoulda read Rolls take first, I think, to spice up her story. A courtroom, finally, is part of the story and "As for the walls of this ghastly chamber, they were painted a thick anchovy-paste red...choking the very daylight and adding to the general impression of tawdry horror." Somebody on compounds is mixing their own paint, one can only assume.
PLOT - 2 stars: This is a slow-build kind of novel. Eventually, 2 people are using 2 compounds to do away with the same person, but items in the compounds counteract each other, so the victim just feels better...for a while. This is such a good premise and it mostly works, but you need to be patient before anything BIG happens...and then suddenly the book stops with no explanation. I wanted to know SOMETHING. 2 problems: reads a bit slow and then has a fast final chapter that simply stops.
INVESTIGATION - 2:Readers pretty much know everything that is happening, and since the BIG CRIME doesn't occur until late in the book, there is just a bit of investigation ("the redoubtable Professor Pulverbatch was terribly puzzled..."!) from outside, but it's the family investigating itself mostly.
RESOLUTION - 1: Not here!
SUMMARY: 2.4 stars. This is a book heavy on atmosphere (drugs everywhere...and how can you not like the name Pulverbatch in this context?) and really is more of a farce than a mystery. Perhaps that's why there is no real ending: it's all a farce, all fun and games. But the cover SAYS "British Library Crime Classics", so I expected a, well, "Crime Classic." It's fun, it's fine, it's just okay for 2 stars.
May 31, 2017
Family Matters is one of the British Library Crime Classics that I collect. I received this one for a Mother’s Day gift. The story concerns Robert Arther Kewdingham, a self-absorbed failure of a little man and the people in his orbit, his wife, his doctor, his relations, and neighbors.
Robert and his wife, Bertha are stuck in a horrible marriage, in which he feels entitled and self-important while she looks on in growing resentment at the reality of their situation. There is more than one person trying to kill Robert and when he finally dies, it really is a question of who succeeded.
This is an elegantly written crime classic. The characters are well drawn and the sense of slow suffocation that Bertha feels in her marriage and at the expectations of society are so well depicted. She has no options, no assets of her own, no near by family support or family home to return to in desperation. The book really excels at this female point of view, especially the sense that it is not just Robert keeping her in this prison but the female members of society in the form of his family members as well.
A very good read with an interesting twist of competing killers. Highly recommended!
Robert and his wife, Bertha are stuck in a horrible marriage, in which he feels entitled and self-important while she looks on in growing resentment at the reality of their situation. There is more than one person trying to kill Robert and when he finally dies, it really is a question of who succeeded.
This is an elegantly written crime classic. The characters are well drawn and the sense of slow suffocation that Bertha feels in her marriage and at the expectations of society are so well depicted. She has no options, no assets of her own, no near by family support or family home to return to in desperation. The book really excels at this female point of view, especially the sense that it is not just Robert keeping her in this prison but the female members of society in the form of his family members as well.
A very good read with an interesting twist of competing killers. Highly recommended!
November 24, 2017
Held my interest for the most part, even while full of unsympathetic characters, including the deceased. But at the end I wanted to throw the book across the room. (It was a library book, so of course I didn't...)
December 14, 2017
really enjoyed it. interesting way to tell the story of a crime
February 6, 2020
Anthony Rolls knew a thing or two about human nature, and this is worth reading for the characters - mostly unpleasant, it has to be said. I can't help feeling if this were written today, it would be sent back to the author to rewrite certain parts. In particular, I think we should have been left to guess, rather than told, what was happening when the murder attempts were made; these should not have been dismissed so quickly by the experts; and though I don't mind changes in point of view, I felt taking us into the jury room was a mistake - it could have been handled differently. As it was, it read more like a true crime story than a thriller, but still, not bad.
dnf
January 8, 2025I read the reviews and decided to dang. Wtf. This book isn’t really a mystery
September 18, 2022
3.5 stars. Entertaining, but not outstanding.
Want to read
June 4, 2025Synopsis: Robert Kewdingham has not found success in his work life or his marriage. Then a bachelor from London catches Bertha's eye.
October 18, 2020
Took me a while to get into the narrative style but when I realised it was something of a satire or spoof, it became much more enjoyable.
March 20, 2017
Welcome to Shufflechester "one of the most English of English towns" and home of Robert Arthur Kewdingham and his wife Bertha. Despite the idyllic setting, their marriage is not a happy one, constant bickering, frequent clashes and a fast developing hatred between the spouses. Robert Arthur is more interested in Ancient Civilisations and collectables, than his attractive wife, who has gained the admiration of a local doctor and a London writer.
This book is less of a who-dunnit and more of an illustration of how-it-happened. In fact the murder doesn't actually occur until the final few chapter of the book. Anthony Rolls moves his players around perfectly in the first portion of the book, setting up the friendships, arguments, suspects and motives that all lead to the eventual demise of Robert Arthur.
I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book more than the last portion. I found it wildly entertaining seeing how these characters interacted with each other and how relationships developed or broke down in the case of Robert Arthur and Bertha. It's a wonderful study of human nature and psychology. Robert Arthur is such a frustrating man that he finds himself the victim of two different poisoners, using two different poisons, the result of this situation is unexpected and adds to the entertainment.
This is a fantastic read with more family drama than an episode of Hollyoaks - witty and unique, it's a great addition to The British Library Crime Classics series. I recommend it highly!
May 23, 2017
An unusual mystery for its time : a thoroughly unpleasant man dies. It turns out that not one, but two people were poisoning him, plus a third poison was found to be the actual cause of death. How can this be? This book is not a puzzler, since we know perfectly what the two poisoners are thinking and how they go about administering the poisons. The book's strength is the psychology of a thoroughly unhappy household, where the husband is hypochondriac and self-pitying, and where the younger, exasperated wife finds no support in any of the local blood relatives. So she is forced to confide in, and indulge in a flirtation with, a more distant family member who visits from London occasionally. There are not a lot of pleasant people in this book, and the author treats them with detachment and irony.
The drawback of the book's unusual structure is that there is not much to do/read once the victim has succumbed. So the last part of the book is not particularly exciting - some legal and courtroom scenes, but no detection as such.
The drawback of the book's unusual structure is that there is not much to do/read once the victim has succumbed. So the last part of the book is not particularly exciting - some legal and courtroom scenes, but no detection as such.
June 3, 2017
An outstanding gem from Anthony Rolls - not least because Mr. Rolls gives us Golden Age female characters that are written with depth and wit and an apparent belief that women have inner lives untouched or unfocused on men - that reads much more as a family drama (the terrible and various branches of the Kewdingham family) played out in several beautifully crafted parlor scenes. Death inevitably creeps in, but slowly and sparingly; no one is stumbling upon the Colonel stabbed in the library and his nephew floating in the pool. This all sounds very bleak, and it is in a cold tea and old cooking smells kind of way, but it is also leavened with the blackest of humor in the form of a narrator that winks through the pages. A must read.
March 22, 2017
Click on the link to read my full review: https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
June 20, 2021
The inception of the idea of a calculated murder is not immediately recognised. Such an idea enters the mind in disguise -- a new arrival in a sinister mask, not willingly entertained and yet by no means to be expelled. Or, in more scientific terms, it is introduced by a sort of auto-hypnosis, the mere repetition of thoughts or words not immediately connected with personal action. Between the highly civilised individual and the act of murder there are so many barriers, so many conventions and teachings - or so many illusions.
I do love a British Library Crime Classic and this one is right up there with the best I've read and also right up there with the contemporary mysteries that I do so enjoy.
The story is told by an unknown narrator and comes across in the style of an exploration into the events of a true-crime. We learn of the lives of Kewdingham's and their friends in the sleep village of Shufflecester and their extending friendships in London. Mrs Kewdingham, Bertha, is in a loveless marriage and has designs on John Harrigall, an author and London socialite. Her husband, Robert Arthur, believes himself a reincarnation of a high priest of Atlantis, is a hypochondriac, and dabbles in home remedies. He also pesters the local doctor, Dr Bagge, who is happy to have a patient to try new concoctions on.
We watch the tensions, fears, and bitterness grow between our cast until a decision is made to commit murder. However, when the victim is killed it seems that anyone could be the culprit and we move to the police investigation and the resulting coroner's court case.
There is a significant tongue in cheek aspect to the book and I enjoyed the pace at which the tale is told. I believe there is another of this author's books re-published by the British Library in this series of classics and I will be on the look out for it now. 4 stars.
I do love a British Library Crime Classic and this one is right up there with the best I've read and also right up there with the contemporary mysteries that I do so enjoy.
The story is told by an unknown narrator and comes across in the style of an exploration into the events of a true-crime. We learn of the lives of Kewdingham's and their friends in the sleep village of Shufflecester and their extending friendships in London. Mrs Kewdingham, Bertha, is in a loveless marriage and has designs on John Harrigall, an author and London socialite. Her husband, Robert Arthur, believes himself a reincarnation of a high priest of Atlantis, is a hypochondriac, and dabbles in home remedies. He also pesters the local doctor, Dr Bagge, who is happy to have a patient to try new concoctions on.
We watch the tensions, fears, and bitterness grow between our cast until a decision is made to commit murder. However, when the victim is killed it seems that anyone could be the culprit and we move to the police investigation and the resulting coroner's court case.
There is a significant tongue in cheek aspect to the book and I enjoyed the pace at which the tale is told. I believe there is another of this author's books re-published by the British Library in this series of classics and I will be on the look out for it now. 4 stars.
May 5, 2017
Set in 1933, in a quiet town in England, this domestic crime is one where you felt that the victim should have been got rid of a long time ago. The fact that he lasted this long is itself surprising.
The gentleman in question was Mr. Kewdingham, in his forties who has been out of work for quite some time. This did not detract from his sense of pompousness and attitude and was a source of frustration for his wife who was the younger and quite lovely Bertha. Mr. Kewdingham thought himself an authority on medicines and herbals and dabbled in self medication all the time. It was this that brought the idea of poisons into the mind of Bertha who sought to murder her husband in a slow and timely manner so that no suspicion would fall on her.
Unknown to her their family doctor wanting to trial a new thought on medicine sought to introduce a new medicine to Mr. Kewdingham not realising that the effects of this medicine, contradicted those being given by Mrs. K. Quite farcical because the doctor kept upping the meds and so did Bertha to no effect till the whole thing blew up and Mr K. finally died!
The ups and downs of the whole saga form the story in this book, detailing the everyday life in a small town just seventy miles from London. The details of the domestic front, the neighbours, and the extended family all add interest to this story. The investigation was detailed and meticulous and the justice meted out was surprising!
The gentleman in question was Mr. Kewdingham, in his forties who has been out of work for quite some time. This did not detract from his sense of pompousness and attitude and was a source of frustration for his wife who was the younger and quite lovely Bertha. Mr. Kewdingham thought himself an authority on medicines and herbals and dabbled in self medication all the time. It was this that brought the idea of poisons into the mind of Bertha who sought to murder her husband in a slow and timely manner so that no suspicion would fall on her.
Unknown to her their family doctor wanting to trial a new thought on medicine sought to introduce a new medicine to Mr. Kewdingham not realising that the effects of this medicine, contradicted those being given by Mrs. K. Quite farcical because the doctor kept upping the meds and so did Bertha to no effect till the whole thing blew up and Mr K. finally died!
The ups and downs of the whole saga form the story in this book, detailing the everyday life in a small town just seventy miles from London. The details of the domestic front, the neighbours, and the extended family all add interest to this story. The investigation was detailed and meticulous and the justice meted out was surprising!
January 8, 2021
For several years the British Library have been publishing their Crime Classics series, containing titles from the 'golden age' of detective fiction and beyond. Some of them are quite well-known, others more obscure.
This particular novel, Family Matters, originally published in 1933, is rather unconventional in comparison to some of the others, in that it's an inverted mystery - we know from the start who will die, and which other characters would like him dead, but what we only find out at the end is which suspect was actually guilty. What this structure loses in its intrigue it by far makes up in its characterisation (a common criticism levelled at 'whodunnits', as revealing too much is a giveaway of the solution). The characters, it has to be said, are pretty unpleasant, and I felt I cared little for any of them. The first quarter of the novel is a bit of a slog, and had this been my first Crime Classic I might have abandoned the book, but I've read enough of the series to trust in the titles selected, and so I persisted. I'm glad I did. Whilst this isn't going to convert anyone to an avid follower of the series, it's different enough to hold a charm. Not recommended to the casual crime fan - especially one more used to the fast pace of a contemporary crime novel - but for those of us who don't mind a rather more ponderous and languid read, it's an entertaining enough way to pass the time.
This particular novel, Family Matters, originally published in 1933, is rather unconventional in comparison to some of the others, in that it's an inverted mystery - we know from the start who will die, and which other characters would like him dead, but what we only find out at the end is which suspect was actually guilty. What this structure loses in its intrigue it by far makes up in its characterisation (a common criticism levelled at 'whodunnits', as revealing too much is a giveaway of the solution). The characters, it has to be said, are pretty unpleasant, and I felt I cared little for any of them. The first quarter of the novel is a bit of a slog, and had this been my first Crime Classic I might have abandoned the book, but I've read enough of the series to trust in the titles selected, and so I persisted. I'm glad I did. Whilst this isn't going to convert anyone to an avid follower of the series, it's different enough to hold a charm. Not recommended to the casual crime fan - especially one more used to the fast pace of a contemporary crime novel - but for those of us who don't mind a rather more ponderous and languid read, it's an entertaining enough way to pass the time.
June 26, 2021
This is a 1933 book written by Welsh author Colwyn Edward Vulliamy, writing using the penname Anthony Rolls. It is a Golden Age crime mystery novel and is included in Martin Edwards’ “The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books” list. The setting is during the Great Slump in England in a small fictional English town called Shufflecester. I am quite disappointed by the book, especially at the haphazard way the ending was handled. While the plot is extremely original and creative (four poisons are involved here), Vulliamy’s story telling skill and characters development have much to be desired. The story is told from a third-party narrator perspective. Sometimes, Vulliamy also talk directly to the readers. Overall, I find the story boring and mediocre. The book I read is part of the British Library Crime Classics series and comes with a very good introduction by Martin Edwards, who did quote (as Edwards does quite often in his introductions for this series) Dorothy Sayers’ Sunday Times review. In her review, Sayers says this book “‘concerns the efforts of various members and friends of the Kewdingham family to get rid by poison of one of the most futile and exasperating men who ever, by his character and habits, asked to be murdered. Oddly enough, the poisons they select counteract one another, and this leads to a most original and grimly farcical situation, and an ironic surprise-ending, pregnant with poetical injustice.”
Spoiler Alert. The story is about a highly dysfunctional family of four living in a house in the fictional town of Shufflecester in England. Robert Arthur Kewdingham (called Bobby) and his young wife Bertha lives in the house with Robert’s father Robert Henry Kewdingham and Bobby’s young son Michael. Bobby, who at the time of the story is age 47, lost his job as an engineer in 1925 and has been unemployed for a few years. Instead of looking for a new job, Bobby just idled at home playing with his so called “collection” of beetles specimen, old Roman relics that he can hardly afford, and other odds and ends. Bobby is a highly unpleasant person, jobless, poor, irritable, and a hypochondriac suffering from depression. He is also into the occult and often experiments with mixing different drugs and poisons for self-medication of his many real and imaging ailments. His wife Bertha is very hot-tempered, argues a lot and is not very much into compromises. As a result, the couple fights all the time. In the first part of the book, Vulliamy spent too much time painting various village gossip and couple bickering and fight scenes for the readers. As a result of the economic hardship and the constant fights, Bertha is extremely unhappy with her life and her emotionally abusive husband. After reading a hair wash commercial about how housewives can make their own hair wash by using various chemicals including lead acetate (which is a poison in white powder form with a sweet taste but is not a scheduled poison so Bertha just buy it over the counter), she decided to use that to poison Bobby. At the same time, Bobby’s doctor, a Dr. Wilson Bagge, who runs his own dispensary and is into doing chemical experiments (sometimes secretly on his patients), is also thinking about poisoning Bobby. Dr. Bagge, at the time, has invented a new aluminum-based poison compound. Since Bobby is a very disagreeable patient, Bagge secretly picked him to be his test subject. So for a period of time, Bertha was poisoning Bobby with her lead-based poison by adding them to Bobby’s meals; while Dr. Bagge gave Bobby bottles of specially mixed medicine (really disguised aluminum-based poison added to Bobby’s usual medication). For some reason, not only did Bobby not die, he actually seemed to be getting better from all his chronic illnesses like his gastric and heart problems. So both Bertha and Bagge increased their poison dosages multiple times, still to no avail. It turns out what happened was the lead-based poison from Bertha neutralized the aluminum-based poison from Dr. Bagge, with each poison acting as antidote on the other.
In the meantime, Bertha has fallen in love with Bobby’s cousin John Harrigall. One day, she invited Harrigall to dinner at her house with Bobby and old Father Henry. Later that night, Bobby died. Subsequently, during autopsy, it turns out Bobby was poisoned by two separate poisons: arsenic and an atropine. However, neither the lead-based poison of Bertha nor the aluminum-based poison of Dr. Bagge was found in Bobby (they just neutralized each other and exited the system). In the end, there was an inquest scene where the science was laid out, as well as additional facts and the possibility of two additional poisons: arsenic from some weed-killer Bobby bought and some unknown oriental poison in a blue phial in Bobby’s home brought back by one of Bobby’s ancestors years ago. While there are evidence that shows Bobby has bought weed-killers a few months ago, and since Bobby is prone to depression, suicide by arsenic is a possibility, the jury nevertheless decided not to go that direction. While Vulliamy lay the foundation and suggested a possible murder motive by Harrigall (he was trying to save Bertha from her abusive husband) and it might be Harrigall who either used the oriental medicine in the blue phial or the weed killer, he never developed that angle and just let it die. Neither did Vulliamy develop the thesis of whether this could be a suicide deliberately disguised as murder engineered by Bobby to frame his wife. In the end, the coroner jury, instead of returning an open verdict as everyone expected, returned a verdict against Bertha and committed her to trial for murdering Bobby. She was, however acquitted. Vulliamy never explained who actually killed Bobby nor how was it done. I feel very dissatisfied with that ending. I feel like Vulliamy run out of steam by the end of the book and just did not want to (or could not figure out how to) properly wrap it up. Having four different poisons in a murder plot is an interesting thesis (the lead-based poison from Bertha, the aluminum-based poison from Dr. Bagge, the arsenic from the weed-killer and the atrophine from the blue phial from India). Too bad it is wasted on a badly executed book.
Spoiler Alert. The story is about a highly dysfunctional family of four living in a house in the fictional town of Shufflecester in England. Robert Arthur Kewdingham (called Bobby) and his young wife Bertha lives in the house with Robert’s father Robert Henry Kewdingham and Bobby’s young son Michael. Bobby, who at the time of the story is age 47, lost his job as an engineer in 1925 and has been unemployed for a few years. Instead of looking for a new job, Bobby just idled at home playing with his so called “collection” of beetles specimen, old Roman relics that he can hardly afford, and other odds and ends. Bobby is a highly unpleasant person, jobless, poor, irritable, and a hypochondriac suffering from depression. He is also into the occult and often experiments with mixing different drugs and poisons for self-medication of his many real and imaging ailments. His wife Bertha is very hot-tempered, argues a lot and is not very much into compromises. As a result, the couple fights all the time. In the first part of the book, Vulliamy spent too much time painting various village gossip and couple bickering and fight scenes for the readers. As a result of the economic hardship and the constant fights, Bertha is extremely unhappy with her life and her emotionally abusive husband. After reading a hair wash commercial about how housewives can make their own hair wash by using various chemicals including lead acetate (which is a poison in white powder form with a sweet taste but is not a scheduled poison so Bertha just buy it over the counter), she decided to use that to poison Bobby. At the same time, Bobby’s doctor, a Dr. Wilson Bagge, who runs his own dispensary and is into doing chemical experiments (sometimes secretly on his patients), is also thinking about poisoning Bobby. Dr. Bagge, at the time, has invented a new aluminum-based poison compound. Since Bobby is a very disagreeable patient, Bagge secretly picked him to be his test subject. So for a period of time, Bertha was poisoning Bobby with her lead-based poison by adding them to Bobby’s meals; while Dr. Bagge gave Bobby bottles of specially mixed medicine (really disguised aluminum-based poison added to Bobby’s usual medication). For some reason, not only did Bobby not die, he actually seemed to be getting better from all his chronic illnesses like his gastric and heart problems. So both Bertha and Bagge increased their poison dosages multiple times, still to no avail. It turns out what happened was the lead-based poison from Bertha neutralized the aluminum-based poison from Dr. Bagge, with each poison acting as antidote on the other.
In the meantime, Bertha has fallen in love with Bobby’s cousin John Harrigall. One day, she invited Harrigall to dinner at her house with Bobby and old Father Henry. Later that night, Bobby died. Subsequently, during autopsy, it turns out Bobby was poisoned by two separate poisons: arsenic and an atropine. However, neither the lead-based poison of Bertha nor the aluminum-based poison of Dr. Bagge was found in Bobby (they just neutralized each other and exited the system). In the end, there was an inquest scene where the science was laid out, as well as additional facts and the possibility of two additional poisons: arsenic from some weed-killer Bobby bought and some unknown oriental poison in a blue phial in Bobby’s home brought back by one of Bobby’s ancestors years ago. While there are evidence that shows Bobby has bought weed-killers a few months ago, and since Bobby is prone to depression, suicide by arsenic is a possibility, the jury nevertheless decided not to go that direction. While Vulliamy lay the foundation and suggested a possible murder motive by Harrigall (he was trying to save Bertha from her abusive husband) and it might be Harrigall who either used the oriental medicine in the blue phial or the weed killer, he never developed that angle and just let it die. Neither did Vulliamy develop the thesis of whether this could be a suicide deliberately disguised as murder engineered by Bobby to frame his wife. In the end, the coroner jury, instead of returning an open verdict as everyone expected, returned a verdict against Bertha and committed her to trial for murdering Bobby. She was, however acquitted. Vulliamy never explained who actually killed Bobby nor how was it done. I feel very dissatisfied with that ending. I feel like Vulliamy run out of steam by the end of the book and just did not want to (or could not figure out how to) properly wrap it up. Having four different poisons in a murder plot is an interesting thesis (the lead-based poison from Bertha, the aluminum-based poison from Dr. Bagge, the arsenic from the weed-killer and the atrophine from the blue phial from India). Too bad it is wasted on a badly executed book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2024
This was a reread to decide whether or not to keep it - I had a vague memory of not being that impressed the first time and I was right!
The author produces some well-rounded characters and some of his writing is very funny. But for me, the book fails in two areas. The first is that it lurches uncomfortably between humour and tragedy. In some ways, this reads as a kind of spoof detective story - our main characters' surname is Kewdingham, while others are Quatt, Moggerdill and Bimble and they all live in Shufflecester! The plot revolves around multiple people attempting to poison the same victim and all getting in each others' way. However, there are frequent scenes of bullying and verbal abuse bordering on physical abuse, which sit uneasily with the more comic aspects of the book.
The other problem is that the plot runs out of steam - the author appears to have no idea how to end the book, so the post-murder investigations are spun out much more than they need to be and the ending just fizzles out like a damp squib. I've read some reviews which refer to this as 'daring', but to me, it doesn't come across that way - more of a case of "I have no idea how to finish this and I've written myself into a corner so..."
The author produces some well-rounded characters and some of his writing is very funny. But for me, the book fails in two areas. The first is that it lurches uncomfortably between humour and tragedy. In some ways, this reads as a kind of spoof detective story - our main characters' surname is Kewdingham, while others are Quatt, Moggerdill and Bimble and they all live in Shufflecester! The plot revolves around multiple people attempting to poison the same victim and all getting in each others' way. However, there are frequent scenes of bullying and verbal abuse bordering on physical abuse, which sit uneasily with the more comic aspects of the book.
The other problem is that the plot runs out of steam - the author appears to have no idea how to end the book, so the post-murder investigations are spun out much more than they need to be and the ending just fizzles out like a damp squib. I've read some reviews which refer to this as 'daring', but to me, it doesn't come across that way - more of a case of "I have no idea how to finish this and I've written myself into a corner so..."
August 18, 2025
What a twisted, complicated tale of a whole group of people I didn't like very much! We are introduced to Robert Arthur Kewdingham and his wife, Bertha. Needless to say, he's a failure, an eccentric, and she has the misfortune of being English-French and a stranger to his family and community. Both are short-tempered, attack each other with horrible quarrels and arguments and all around bickering.
It's a toxic mix that just gets worse when you have the proper family doctor, Dr. Bagge, the assorted Kewdingham relatives, and author John Harrigall. The doctor and the author have designs on the lovely Bertha.
Needless to say, the situation calls for desperate measures and in that, there is a certain black humor going on. That is the surprising part of this classic work by Anthony Rolls. Plenty of twists and turns in the action and the participants in this deadly brew. While I disliked the characters, the story is definitely filled with surprises and it makes for a new reading experience.
It's a toxic mix that just gets worse when you have the proper family doctor, Dr. Bagge, the assorted Kewdingham relatives, and author John Harrigall. The doctor and the author have designs on the lovely Bertha.
Needless to say, the situation calls for desperate measures and in that, there is a certain black humor going on. That is the surprising part of this classic work by Anthony Rolls. Plenty of twists and turns in the action and the participants in this deadly brew. While I disliked the characters, the story is definitely filled with surprises and it makes for a new reading experience.
September 22, 2017
For fans of 1930s murder novels, this has many of the classic ingredients: a small town ripe for gossip; some idle rich with nothing better to than murder each other, and a cast of extended family members to add to the mix. Unlike many novels, there is no detective and the reader is fully cognisant the whole time of who is plotting and executing their murderous plans. The entertainment comes from the macabre farce that ensues as two people try to poison the same victim, unbeknownst to each other, resulting in the use of poisons that counteract the effect of the other. The author, despite writing as a contemporary of the genre, produces almost a parody of the traditional golden age whodunnits. Departing from the norm, he chooses to allow his perpetrator to go unpunished and even to thrive into the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2020
RA
A very enjoyable period piece, well written and rich in character. Doctor Bagge's bird like qualities were brilliantly described. Almost devoid of detection until near the close and coroner's court scene, we know who the perpetrators are and something of their very different motivations for murder. The way their efforts confounded each was a delight; original and marking the book apart from even the well known greats of the golden age. A self deluded man of many eccentric interests and beliefs was despised by his long suffering wife and became a type of lab rat for a respected doctor with a zeal for experimentation. In an age of little oversight and unquestioning trust in authority figures it was a lovely story of a man completely lost in his own head. A must read for lovers of period British crime.
A very enjoyable period piece, well written and rich in character. Doctor Bagge's bird like qualities were brilliantly described. Almost devoid of detection until near the close and coroner's court scene, we know who the perpetrators are and something of their very different motivations for murder. The way their efforts confounded each was a delight; original and marking the book apart from even the well known greats of the golden age. A self deluded man of many eccentric interests and beliefs was despised by his long suffering wife and became a type of lab rat for a respected doctor with a zeal for experimentation. In an age of little oversight and unquestioning trust in authority figures it was a lovely story of a man completely lost in his own head. A must read for lovers of period British crime.
October 14, 2024
I love pre and immediately post-World War 2 fiction and have a small group of books re-published by the British Library, which I hope means they are worth preserving. I chose this book, first published in 1933, before reading the two Agatha Christies chosen for my book club this month. I wanted to see what else was written at the same time to contrast.
The writing style here made it very hard going, although there is some black humour. But there are ridiculously made-up names for people and places making it difficult to remember them and therefore follow the plot. It is ingeniously worked out, the author showing a good knowledge of chemicals, particularly poisons. Not a book I would recommend unless one is interested in popular crime fiction of the era.
The writing style here made it very hard going, although there is some black humour. But there are ridiculously made-up names for people and places making it difficult to remember them and therefore follow the plot. It is ingeniously worked out, the author showing a good knowledge of chemicals, particularly poisons. Not a book I would recommend unless one is interested in popular crime fiction of the era.
December 9, 2018
A modern tale (modern can be the 1930s) of a disintegrating marriage that gives ample space and acknowledgement of a woman's interior life, even if nothing stands out in her exterior life but the common experience of a failing relationship with an end that keeps you guessing.
It is grim, farcical and darkly humorous. The characters are well depicted. As the reader goes through most of the book it seems to be one that is more a character study than a real mystery but the end does hold a surprise that is left up to the reader to interpret.
Well written and structured but a bit more depressing than I actually wanted to read at the time.
It is grim, farcical and darkly humorous. The characters are well depicted. As the reader goes through most of the book it seems to be one that is more a character study than a real mystery but the end does hold a surprise that is left up to the reader to interpret.
Well written and structured but a bit more depressing than I actually wanted to read at the time.
September 26, 2025
Fun dark humor, with an excellent depiction of some very unpleasant personalities, one of whom ends up murdered. I will be pondering the end of the book for a while. The author is clearly skilled and talented enough that he wanted the book to end exactly the way it did.
Spoiler
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So it must be that it isn't all that important to what he was trying to do in this story that we find out who the murderer is in the end. I think I know, but the narrative trick in leaving it open is actually pretty funny to me.
Spoiler
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So it must be that it isn't all that important to what he was trying to do in this story that we find out who the murderer is in the end. I think I know, but the narrative trick in leaving it open is actually pretty funny to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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