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Grant Colwyn #2
The Hand in the Dark
Arthur John Rees (1877-1942) was an Australian journalist, born in Melbourne. His proficiency was in writing crime mystery stories, amongst which are: The Hampstead Mystery (with John Reay Watson) (1916), The Mystery of the Downs (with John Reay Watson) (1918), The Shrieking Pit (1919), The Hand in the Dark (1920), The Moon Rock (1922) and Island of Destiny (1923).
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First published January 1, 1920
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About the author
Arthur J. Rees
75 books6 followersArthur John Rees was an Australian mystery writer.
Born in Melbourne, he was for a short time on the staff of the Melbourne Age and later joined the staff of the New Zealand Herald.
In his early twenties he went to England.
His proficiency as a writer of crime-mystery stories is attested by Dorothy Sayers in the introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 1928. Two of his stories were included in an American world-anthology of detective stories. Some of his works were translated into French and German.
Born in Melbourne, he was for a short time on the staff of the Melbourne Age and later joined the staff of the New Zealand Herald.
In his early twenties he went to England.
His proficiency as a writer of crime-mystery stories is attested by Dorothy Sayers in the introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 1928. Two of his stories were included in an American world-anthology of detective stories. Some of his works were translated into French and German.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 5, 2019
One of the best "English country house" mysteries I have ever had the pleasure of reading!
April 15, 2013
I would have given this book four stars if it wasn't for the fact that it was very slow to start. I almost gave up on it but it got better about a third of the way in. A wealthy young aristocrat marries a beautiful young working class socialite and she hates being shut away in the country. A weekend party is organised to cheer her up and a lot of her London friends are invited. She is, naturally, murdered and the daughter of the housekeeper is arrested. The police are certain she is guilty. The murdered girl's husband thinks not, however and hires a famous private detective to prove her innocence. The author is very fair and gives the reader all the clues necessary to work out who killed her. Pretty good if you like the English country house murder scenario especially as it's available for free download.
May 27, 2020
The actual mystery in this book was pretty good. The clues were all there, but I didn’t put them together. Because of that, I might give the author another try, but the following are the reasons I might not.
First, the constant harping on types got to me. “She was this type of person… he was that type of officer... her type would never… his type would… their type couldn’t…” Usually, all of those generalizations were of the cynical slightly degrading type. At times I started to think the author was more interested in social commentary than solving the mystery he created. Then the talents of each of the three detectives are enumerated over and over, especially the Scotland Yard detectives. I’m quite familiar with the typical private eye is smarter than the detective, but in this one, the official detectives are so poorly represented that they come across as more mean than obtuse. That didn’t help with the overall cynical tone.
Next, it was also very slow. Partly that’s due to the social commentary, partly due to the author’s insistence on over describing each character’s abilities, and partly due to just plain rambling. For example at the climax, “In concocting his masterpiece of malignant ingenuity the murderer had worked alone. His only accomplice—apart from the after-hand of Fate—was a piece of automatic mechanism which had done his bidding secretly, and would never have betrayed him. It was this ability to work alone, scheming and brooding in solitary concentration until the whole of the horrible conception had been perfected in every degree, which stamped the designer as a ferocious criminal of unusual mold, remorseless as a tiger, with a neurasthenic mind swayed by the unbridled savagery of natural impulse.”
There were a couple of curse words. Aside from those everything else was handled extremely delicately.
First, the constant harping on types got to me. “She was this type of person… he was that type of officer... her type would never… his type would… their type couldn’t…” Usually, all of those generalizations were of the cynical slightly degrading type. At times I started to think the author was more interested in social commentary than solving the mystery he created. Then the talents of each of the three detectives are enumerated over and over, especially the Scotland Yard detectives. I’m quite familiar with the typical private eye is smarter than the detective, but in this one, the official detectives are so poorly represented that they come across as more mean than obtuse. That didn’t help with the overall cynical tone.
Next, it was also very slow. Partly that’s due to the social commentary, partly due to the author’s insistence on over describing each character’s abilities, and partly due to just plain rambling. For example at the climax, “In concocting his masterpiece of malignant ingenuity the murderer had worked alone. His only accomplice—apart from the after-hand of Fate—was a piece of automatic mechanism which had done his bidding secretly, and would never have betrayed him. It was this ability to work alone, scheming and brooding in solitary concentration until the whole of the horrible conception had been perfected in every degree, which stamped the designer as a ferocious criminal of unusual mold, remorseless as a tiger, with a neurasthenic mind swayed by the unbridled savagery of natural impulse.”
There were a couple of curse words. Aside from those everything else was handled extremely delicately.
February 9, 2019
A straight up whodunnit just like I like them. It's not overrun with romance, drama, too many characters, etc. I listened to the audiobook via Librivox straight through. While I listen to many books I don't give 5 stars to many but feel this one deserves it.
February 24, 2016
The new Mrs. Meredith has invited all her friends from her freer, wilder life in London to meet with her at her husband's family home in rural Sussex. However, she is seemingly taken ill and can't accompany the party on their final jaunt to a neighbor's house after dinner.
Her husband, step-sister and friends sit down for dinner just before departing when they hear a scream from Mrs. Meredith's room, shortly followed by the report of a gun. The household ascends the stairs to find the young wife murdered, shot from close range.
Set in the year 1918 at a landed families mediæval moat-house, an imposing pile which boasts a colorful past of fire, theft and ghostly apparitions, The Hand in the Dark is in many ways a conventional murder mystery of its time and place, although there are some distinguishing features.
The most significant of these is an informal three-way duel between detectives of the old and new school. The old school is represented by 'the loud officialism of Merrington', the new school by the 'more subtle deductive methods of modern criminology' used by Caldew.
Both Scotland Yard men, however, have their limitations and prejudices which lead them after false trails, and it is left to a third, superior figure, private detective Mr. Colwyn, to blend both methods and let the facts speak for themselves, however unlikely they may be.
There are more than a few stiffly ornate phrases typical of the time but generally the writing is decent enough, and the mystery itself is actually a pretty ingenious one, where novel invention and unforeseen circumstance both play a convincing part.
Also, though very much an english country house mystery, I may have imagined it but the tone seemed to suggest a hint of archness at times, which may have been due to the author's Australian rather than British origins. What do you think?:
'Tufnell's first impulse was to take to his heels, but he was saved from this ignominious act by the timely recollection that he was an Englishman, whose glorious privilege it is to be born without fear.'
He's definitely taking the piss.
Her husband, step-sister and friends sit down for dinner just before departing when they hear a scream from Mrs. Meredith's room, shortly followed by the report of a gun. The household ascends the stairs to find the young wife murdered, shot from close range.
Set in the year 1918 at a landed families mediæval moat-house, an imposing pile which boasts a colorful past of fire, theft and ghostly apparitions, The Hand in the Dark is in many ways a conventional murder mystery of its time and place, although there are some distinguishing features.
The most significant of these is an informal three-way duel between detectives of the old and new school. The old school is represented by 'the loud officialism of Merrington', the new school by the 'more subtle deductive methods of modern criminology' used by Caldew.
Both Scotland Yard men, however, have their limitations and prejudices which lead them after false trails, and it is left to a third, superior figure, private detective Mr. Colwyn, to blend both methods and let the facts speak for themselves, however unlikely they may be.
There are more than a few stiffly ornate phrases typical of the time but generally the writing is decent enough, and the mystery itself is actually a pretty ingenious one, where novel invention and unforeseen circumstance both play a convincing part.
Also, though very much an english country house mystery, I may have imagined it but the tone seemed to suggest a hint of archness at times, which may have been due to the author's Australian rather than British origins. What do you think?:
'Tufnell's first impulse was to take to his heels, but he was saved from this ignominious act by the timely recollection that he was an Englishman, whose glorious privilege it is to be born without fear.'
He's definitely taking the piss.
March 17, 2015
Dating from 1920, this book shows its age. A newly-married woman is shot while the entire household is at dinner. Blame focuses on one person, until a private detective is brought in to show up the heavy-handed, slow-thinking police. The beauty of this book is less in the actual elements of the story and more in the scattered passages of description that sing. The plot itself had definite moments if implausibility, and characterizations were haphazard. My overall impression was that this book needed to be cut down quite a bit, as towards the end it felt like all I did was read about this person going here, that person going there, this person returning from there...and so on. Not a bad book, and I did stay interested, but it will drag unless you're a veteran of early mysteries and used to plugging along.
September 22, 2014
The author has been quite a find. An exciting murder mystery with a great dose of humour. More here:
http://inkquilletc.blogspot.in/2014/0...
http://inkquilletc.blogspot.in/2014/0...
March 27, 2018
Interesting plot, characters were well defined. First time for this narrator, who did a pleasantly clear reading. 👍🏼 Recommended.
October 31, 2025
This is the second Colwyn mystery by Rees that I have read, and much preferred to the first one-- mainly because the detective doesn't appear until halfway through. In a Golden Age country house mystery, it is to be expected that the private detective will outdo the police. But Col wyn is so desperately lacking in personality ! I was positively cheering for the rather scheming and ambitious policeman!
There is a complicated plot, which leads to a series of suspects. There is also a complicated murder technique (which I doubt would work in reality) and a lot of people refusing to speak, thus prolonging the mystery. I did enjoy the details of lower class London during WWI.
There is a complicated plot, which leads to a series of suspects. There is also a complicated murder technique (which I doubt would work in reality) and a lot of people refusing to speak, thus prolonging the mystery. I did enjoy the details of lower class London during WWI.
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August 28, 2020An excellent mystery story. Keeps you reading and when you have to stop you cannot wait to pick it up again.
April 7, 2021
A good mystery that kept me guessing until the end. Clever plot that changes the suspect from person to person in a natural way. I enjoyed it.
May 29, 2024
This is, in some ways, the poorest of the three by this author I have read recently. It is rich in interesting, yet irrelevant, descriptive passages but the plot would probably have fitted better in a long story or novella.
Detective Colwyn is brought in rather late on in the investigation of the murder of Violet Heredith at her husband's family home, an atmospheric Carolean moathouse. The Scotland Yard detectives, led by the egregiously-awful Superintendent Merrington, have, yet again, arrested the wrong person and Colwyn is tasked to sort it out.
The murder method is of an ingenuity worthy of John Rhode but the perpetrator is the only person it logically could be and so the reveal is a little disappointing.
A quick but very average read.
Detective Colwyn is brought in rather late on in the investigation of the murder of Violet Heredith at her husband's family home, an atmospheric Carolean moathouse. The Scotland Yard detectives, led by the egregiously-awful Superintendent Merrington, have, yet again, arrested the wrong person and Colwyn is tasked to sort it out.
The murder method is of an ingenuity worthy of John Rhode but the perpetrator is the only person it logically could be and so the reveal is a little disappointing.
A quick but very average read.
June 25, 2016
Just as described by the Classic Mysteries podcast. An interesting story about a murder committed while everyone at an English house party were seemingly seated at dinner. The son of the house, exempted from war, had just recently married a city girl, not the type anyone had expected him to marry. She's flighty and frivolous and there is more than one person who didn't seem to like her.
This is definitely a book that is now dated in attitude and the solution is more than a little convoluted but it was an interesting read for the descriptions of the characters alone.
This is definitely a book that is now dated in attitude and the solution is more than a little convoluted but it was an interesting read for the descriptions of the characters alone.
June 11, 2015
Sadly this story is rather longwinded and showing it's age in a way that isn't to it's advantage. The Shreaking Pit by the same author is a far better book, according to his Wiki page Mr Rees was meant to have been a prolific writer, however I have only found three stories written by himself and two others which were coauthored with Mr Watson. If there are any other stories out there by either author I would love to hear about them.
December 21, 2016
Dated writing and opinions but good story.
February 11, 2019
Very good
I enjoyed it very much. Excellent plot and character development. Enjoyed the British country and London settings. Not the typical mystery.
I enjoyed it very much. Excellent plot and character development. Enjoyed the British country and London settings. Not the typical mystery.
May 15, 2013
nice, cozy, vintage stuff :-)
March 30, 2017
Not a bad mystery, a few twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews