Unholy Dying

Prof. John Stubbs

by R.T. Campbell, Peter Main (Foreword)

This rare 1945 thriller offers a delightful example of detective fiction at its very best. Using the pen name R. T. Campbell, the eminent art critic, poet, and fantasy novelist Ruthven Campbell Todd wrote a series of mysteries featuring a unique hero, the inimitable amateur sleuth Professor John Stubbs. A blustering old botanist from Scotland, Stubbs employs humorously unconventional methods in his investigations.
In this, one of Stubbs's first adventures, an infamous fraud is poisoned at a gathering of geneticists and the possible killer includes a dozen vindictive former assistants and humiliated colleagues. The gallery of suspects ranges from a brash American, Dr. Swartz, and the victim's sniveling associate, Professor Silver, to a lovely young genetics student, Miss Mary Lewis, and even Stubbs's nephew, a reporter covering the convention. The novel's brisk pace, witty dialogue, and flavorful re-creation of English university life during the mid-twentieth century combine to form an exciting and amusing page-turner.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, 20th Century, British Literature, Humor

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1945

About the author

R.T. Campbell was the pseudonym of Ruthven Todd.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a policeman but as an avid reader of detective stories, I don't want anyone to be wrongly suspected if I can help it. [Professor John Stubbs; p. 36]

Unholy Dying (1945) is the first of a series of mysteries featuring Professor John Stubbs, the larger-than-life botanist-cum-amateur sleuth, by R. T. Campbell. This initial outing is told primarily from the point of view of Stubbs' "Watson," his nephew Andrew Blake. Blake, who earns his keep selling "culture" pieces to the Daily Courier newspaper, has joined Stubbs at a formal Congress of geneticists where he is expected to come up with interesting stories on such things as blood groups and taste tests. But soon something far more exciting than genetic presentations happens.

Dr. Ian Porter, a vastly unpopular scientist who is well-known for stealing the ideas of others, is found dead from cyanide poisoning in the middle of the taste-testing exhibit. Pretty much everyone who ever met the man disliked him and had a motive to murder him--from Dr. Stubbs himself to Porter's unfortunate assistants to fellow scientists in his field and even Blake has the police's interest as a suspect. Ever the knight-errant, Blake had taken a swipe at Porter the evening before when the scientist pushed his unwanted attentions on one of his students, the lovely Mary Lewis.

Mary, of course, is also a suspect having had to fend off such advances repeatedly with more and more evident dislike. Her current beau, Dr. Peter Hatton naturally hates Porter for making Mary's life so uncomfortable. There is also the American Dr. Swartz who has even more reason to hate Porter. While in the States, Porter had snagged the affections of the girl Swartz loved and then promptly dropped her like a hot potato when she found herself "in trouble." She couldn't bear the heartache and dishonor and shot herself. And finally, there is Dr. Silver, Porter's right-hand man. Silver claims to be devastated and to have been Porter's only friend--but he was also in the position to have had the most intellectual property stolen.

The police in the form of Inspector Hargrave provide the foil for Professor Stubbs' efforts at amateur detecting. In fact, Hargrave makes a pretty poor showing for the official force, repeatedly wanting to arrest people on the slimmest of suspicion. Fortunately, Stubbs is digging up honest-to-goodness clues and is able to lay a trap that will catch the real villain of the piece.

So...my reading log tells me that I read this once back in the mists of time, but I honestly don't remember a thing about the book. Which is actually a good thing--I got to approach this absolutely delightful and funny mystery as if I were reading it for the very first time. I love collecting good quotes from the books I read but I would be copying whole pages at a time if I tried doing that with this one. But I will give a small selection at the end of the review.

Stubbs is a wonderful character. I can't imagine wanting to long be in the same room as a man described at various times as everything from an elephant to a tank and noted for hooting, shouting, rumbling, and "whispering" in one's ear loud enough to make the teeth rattle. But he is great fun on paper. Campbell's character descriptions in general are quite vivid and interesting. And his plotting was well done for a first attempt at mysteries. Most enjoyable.★★★★ and 1/2.

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

[Ferne (Enthusiastic Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Unholy Dying" is the December selection in the Mysteries-Book-a-Month 2020 package from Bas Bleu which sadly brings this year's selections to an end. I have purchased the package to ship monthly over the last few years and since the beginning I have been in awe of the variety of selections. I don't think I would have discovered the majority of authors independently and I have welcomed the exposure as it has broadened my reading experiences in this category that I've loved since reading "Nancy Drew Mysteries" in the 4th grade.

I'm also grateful to the "Foreword" by Peter Main that helped me to learn the significance of R.T. Campbell's writing in the history of the mystery genre. Professor John Stubbs is an interesting man and by profession a botanist or as his nephew shares is more correctly termed a plant-physiologist. The professor is an even more intriguing amateur sleuth determined to "prove" his detective skills as he's a dedicated reader of detective stories.

Kudos to Dover Publications for bringing this (c)1945 gem back in print giving an opportunity for new readers to discover and enjoy the absorbing experience.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fan of old mysteries and was very happy to discover a new to me author.
It's a gentle mystery, full of humour and with an interesting cast of characters.
I found the genetic part amusing, it was like watching a b&w film.
I think this is perfect for people who like cozy or classical mystery.
I look forward to reading other books in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Dover Publications and Netgalley for this ARC

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor John Stubbs is the eccentric amateur investigating murder at an international conference of geneticists. He reminds me somewhat of Gervase Fen, created by Edmund Crispin around the same time.

Stubbs is a fan of locked room mysteries, particularly those of JD Carr, but the first murder here is the opposite, taking place in an open laboratory to which there was unfettered access. The regular police are not very competent and jump to hasty conclusions.

The murderer is unmasked by use of a subterfuge, Stubbs being unable to conclude the case otherwise.

This is a short book, with quite a lot of amusing dialogue which feels rather dated. I found it a bit hard-going as I felt that the author was spinning out a short story idea to novella length.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dover Publications for the digital review copy.

[George Laymark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great mystery novel

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"This rare 1945 thriller offers a delightful example of detective fiction at its very best. Using the pen name R.T. Campbell, the eminent art critic, poet, and fantasy novelist Ruthven Campbell Todd wrote a series of mysteries featuring a unique hero, the inimitable amateur sleuth Professor John Stubbs. A blustering old botanist from Scotland, Stubbs employs humorously unconventional methods in his investigation.

"In this, one of Stubbs' first adventures, an infamous fraud is poisoned at a gathering of geneticists and the possible killer includes a dozen vindictive former assistants and humiliated colleagues. The gallery of suspects ranges from a brash American, Dr. Swartz, and the victim's sniveling associate, Professor Silver, to a lovely young genetics student, Miss Mary Lewis, and even Stubbs' nephew, a reporter covering the convention. The novel's brisk pace, witty dialogue, and flavorful recreation of English university life during the mid-twentieth century combine to form an exciting and amusing page-turner."
~~back cover

Interesting to read this review from the vantage point of the 21st century. Professor John Stubbs may have been unique in his day, but there have been myriad blustering, inimitable amateur sleuths since then. Gervase Fen springs to mind, and interestingly enough, is a contemporary of Professor Stubs, having been first published in 1944.

As usual, the solving of the crime depends upon a good bit of deduction and a few very slim clues. The dialog is excruciating: Stubbs bursts into flavorful and colloquial language at the drop of a hat, adding pages to the book that could easily have been eliminated..

All in all, it was a rather tedious read, and I'm no planning on reading any more of this series of books.

[John Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I loved Ruthven Todd's "Space Cat" books. Many of my generation felt the same, and they are still in print. In later years I learned a bit about Todd, who had an odd career and many literary luminaries as friends. He was reportedly friends with George Orwell, and there is a (possibly true?) anecdote about the pair of them roasting pigeons in Central Park. Better documented: Todd was a leading scholar on William Blake's printing methods. He also played a role in Dylan Thomas' death: Todd recommended The White Horse bar to Dylan, where he is supposed to have downed eighteen straight whiskys.

I was aware Todd had published a number of murder mysteries. By his own account, he dashed them off in a hurry to make money, and did not regard them as having much literary merit. Of the first of these, "Unholy Dying," I can report it is a typical specimen of the British murder mystery as familiar to readers in the 1940's. While he populates it with stock characters, and does not trouble to polish his writing to a glossy standard, this otherwise conventional mystery has numerous flashes of wit, and gleefully inverts the locked room murder trope in presenting a murder in a wide open venue that anyone could have done.

Although I enjoyed it, I give Unholy Dying three stars for what it is: A hastily written piece written for money by an author capable of much better.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good solid read! I enjoyed the banter between characters and the descriptions of sounds. Dr. Stubbs is a great, fun character. Always messy, very large, always filling his pipe, putting away more beer than you would think a man could and still walk! Best of all he was always carrying around a detective novel in his pocket. John Dickson Carr was the one he was reading in this book, Edgar Wallace got a mention too.

Dr. Stubbs had always wanted to have a chance to try his hand at detecting as his favorite past-time was reading detective novels. With his current read being a Dickson Carr he was all up on locked room mysteries but this murder was the exact opposite of that, anyone of a couple thousand people could have done it!

[Melanie Vidrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a British comedy of manners disguised as a murder mystery. Very enjoyable for Anglophiles, perhaps not so much for real detective genre readers.

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unholy Dying by R. T. Campbell is not a bad whodunit book. It’s short and goofy. I wouldn’t call it a seriously crafted mystery but it was enjoyable. The title is terrible though. When I first saw the book cover (illustrated with a creepy old churchyard and gravestones) I thought it was about a priest who’d been murdered or maybe the amateur detective was a priest, something like that. Nope, the “unholy” has nothing to do with anything. If anything, the murder proves to be jolly fun for many of the characters.

Andrew Blake is a journalist attending the eighteenth Congress of Geneticists in London. Science isn’t his normal beat, but he needed money and his uncle, Professor John Stubbs, is a noted botanist and invited him to attend the Congress proceedings. When he and his uncle are walking to the next set of scientific demonstrations, Professor Silver runs up to them and exclaims that he found Dr. Porter in one of the labs and he looks like he’s dead! Thus the investigation by Prof. Stubbs, an armchair detective, begins.

This book was written in 1945 so some of the colloquialisms and jokes don’t make any sense to me, but it’s short (under 150 pages) and a light read. Prof. Stubbs is funny, what with his giant mustache and gallows sense of humor. The mystery isn’t too difficult to solve, especially if you ignore all the red herrings. Once the true cause of death for Dr. Porter is revealed, I figured Mary had to be the murderer. Dr. Porter is a smug, condescending asshole no one likes (except his sniveling assistant and BFF Prof. Silver) and Dr. Porter would only have trusted two people to get close enough to him to murder him in the manner described. Of the two, Mary had the best motive. The murder of Dr. Swartz messed up my logic, but his murder (as described) isn’t convincing. The murderer had to stand on a stool, wait for Dr. Swartz to stumble upon him/her in the darkened room, then be so weak as to not be able to fight off the person attempting to press a cloth soaked with ether against his face (while also standing on a stool), fall down unconscious, have cyanide poured down his throat and then be bundled into a cabinet far enough off the floor that, when the cabinet is opened, his body tumbles to the floor. I mean, c’mon. Dr. Swartz is a healthy male of his midthirties (I estimate), not a frail 70 year old. So the second murder (and the motive for it) are nonsensical.

The police inspector is, of course, an idiot. He arrests the only person in the whole group who barely knows Dr. Porter and has no motive for wanting him dead. But it’s so much fun watching Prof. Stubbs stomp around with his huge bushy moustache and his gray hair that “looked as if it had been skillfully tangled by a bevy of kittens” (65) and the massive cloud of pipe smoke that surrounded him I didn’t mind the idiocy of the inspector or the weakness of the plot. Professor Stubbs talks a lot and sometimes constructs sentences like this: “The murderer obviously did not want us to know that, takin’ a tip from Hamlet’s uncle, he poured a leprous distilment whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man into Porter’s ear” (74). He also makes fun jokes about why it’d be okay to murder Dr. Porter and how his nephew’s neck will fit nicely into the hangman’s rope. Professor Stubbs also drives his car like a maniac, scaring his passengers and anyone unlucky enough to be on the street. He also drinks great quantities of whiskey and beer—I’m guessing it helps him think. Andrew Blake, the narrator, lacks a sense of humor and is a tad whiny, but his uncle more than makes up for his disappointing personality.

In the foreword to the book by Peter Main, it’s revealed that R. T. Campbell is a pen name for Ruthven Campbell Todd, a poet and authority on the works of William Blake. He wrote these Professor Stubbs mysteries for the money, not thinking too highly of them. He preferred to focus on poetry and art history. As much as I enjoyed the book, it is noticeable that this is probably Campbell’s first detective novel. I don’t know if he had an editor, but I spotted a mistake that should have been corrected (Prof. Stubbs asks Mary about the rodent cage on page 43, but on page 59 he tells Peter he knew he was lying and says, remember when I asked you about the rodent cage? You couldn’t have seen it because it wasn’t there! Um, that was Mary. Mary was lying.)

Overall, though, Unholy Dying is a fun little mystery. I don’t know if I would seek out another book in the series, but I’d read another if I stumbled over it in a used book store.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Unholy Dying is one of R.T. Campbell's first mysteries featuring Professor John Stubbs. Originally published in 1945, this re-formatting and re-release came out 16th Jan 2019 from Dover. It's 144 pages and this edition is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a classic golden age British mystery. R.T. Campbell was the pseudonym of poet and author Ruthven Todd. As a bio-engineer, I really enjoyed reading the 1940s genetics (the murder takes place at a professional conference of geneticists). The book has held up surprisingly well in my opinion. Some of the dialogue is a bit dated, but all in all, it's very well written, fast moving, well plotted and has a satisfying denouement.

It's a very fast read (I would call it a long novella or a very short novel). As in many (most?) murder mysteries of the time period, the corpse was a thoroughly unlikable jerk; no tears were shed. There is a smaller than normal pool of suspects and Stubbs has to resort to subterfuge to deliver the guilty party. All in all a nice read by a lesser known author from the golden age. While it's not up to Christie, Marsh, Carr, Tey, or Sayers, it's a completely readable and diverting mystery.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Linda Galella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erudite, methodical and humorous in its very British gentility, author R. T. Campbell has written a 144 pg cozy mystery that’s been reprinted by Dover. The price of 12.95/9.80 seems to be inordinate for the package. This is not something I usually comment on but in this case, it’s germane. Fortunately, I received a copy in a Goodreads Giveaway.

The characters are very well crafted and exceedingly interesting. Campbell’s descriptions were enough that I could cast this book without any trouble. For me, the dialogue was less enjoyable and the science was a bit too much. The actions of the characters, especially the uncle, are delightful. There is no sexual content, gratuitous violence or foul language to contend with in “Unholy Dying”

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supposedly the first in the series about Professor John Stubbs, a botanist who loves to solve murder mysteries and is quite the character. I really like him and the way Campbell, a pseudonym, tells the tale, describes characters and settings, etc. The ingenious way the first murder happened was great! My only critical comment is that in the second book (Death in the Bookshop) in the series Stubbs has much more of a countryish, almost wilder way of talking that I found particularly enjoyable. Perhaps the author changed his idea of his main character a bit as he got into writing his stories. Not a problem, the story and the entirety of characters is what's important. Recommend. From the Golden Age.......

[J. Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Where to start. They say always start with the positives. Right. Detective Stubbs is quirky and entertaining. I haven't checked yet to see if any adaptation to film was ever attempted; I sure hope so. I think this would lend itself nicely to a visual experience. I could see the Rumpole of the Bailey actor as Stubbs nicely.
Despite being a slim volume--I fully expected to rip through this--it seemed to drag in places, those places where Stubbs was absent. Also, quite a lot of the info was held to the end, at which point I'd mostly lost interest. Yet some folks have given this five stars and loved it. Alas, I didn't enjoy it enough to hunt up more in the series. Would watch a movie or show, though.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. The Golden Age of Murder, well a little past but it fits in very well. Humorous, a different main character, dated but clever dialog and fast paced. I was fascinated by the genetic information known at the time. I wonder if genes were known to the general public, much less that being able to fold your tongue in a certain way is also related to genetics. This could easily be put on PBS' Mysteries.

[Katy Koivastik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subterfuge among scientists. I never once guessed who the perpetrator was, but felt a little cheated when amateur detective Professor John Stubbs concluded the perp, who commits suicide rather than being arrested, probably would have been acquitted and then gone on to kill a well-liked fellow scientist; it just felt a little too neat. Otherwise, this was a cracking good, if short, whodunnit.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars: A quick read (at 119 pages), set in an English University, it's not really a great puzzle, but it's an okay way to pass some time. The Professor is a little too familiar to readers of John Dickson Carr (the books of whom the professor actually mentions reading.) (Originally published in 1945.)

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor John Stubbs takes his journalist nephew Andrew Blake along as his assistant at a convention of geneticists at a British university. When one of the academics is murdered, Stubbs, an avid mystery reader, fancies himself as a successor to Sherlock Holmes. A quick read, just 130 pp.

[Marisa Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written in 1945. The writing style is a bit dated - lots of description, slow moving.

[Livia Komosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. Dun

[Neer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The farcical element destroyed an otherwise good mystery. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...

[Elle Hartford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up by chance and found it to be an interesting take on the amateur investigative duo, with lots of attention to detail!

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow go.

[blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a neat little mystery, tightly written and with fairly well-developed characters. (I went in completely blind, thinking maybe this was a horror story.)

The detective is a dilettante scientist named Stubbs and the primary narrator is his nephew Andrew Blake. (In part two of this three part book, the narration switches to third person from first, as Blake finds himself in jail.)

The murder takes place at a genetics conference, at a time when genetics was a fairly new field, and the narrator is amusingly hapless in his inability to understand what he's seeing. The actual genetics that play a role in the mystery are a junior high level, however, and a reasonably interesting hook on which to hang clues.

This isn't an "a-ha" sort of mystery where you can neatly deduce the killer from the clues, but you can pretty strongly infer them—and you'll be right if hard-pressed to figure out how to prove things, as is Professor Stubbs.

Chock-a-block full of contemporary references, which I often like, since this is an era I like, but not all of which I got. Stubbs is a good character, though, and a worth peer of the likes of Poirot and Marple.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unholy Dying is a very entertaining read, the first of ten mystery novels written by Campbell after the war, most of them featuring amateur detective Prof. John Stubbs. Campbell's mysteries are very hard to find nowadays, with the exception of Bodies in a Bookshop and Unholy Dying, which were republished by Dover Publications in the 1980s.

Here is the complete list of R.T. Campbell's mystery novels:
Unholy Dying (1945)
Take Thee a Sharp Knife (1946)
Adventure with a Goat (1946)
Apollo Wore a Wig (1946)
Bodies in a Bookshop (1946)
The Death Cap (1946)
Death for Madame (1946)
Swing Low, Swing Death (1946)
Take Thee a Sharp Knife (1946)
Loser's Choice (1953)

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1945, UNHOLY DYING is one of the several pseudonymous detective mysteries by Scottish poet Ruthven Campbell Todd staring botany professor John Stubbs, a corporate Orson Welles-size scientist who fancies himself successor to the great detectives of classical mystery. Here a Congress of Geneticists held at University results in not just one, but multiple, unexplained deaths of attending scientists. At first Stubbs' blundering feckless nephew Andrew Blake, a journalist, is blamed and arrested. The actual denouement is both surprising and poignant.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor John Stubbs has always wanted to be a detective. When the most disliked man at a geneticists' conference dies, Stubbs is sure it isn't suicide, and decides to help the police. The help turns to rage when Stubbs's nephew, a journalist just at the conference to write a few articles if he can get someone to explain the topics for him, is suspected. Naturally, there's another death before there's a solution.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1945, this Oxford mystery is set in the 40's sometime. The fact that Dover republished it in 1985 was good enough recommendation for me to try it. Short (119 pages) and well written. Enough science to engage and enough unlikable people to make it interesting. Part of the Dover Mystery, Detective and Other Fiction series that I'll look into further.

[C3wach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed. Will look for others by him.

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best, but still enjoyable