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Superintendent Anthony Slade #16
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
Murder mystery enters the world of English football in this 1939 classic.
In a high stakes final between a team of amateurs and the Arsenal side of 1939, a player drops dead on the pitch shortly after half time. It's up to Detective Inspector Slade to unravel the multiplicity of motives and suspects behind this case of the foulest play possible.
In a high stakes final between a team of amateurs and the Arsenal side of 1939, a player drops dead on the pitch shortly after half time. It's up to Detective Inspector Slade to unravel the multiplicity of motives and suspects behind this case of the foulest play possible.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
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August 29, 2021
I had seen the 1939 film adaptation of this book some time ago and was curious about the novel. I didn’t actually remember the outcome of the film, which helped my enjoyment of the book as I couldn’t remember who the guilty party was. My main memory of the film is that watching it was a little like travelling back in time.
This book is listed as No 16 in the “Superintendent Slade” series, although Slade is only an Inspector in this novel, so he must have got a couple of promotions in later books. I’ve never read any of the others. The author, Leonard Gribble, had a great marketing idea when he set this story in Highbury Stadium, in those days the home of Arsenal FC. Football was immensely popular in Britain between the wars, and is hardly less so today. Both the book and the film feature the real-life Arsenal players of the time and especially their manager, George Allison, who plays a fairly big role in the novel.
The plot involves Arsenal playing a friendly match against a fictional team called The Trojans. During the second half one of the Trojan players collapses and dies on the pitch, and it turns out he has been poisoned.
This book is intended as a light but entertaining read and it my opinion it succeeds. The victim, John Doyce, turns out to be a man who has made plenty of enemies, giving Inspector Slade the raft of possible suspects that is traditional for this genre. The gradual uncovering of the story is nicely paced, and as usual with me, I love the period dialogue. One of the characters, a woman called Pat Laruce, is maybe a bit too stereotyped. I will admit that I had spotted the killer before the end, but possibly that was because of the book jolting my memory of the film.
In the film version (but not the book) George Allison turns to a radio commentator at half-time and says, “It’s one-nil to the Arsenal, and that’s the way we like it!” The phrase “One-nil to the Arsenal” became a popular chant with Arsenal fans in the later decades of the 20th century, and the film was apparently the first recorded use of the expression. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.
The rating is within the genre. This is an enjoyable read.
This book is listed as No 16 in the “Superintendent Slade” series, although Slade is only an Inspector in this novel, so he must have got a couple of promotions in later books. I’ve never read any of the others. The author, Leonard Gribble, had a great marketing idea when he set this story in Highbury Stadium, in those days the home of Arsenal FC. Football was immensely popular in Britain between the wars, and is hardly less so today. Both the book and the film feature the real-life Arsenal players of the time and especially their manager, George Allison, who plays a fairly big role in the novel.
The plot involves Arsenal playing a friendly match against a fictional team called The Trojans. During the second half one of the Trojan players collapses and dies on the pitch, and it turns out he has been poisoned.
This book is intended as a light but entertaining read and it my opinion it succeeds. The victim, John Doyce, turns out to be a man who has made plenty of enemies, giving Inspector Slade the raft of possible suspects that is traditional for this genre. The gradual uncovering of the story is nicely paced, and as usual with me, I love the period dialogue. One of the characters, a woman called Pat Laruce, is maybe a bit too stereotyped. I will admit that I had spotted the killer before the end, but possibly that was because of the book jolting my memory of the film.
In the film version (but not the book) George Allison turns to a radio commentator at half-time and says, “It’s one-nil to the Arsenal, and that’s the way we like it!” The phrase “One-nil to the Arsenal” became a popular chant with Arsenal fans in the later decades of the 20th century, and the film was apparently the first recorded use of the expression. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.
The rating is within the genre. This is an enjoyable read.
January 23, 2019
Up the Gunners!
Top football team Arsenal is playing a friendly against the Trojans – an amateur team who have been on an amazing winning streak and are thrilled to be taking on the professionals. The ground is jam-packed – seventy thousand spectators have crammed themselves onto the terraces, mostly Arsenal fans but plenty hoping the Trojans will play well and provide an exciting match. But shortly into the second half, the Trojans’ newest player, right-half John Doyce, collapses and has to be carried off the field. The game continues, with neither players nor crowd knowing that in the treatment room a desperate battle is being carried on to save Doyce’s life. By the time the final whistle is blown, the battle has been lost...
In a lot of ways, this is a standard murder mystery with a Scotland Yard Inspector as detective. But what makes it unique is that it’s set amid the real Arsenal team of its time of writing – 1939 – and the actual players and manager appear in the book. Gribble has also had access to behind the scenes at the stadium, and provides what feels like an authentic picture of what it would have been like playing or working for a top club back then, in the days when even professional sides still had players who had “real” jobs as well as their sporting careers.
I’m not a big football fan, but it’s impossible to be British and not have a reasonable knowledge of the game, and I enjoyed the look back at a time when boys wanted to play for their local teams for the glory of the game, rather than to become fabulously wealthy celebrities with their own clothing label and drug habit – back when sportspeople were actually sporting. It also brought back memories of how terrifying/exhilarating* it was to be packed like sardines in an overfull stadium, the vast majority of people standing on the terraces with only the posh folk sitting in the stands (yeah, strange terminology, I know), and the horror/excitement* of the massive surge forward when your team scored. Those days are gone – the major disasters of the seventies and eighties pushed stadiums to become all-seater, so younger fans won’t ever have had that experience – I don’t know whether that makes them lucky or unlucky, to be honest.
Fortunately, however, the book gets out of the football stadium before my reminiscences turned to boredom, and the plot revolves around the personal lives of the players rather than their sporting careers. Unsurprisingly, Gribble’s victim is one of the fictional Trojan players, and the real players and staff at Arsenal play only minor roles. I think it’s also safe to say that the real people can be discounted as suspects! Doyce was an unpleasant chap with a reputation as a womaniser and had given several of his team-mates and the staff of the Trojans cause to dislike him. He’d only joined the club a week earlier, but several of them had played together before in another team, and another of the Trojans was his business partner. So there’s a good pool of suspects and some intriguing motives for Inspector Slade and Sergeant Clinton to investigate.
Inspector Slade is professional in his approach, but is helped along by his almost superhuman ability to make wild guesses that turn out to be correct. A couple of these were pretty ridiculous, in truth, and I felt they let the plotting down badly – with a little more work Gribble could have made these leaps a result of investigation rather than miraculous-level intuition. Otherwise, the plotting is pretty good, especially in the motivation, and on the whole I liked the characterisation although for the most part it’s not very in-depth. I debated whether it’s “fair-play” - in the introduction, Martin Edwards describes it that way – but I’m not wholly convinced. The explanation when it comes could have applied to several of the suspects – the vital piece of information that identifies the murderer wasn’t available to the reader. There are also odd plot holes, like people being married without their friends and colleagues knowing and people being engaged but no-one knowing to whom. Necessary for the plot to work, but unlikely...
Overall then, I enjoyed this without being entirely convinced by the plotting. The evocative and well-written descriptions of attending a football match back in the days when it was a major weekly occasion in the lives of so much of working-class Britain – of doing the football “pools”, of trying to find out the results of rival matches once the game was over, of seventy thousand people all wending their way homewards very slowly on overcrowded buses and trains – entertained me far more than I anticipated, and I suspect would appeal even more to die-hard football fans (especially ones of a certain age). A walk down memory lane... and, as with so much vintage crime, fun as much for what it shows us about society as for the actual mystery element.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, British Library Crime Classics.
(*delete as appropriate)
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Top football team Arsenal is playing a friendly against the Trojans – an amateur team who have been on an amazing winning streak and are thrilled to be taking on the professionals. The ground is jam-packed – seventy thousand spectators have crammed themselves onto the terraces, mostly Arsenal fans but plenty hoping the Trojans will play well and provide an exciting match. But shortly into the second half, the Trojans’ newest player, right-half John Doyce, collapses and has to be carried off the field. The game continues, with neither players nor crowd knowing that in the treatment room a desperate battle is being carried on to save Doyce’s life. By the time the final whistle is blown, the battle has been lost...
In a lot of ways, this is a standard murder mystery with a Scotland Yard Inspector as detective. But what makes it unique is that it’s set amid the real Arsenal team of its time of writing – 1939 – and the actual players and manager appear in the book. Gribble has also had access to behind the scenes at the stadium, and provides what feels like an authentic picture of what it would have been like playing or working for a top club back then, in the days when even professional sides still had players who had “real” jobs as well as their sporting careers.
I’m not a big football fan, but it’s impossible to be British and not have a reasonable knowledge of the game, and I enjoyed the look back at a time when boys wanted to play for their local teams for the glory of the game, rather than to become fabulously wealthy celebrities with their own clothing label and drug habit – back when sportspeople were actually sporting. It also brought back memories of how terrifying/exhilarating* it was to be packed like sardines in an overfull stadium, the vast majority of people standing on the terraces with only the posh folk sitting in the stands (yeah, strange terminology, I know), and the horror/excitement* of the massive surge forward when your team scored. Those days are gone – the major disasters of the seventies and eighties pushed stadiums to become all-seater, so younger fans won’t ever have had that experience – I don’t know whether that makes them lucky or unlucky, to be honest.
Fortunately, however, the book gets out of the football stadium before my reminiscences turned to boredom, and the plot revolves around the personal lives of the players rather than their sporting careers. Unsurprisingly, Gribble’s victim is one of the fictional Trojan players, and the real players and staff at Arsenal play only minor roles. I think it’s also safe to say that the real people can be discounted as suspects! Doyce was an unpleasant chap with a reputation as a womaniser and had given several of his team-mates and the staff of the Trojans cause to dislike him. He’d only joined the club a week earlier, but several of them had played together before in another team, and another of the Trojans was his business partner. So there’s a good pool of suspects and some intriguing motives for Inspector Slade and Sergeant Clinton to investigate.
Inspector Slade is professional in his approach, but is helped along by his almost superhuman ability to make wild guesses that turn out to be correct. A couple of these were pretty ridiculous, in truth, and I felt they let the plotting down badly – with a little more work Gribble could have made these leaps a result of investigation rather than miraculous-level intuition. Otherwise, the plotting is pretty good, especially in the motivation, and on the whole I liked the characterisation although for the most part it’s not very in-depth. I debated whether it’s “fair-play” - in the introduction, Martin Edwards describes it that way – but I’m not wholly convinced. The explanation when it comes could have applied to several of the suspects – the vital piece of information that identifies the murderer wasn’t available to the reader. There are also odd plot holes, like people being married without their friends and colleagues knowing and people being engaged but no-one knowing to whom. Necessary for the plot to work, but unlikely...
Overall then, I enjoyed this without being entirely convinced by the plotting. The evocative and well-written descriptions of attending a football match back in the days when it was a major weekly occasion in the lives of so much of working-class Britain – of doing the football “pools”, of trying to find out the results of rival matches once the game was over, of seventy thousand people all wending their way homewards very slowly on overcrowded buses and trains – entertained me far more than I anticipated, and I suspect would appeal even more to die-hard football fans (especially ones of a certain age). A walk down memory lane... and, as with so much vintage crime, fun as much for what it shows us about society as for the actual mystery element.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, British Library Crime Classics.
(*delete as appropriate)
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
November 24, 2018
When a soccer player collapses and dies at a London stadium, it is up to Inspector Slade to catch the killer. He always gets his man. With little cooperation from those most likely to know anything useful, it is challenging. The man was not popular, and motives or potential motives abound. Slade suspects the murder is connected to the death of a girl a few years ago. He just needs to make the puzzle pieces fit . . . and he finally does. I enjoyed this Golden Age mystery and would love to read more books with Inspector Slade. I received an advance electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.
June 15, 2025
Francis Kindilett has worked for several years to put together an amateur football (soccer) team that will be good enough to take on the best of the professional teams: the Arsenal Gunners. The day has finally come for the big match and he's sure his Trojans are up to the competition. The soccer stands are jam-packed and 70,000 fans are on hand to watch their favorites. The match is hard-fought in the first half with Arsenal gaining a one-nothing advantage and then John Doyce manages a beautiful penalty kick at the beginning of the second half to tie the score. Just as the momentum seems to shift to the amateurs, Doyce goes down on the field.
No one had tackled Doyce. He had been alone when he fell. He had simply folded up like a jack-knife and slipped to the ground.
The ailing player is carried off the field, but nothing the trainer does can rouse Doyce. He's unresponsive and sweating uncontrollably and just after the match has ended so has Doyce's life. Scotland Yard is called in and it's determined that Doyce was murdered with an alkaloid poison. Inspector Slade is the Yard's man and is soon on the hunt for the sender of a mysterious package which arrived for Doyce just in time for half-time; a pretty young blonde woman who asked for Doyce and ran off when told he was dead; and the meaning behind a clipping that accompanied the package which referred to a drowned girl.
Doyce was new to the Trojan squad and didn't have many friends, though there others on the team who had known him from earlier soccer teams. There was a certain coolness between Doyce and his partner in an insurance company, Phil Morring (who also plays for the Trojans), and several of the players though Doyce rather too full of himself, but is there really a motive in all that? Inspector Slade and Sergeant Clinton will have to find out. There's also a wife that no one knew Doyce had--a wife with a devoted admirer.
I have to say...I've never read a soccer match mystery. Gribble gives just enough of the football action to set the stage and provide the setting for the murder without letting the sport overshadow the mystery. It was quite unique to have the members of the actual Arsenal team of 1939 involved in the mystery (though, of course, we all know that none of them will wind up being the murderer). It's very entertaining and nicely plotted. And he did a fine job making me focus on a particular item and derailing my attempt to spot the killer before Slade. I was a teensy bit disappointed that the particular item didn't wind up figuring in the solution at all...but overall I enjoyed this quite a lot.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
No one had tackled Doyce. He had been alone when he fell. He had simply folded up like a jack-knife and slipped to the ground.
The ailing player is carried off the field, but nothing the trainer does can rouse Doyce. He's unresponsive and sweating uncontrollably and just after the match has ended so has Doyce's life. Scotland Yard is called in and it's determined that Doyce was murdered with an alkaloid poison. Inspector Slade is the Yard's man and is soon on the hunt for the sender of a mysterious package which arrived for Doyce just in time for half-time; a pretty young blonde woman who asked for Doyce and ran off when told he was dead; and the meaning behind a clipping that accompanied the package which referred to a drowned girl.
Doyce was new to the Trojan squad and didn't have many friends, though there others on the team who had known him from earlier soccer teams. There was a certain coolness between Doyce and his partner in an insurance company, Phil Morring (who also plays for the Trojans), and several of the players though Doyce rather too full of himself, but is there really a motive in all that? Inspector Slade and Sergeant Clinton will have to find out. There's also a wife that no one knew Doyce had--a wife with a devoted admirer.
I have to say...I've never read a soccer match mystery. Gribble gives just enough of the football action to set the stage and provide the setting for the murder without letting the sport overshadow the mystery. It was quite unique to have the members of the actual Arsenal team of 1939 involved in the mystery (though, of course, we all know that none of them will wind up being the murderer). It's very entertaining and nicely plotted. And he did a fine job making me focus on a particular item and derailing my attempt to spot the killer before Slade. I was a teensy bit disappointed that the particular item didn't wind up figuring in the solution at all...but overall I enjoyed this quite a lot.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
August 25, 2020
Pretty standard Scotland Yard procedural made more fun and interesting by the sports setting. What I didn’t realize until I finished the book is that the Arsenal team portrayed are all real people, done with the team’s blessing. There is even a film, which I now want to see.
March 19, 2019
Now almost forgotten Golden Age author Gribble takes readers behind the scenes of pro/am football (soccer to us Americans) when an obnoxious amateur dies during a big match. The police are sure it's poison, but just how did he get the unusual drug during the game? One of his teammates is also his business partner, and there seems to be plenty of motive involved, but Inspector Slade is not so sure. Real players for the popular professional team Arsenal are characters, but not suspects, which must have given a bit of a thrill to readers at the time.
November 2, 2018
This review can also be found on my blog.
When Jack Doyce collapses during a football match and dies not much later it doesn’t take long to discover that he was murdered. And a suspect appears just as quickly: Phillip Morring was Doyce’s business partner. His death means Morring receives a large sum of money from the life insurance. They were on the football team together, so Morring had the opportunity to poison him and when Slade discovers that Morring’s fiancée was having an affair with Doyce it seems that everything fits together perfectly. But Slade isn’t fully convinced, especially after he finds out that Doyce was implicated in a tragedy that happened a few years back. Is someone taking revenge? But the evidence against Morring is piling up as well, so is perhaps the most obvious solution the right one after all?
The mystery itself is solid and keeps you guessing. It does require some suspension of disbelief (among other things, the plot only works because a girl told nobody whom she was getting engaged to, not even her own father) but not more than in the average golden age mystery.
In a solid mystery, I can usually excuse bland detectives and Slade is very bland. (How bland? you ask. Well, on Goodreads his name was mistakenly given as MacDonald and I had not noticed that and happily called him as MacDonald in this review until I looked up a quote in the book and saw that he was in fact called Slade). And with the exception of Pat Laruce – Morring’s fiancée – so are most side-characters. They are in fact, for a mystery novel, surprisingly sensible. Morring, for example, immediately tells the police about the fact that he gains a lot of money from Doyce’s death. He is slightly less forthcoming about his fiancée but once he realizes that the police know, he comes clean immediately – and so do most other characters in similar situations. Only Pat, the already mentioned exception, is as unhelpful as possible and has her own agenda. As such she’s more like a character one is used to from mysteries but next to all the others, she appears more like a comical caricature.
Then there’s the football connection which felt forced. The victim is a football player who died during a match. But he could just as easily have been killed during a weekend country house party. Neither the football nor the cameos by Arsenal players and the manager added anything to the story. Perhaps you have to be a real football-fan for that and care a lot about Arsenal (and its 1939 team) to get anything out of that and with my casual ‘I pay some attention to the German league table and am happy when certain teams are in the upper half’ attitude it didn’t really work.
And then there’s…
Epithets. So many of them. Any character who appears more than one will have an epithet that gets used frequently. I have spent too much of my teenage years reading bad Harry Potter fanfiction full of the dark-haired boy, the blonde man, the Gryffindor star-pupil and the boy who could talk to snakes* and now I am very allergic to epithets of all kinds.
All in all, I think this book might be interesting for people who are very interested in football history. The rest can easily miss it.
*I am not suggesting that only one fandom has this problem. Or even only fanfiction, as this book proves. But that’s where I got my overdose of this particular bad style-advice
When Jack Doyce collapses during a football match and dies not much later it doesn’t take long to discover that he was murdered. And a suspect appears just as quickly: Phillip Morring was Doyce’s business partner. His death means Morring receives a large sum of money from the life insurance. They were on the football team together, so Morring had the opportunity to poison him and when Slade discovers that Morring’s fiancée was having an affair with Doyce it seems that everything fits together perfectly. But Slade isn’t fully convinced, especially after he finds out that Doyce was implicated in a tragedy that happened a few years back. Is someone taking revenge? But the evidence against Morring is piling up as well, so is perhaps the most obvious solution the right one after all?
The mystery itself is solid and keeps you guessing. It does require some suspension of disbelief (among other things, the plot only works because a girl told nobody whom she was getting engaged to, not even her own father) but not more than in the average golden age mystery.
In a solid mystery, I can usually excuse bland detectives and Slade is very bland. (How bland? you ask. Well, on Goodreads his name was mistakenly given as MacDonald and I had not noticed that and happily called him as MacDonald in this review until I looked up a quote in the book and saw that he was in fact called Slade). And with the exception of Pat Laruce – Morring’s fiancée – so are most side-characters. They are in fact, for a mystery novel, surprisingly sensible. Morring, for example, immediately tells the police about the fact that he gains a lot of money from Doyce’s death. He is slightly less forthcoming about his fiancée but once he realizes that the police know, he comes clean immediately – and so do most other characters in similar situations. Only Pat, the already mentioned exception, is as unhelpful as possible and has her own agenda. As such she’s more like a character one is used to from mysteries but next to all the others, she appears more like a comical caricature.
Then there’s the football connection which felt forced. The victim is a football player who died during a match. But he could just as easily have been killed during a weekend country house party. Neither the football nor the cameos by Arsenal players and the manager added anything to the story. Perhaps you have to be a real football-fan for that and care a lot about Arsenal (and its 1939 team) to get anything out of that and with my casual ‘I pay some attention to the German league table and am happy when certain teams are in the upper half’ attitude it didn’t really work.
And then there’s…
“Well, Inspector?” asked the Arsenal manager. “I’m afraid Dr Meadows doesn’t think it was an accident,” said the Yard detective.
Epithets. So many of them. Any character who appears more than one will have an epithet that gets used frequently. I have spent too much of my teenage years reading bad Harry Potter fanfiction full of the dark-haired boy, the blonde man, the Gryffindor star-pupil and the boy who could talk to snakes* and now I am very allergic to epithets of all kinds.
All in all, I think this book might be interesting for people who are very interested in football history. The rest can easily miss it.
*I am not suggesting that only one fandom has this problem. Or even only fanfiction, as this book proves. But that’s where I got my overdose of this particular bad style-advice
October 6, 2022
“’Preposterous?’, Slade shrugged. ‘Read the evidence of most murder trials which result in a verdict of guilty. Most of it is preposterous. Because a great deal of human behavior is preposterous, but we rarely confess the fact. But unthinkable? No.’”
As both a classic mysteries and Arsenal football fan, you can imagine my delight at discovering this gem from 1939 featuring the actual players and staff from that season’s team. While for football fans like myself the sports angle is a fun novelty (according to the forward by Martin Edwards there were not many sports related mysteries being written at the time), football is more the background to the plot than the main character. The mystery itself features Inspector Slade, a no nonsense detective in the mold of Lorac’s Inspector MacDonald, who through cool logic and skillful questioning finds his way to the solution. The path to the resolution is also really well plotted with enough interesting characters and red herrings to keep your interest without forcing an out of left field resolution to the case. A resoultion incidentally I should’ve seen coming but didn’t (I both love and hate those kind of mysteries). I enjoyed this story enough that I will definitely look into the prolific Gribble’s other mysteries.
May 12, 2024
Interesting and well written, though the mass of names all at once in the beginning took some sorting out | Readers at the time of publication, and big Arsenal fans even today, would find the opening chapters less muddled than I, because they would know which names were the real-life players and therefore not suspects. They would probably also get a real kick out of seeing their players represented in print like this, while for me it's a nice idea but not personally relevant. Once the circle of suspects tightens and I could simply forget about 8 Trojans players and all the Gunners, it was much smoother reading. Weirdly, I picked the murderer when first mentioned, well before the murder happened, so I had the right person in mind long before I knew method or motive. But it was still enjoyable to follow the path to the conclusion.
September 27, 2018
Highly enjoyable.
October 15, 2021
Really enjoyed this mystery, moved at a swift pace and was certainly fair play. I have read an earlier Gribble mystery and found it a bit jumbled this was not and certainly made me more interested in finding more of his mysteries. A unique location for a murder and the sorting of information and gathering background was really nice. Also, in this one, there were some really nicely rendered characters as well. Inspector Slade is a nice lead, he isn't too odd and you can really get a good chance to detect along through him. I swear, the man never slept at all during this story.
This story was reprinted recently so may be easier for people to find. There are also other books by this author in e-book form.
This story was reprinted recently so may be easier for people to find. There are also other books by this author in e-book form.
August 31, 2018
The book of the film, though to know the film is most definitely not to know the book. There's space for a bit more legwork and a few more twists so approach it with an open mind and enjoy a real period piece.
October 5, 2022
2.5 stars. Being a longtime enthusiast for Golden Age British mysteries and a football fan, I had to read this one if only for kicks (yeah, pun intended). I didn't really expect anything great from it on a literary or mystery level, and frankly, it's nothing special in those respects. Its chief draw is the novelty of not only having the murder take place in the middle of a match between a fictional team and famed London club Arsenal F.C., but also featuring the real-life Arsenal players and manager of the time as characters (in a fairly minor way). It was definitely fun finding that I understood all the footballing terms and descriptions of play used in the story. The football itself is pretty much over in the first two chapters, though, as the detectives move into routine investigation of the suspects' backgrounds and motives—though the victim and suspects are linked by their connections to the fictional amateur club, and the investigators eventually return to the Arsenal Stadium to hunt evidence and get a bit of help from the Arsenal manager in solving the crime.
As a mystery, it's pretty pedestrian and routine, nothing really special about it or the writing. The scenes featuring the real-life footballers are rather stilted and awkward—not really surprising; I'd feel awkward writing real living and famous people into a story too! Gribble's dialogue and character interaction in general is stilted; he's a little better when writing a good straightforward passage of description (the few pages on the stadium crowd dispersing after the match and checking the results of other games are rather nice).
P.S. - I stand corrected about the cover art: on closer inspection, prompted by the fact that the players are wearing kits matching the descriptions in the book, they are playing football, not rugby; but unless the picture got skewed when reproduced for this cover, the artist's rendering of the shape of the ball could have fooled me! :)
As a mystery, it's pretty pedestrian and routine, nothing really special about it or the writing. The scenes featuring the real-life footballers are rather stilted and awkward—not really surprising; I'd feel awkward writing real living and famous people into a story too! Gribble's dialogue and character interaction in general is stilted; he's a little better when writing a good straightforward passage of description (the few pages on the stadium crowd dispersing after the match and checking the results of other games are rather nice).
P.S. - I stand corrected about the cover art: on closer inspection, prompted by the fact that the players are wearing kits matching the descriptions in the book, they are playing football, not rugby; but unless the picture got skewed when reproduced for this cover, the artist's rendering of the shape of the ball could have fooled me! :)
February 25, 2022
Be surprised when you pick up this book and discover that there is a backstory to it before you even read the first page.
This classic Golden Age of Detective Fiction uses as some of its characters the 1939 players of the real life Arsenal Football Club, founded in 1886 and still in existence today. And in a more modern marketing plan, the book was used to promote a movie based on the book, filmed using the Arsenal Stadium and featuring the team manager as himself, and released the same year.
Gribble was given access to the team for the writing of the mystery, according to Martin Edwards who wrote the introduction, and it shows from the very beginning as the Arsenal team prepares to take the field during a fictional matchup against an amateur team. Gribble gives a game play by play, then pow! a player collapses during the action — unconscious, although no one remembers that he was hit during the action, and dies shortly after the game is over.
How can you not be intrigued by this twist to a crime — in which someone is apparently murdered during a football game before a large crowd?
Enter Police Inspector Anthony Slade, a character that features in more than 20 mysteries by Gribble, who patiently and persistently works though the clues. Fortunately, he is able to eliminate much of the team members who have only recently met the murder victim. But there is still enough to provide sometimes false and misleading clues.
I enjoyed the story, the development of the suspects' backstories and relationships, the red herrings and the reveal. The story is realistic, the characters interesting and diverse, and of course, the solution is very clever.
This classic Golden Age of Detective Fiction uses as some of its characters the 1939 players of the real life Arsenal Football Club, founded in 1886 and still in existence today. And in a more modern marketing plan, the book was used to promote a movie based on the book, filmed using the Arsenal Stadium and featuring the team manager as himself, and released the same year.
Gribble was given access to the team for the writing of the mystery, according to Martin Edwards who wrote the introduction, and it shows from the very beginning as the Arsenal team prepares to take the field during a fictional matchup against an amateur team. Gribble gives a game play by play, then pow! a player collapses during the action — unconscious, although no one remembers that he was hit during the action, and dies shortly after the game is over.
How can you not be intrigued by this twist to a crime — in which someone is apparently murdered during a football game before a large crowd?
Enter Police Inspector Anthony Slade, a character that features in more than 20 mysteries by Gribble, who patiently and persistently works though the clues. Fortunately, he is able to eliminate much of the team members who have only recently met the murder victim. But there is still enough to provide sometimes false and misleading clues.
I enjoyed the story, the development of the suspects' backstories and relationships, the red herrings and the reveal. The story is realistic, the characters interesting and diverse, and of course, the solution is very clever.
November 1, 2018
An up-and-coming star soccer player collapses in front of several thousand fans during a match at the Arsenal Stadium in London. Scotland Yard is summoned when he later dies and Inspector Slade comes to the scene. Slade and his assistant Sergeant Clinton investigate the murder amidst the local colour of the soccer stadium, the teams and their routines. At the beginning of the story there's some running commentary about the on-field action, but intimate knowledge of the soccer game is not necessary to follow the story. Of course there's plenty of non-sports activity involving the players' personal lives and careers which leads to the introduction of several interesting characters.
As with many Golden Age mysteries, the murder victim here is not well liked by others, leaving the inspector a full slate of potential killers, both in the soccer world and the victim's personal life. The investigation narrative flows smoothly at a good pace to a dramatic reveal scene in which the killer is unmasked by Inspector Slade.
It's a solid police procedural murder mystery which I can recommend, particularly to fans of the Golden Age mysteries.
Martin Edwards's Introduction at the beginning of the book provides insight to both the story and the author. It's worth reading.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing an advance reading eBook of this novel. The views expressed are my own.
As with many Golden Age mysteries, the murder victim here is not well liked by others, leaving the inspector a full slate of potential killers, both in the soccer world and the victim's personal life. The investigation narrative flows smoothly at a good pace to a dramatic reveal scene in which the killer is unmasked by Inspector Slade.
It's a solid police procedural murder mystery which I can recommend, particularly to fans of the Golden Age mysteries.
Martin Edwards's Introduction at the beginning of the book provides insight to both the story and the author. It's worth reading.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing an advance reading eBook of this novel. The views expressed are my own.
November 12, 2018
Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my copy of this book. “The Arsenal Stadium Mystery” is a solid and well written murder mystery that fits into the Golden Age genre. Though I enjoyed how the story played out, there were a few disappointing bits in the book: Slade isn’t interesting in any way, the connection with the Arsenal team seems to exist only to set the story partially in the sports world, and this book could have easily been written surrounding any other topics other than sports. I have nothing against sport centered mysteries (is that even a thing?), but I with Arsenal played a bigger role in this story in order for it to live up to its title.
April 7, 2019
An intriguing mystery in that it features real people. The 1939 Arsenal football team and manager play a part in this murder mystery. When a player from an opposing team dies during the game Inspector Slade is called in.
The book becomes a police procedural as we follow Slade as he interviews subjects and witnesses. Lots of twists and a satisfying conclusion but a little slow and dry for me. Fascinating peice of Golden Age mystery though
3 stars.
The book becomes a police procedural as we follow Slade as he interviews subjects and witnesses. Lots of twists and a satisfying conclusion but a little slow and dry for me. Fascinating peice of Golden Age mystery though
3 stars.
September 6, 2024
Leonard R Gribble has been so completely overshadowed by the more prolific crime writers of his time that most of his books are out of print or available mostly as mint or slightly used copies in second-hand bookshops. I found a few books on the Internet Archive, but not as many as he seemed to have written. A writer who could plot a complex and believable tale, with characters that have life and force and are likeable (mostly), in language that is at once elegant and stylish; most impressive of all, a writer who can handle two subjects such as soccer and crime without falling between two stools, commands both admiration and respect.
In ‘The Arsenal Stadium Mystery,’ Gribble caters both to readers who love the beautiful game: the actual Arsenal team of 1939, their main players, their positions, an actual game as it played an amateur team before a crowd of seventy thousand people, the beloved Arsenal stadium – it's all there. For those who follow crime rather than sport, it's all beautifully laid out too, red herrings and all, a murder committed before the entire team, but no murder weapon apparent, and a roomful of suspects, all of whom had a perfectly valid and powerful motive to kill a thoroughly loathsome man, as well the opportunity and access to a weapon.
With a shrewd but surprisingly compassionate Detective Slade and his loyal, if very logical Sergeant Clinton, we have a ride through pre-war England before the solution is placed literally in our hands.
Martin Edwards’s introduction is masterly, displaying a sense of history and of the game as it was then, and the presentation of the research both scholarly and entertaining. Edwards mentions that one of the players held a day job as schoolteacher. How his students must have hero-worshipped him!
In ‘The Arsenal Stadium Mystery,’ Gribble caters both to readers who love the beautiful game: the actual Arsenal team of 1939, their main players, their positions, an actual game as it played an amateur team before a crowd of seventy thousand people, the beloved Arsenal stadium – it's all there. For those who follow crime rather than sport, it's all beautifully laid out too, red herrings and all, a murder committed before the entire team, but no murder weapon apparent, and a roomful of suspects, all of whom had a perfectly valid and powerful motive to kill a thoroughly loathsome man, as well the opportunity and access to a weapon.
With a shrewd but surprisingly compassionate Detective Slade and his loyal, if very logical Sergeant Clinton, we have a ride through pre-war England before the solution is placed literally in our hands.
Martin Edwards’s introduction is masterly, displaying a sense of history and of the game as it was then, and the presentation of the research both scholarly and entertaining. Edwards mentions that one of the players held a day job as schoolteacher. How his students must have hero-worshipped him!
December 3, 2018
I have to admit that this is the first mystery novel that is set in the world of football. You could probably write everything I know about football on a postage stamp and still leave room for a margin, which is a bit pitiful for a Brit, it being our national sport. Still, that didn't really matter when it came to reading this book. Although football and more particularly the gunners gave the scene for this story, it didn't mean that a non-football fan couldn't still enjoy it and get a lot out of it.
Like many of these classic mysteries from the golden age of the genre, the mystery revolves around a small cast of characters, many of who seem to have a motive for killing the person who meets their untimely end. As often is the case in books like this, the victim, Doyce, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, which means that not only could there be a lot of people who want to do away with him, but also you can't really mind too much that he is killed off.
I don't want to go into the various motives or do anything that might give the identity of the killer away. I will say though, that I did manage to solve the mystery, although I did think that some of the background was a little bit far fetched.
Overall, this is an enjoyable mystery read. If you like classic mysteries, even if football isn't usually your thing, I think you'll enjoy this.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own
Like many of these classic mysteries from the golden age of the genre, the mystery revolves around a small cast of characters, many of who seem to have a motive for killing the person who meets their untimely end. As often is the case in books like this, the victim, Doyce, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, which means that not only could there be a lot of people who want to do away with him, but also you can't really mind too much that he is killed off.
I don't want to go into the various motives or do anything that might give the identity of the killer away. I will say though, that I did manage to solve the mystery, although I did think that some of the background was a little bit far fetched.
Overall, this is an enjoyable mystery read. If you like classic mysteries, even if football isn't usually your thing, I think you'll enjoy this.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own
December 24, 2023
Another book in the excellent series of British Library Crime Classics but a whodunnit with a difference since it is framed around the famous Arsenal football team of the 1930s with the Gunners manager George Allison and many of the real-life players featuring as characters in the plot. The victim is a player with the Trojans - a fictitious amateur team that plays Arsenal in a friendly match at Highbury Stadium - who dies on the pitch and it is left to Inspector Slade and his dour sergeant to unravel the mystery.
The book was made into a film that appears regularly on Talking Pictures TV. Both book and film were created in 1939. It follows the typical crime thriller narrative of the era taking the reader down several “rabbit holes” and throwing up enough suspects to make up a football team but with interesting factual descriptions of both the stadium and the Arsenal team, which had won the League in 1935 and 1938 and the FA Cup in 1936.
Allison appeared as himself in the film uttering a line at half time in the match against the Trojans that has become the club’s legacy: "It's one-nil to the Arsenal and that’s the way we like it.!”
The more things change, the more they remain the same - as I finished this book, Arsenal sit on top of the Premier League - 84 years after Leonard Gribble wrote this unique integration of fact and fiction.
The book was made into a film that appears regularly on Talking Pictures TV. Both book and film were created in 1939. It follows the typical crime thriller narrative of the era taking the reader down several “rabbit holes” and throwing up enough suspects to make up a football team but with interesting factual descriptions of both the stadium and the Arsenal team, which had won the League in 1935 and 1938 and the FA Cup in 1936.
Allison appeared as himself in the film uttering a line at half time in the match against the Trojans that has become the club’s legacy: "It's one-nil to the Arsenal and that’s the way we like it.!”
The more things change, the more they remain the same - as I finished this book, Arsenal sit on top of the Premier League - 84 years after Leonard Gribble wrote this unique integration of fact and fiction.
March 2, 2019
Although this is a re-release of an older book the story is just as fresh as it was the first time around. Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Slade and his partner Sargent Clinton must solve the mystery of a footballer who is murdered on the playing field in front of fans and players alike with no obvious signs of foul play. The characters are both believable and likable and the scenes of football play were exciting to even a non football following reader. Adding real life characters although from the past helped to bring the story alive. The mystery moves seamlessly through various locations and suspects forward and backward in time. The more you learn of the facts the more complex the mystery becomes as the detectives search for the clues to the present murder in a past event. The story keeps your interest while the facts unraveled and up to the climix. I will definitely look for more books by this author.
Note: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Note: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
October 8, 2018
"The Arsenal Stadium Mystery" is a mystery set in England and originally published in 1939. It provided a unique look at soccer (football) at that time.
The mystery was a clue-based puzzle mystery. The detective methodically questioned the suspects and manipulated them to get answers when they didn't want to explain things. By following up on the clues and motivations, he was able to see past what the killer and suspects wanted him to believe and find the truth. I did guess whodunit about the same time as the detective started to suspect that person (though the detective doesn't clearly admit whom he suspects and why until the end).
There was no sex. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.
I received a review copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley.
The mystery was a clue-based puzzle mystery. The detective methodically questioned the suspects and manipulated them to get answers when they didn't want to explain things. By following up on the clues and motivations, he was able to see past what the killer and suspects wanted him to believe and find the truth. I did guess whodunit about the same time as the detective started to suspect that person (though the detective doesn't clearly admit whom he suspects and why until the end).
There was no sex. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.
I received a review copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley.
October 15, 2020
A middling 'golden age' detective story. I remember watching the '30s film adaptation years ago but can remember little about it and the same will be true of this book in time. Although the football connection is gimmicky, it makes for a unique angle and the inclusion of real-life players is fun. The opening murder is sufficiently mysterious, but after the initial set-up, things flag and never really pick up as they should. This is a very small scale story with a small cast of characters and a detective who merely questions as an aspect of his work. Clues are low on the ground and it's all about working out the back stories and who did what to whom. So you get a book which is pages upon pages of dialogue until the final reveal. The solution holds together okay but I was just hoping for something with a bit more 'oomph'.
January 14, 2019
A fun and neatly put together mystery, and almost a primary document on sporting history.... Usually I’m not keen on incorporating historical figures in mysteries, but this one used the contemporary 1939 Arsenal soccer team, and seeing how they were handled by the author was neat (and would have been even more fun at the time of publication, or if I knew more about Arsenal or its history). To a 21st century sports fan, though, it is pretty fascinating that the premise—an amateur team playing the professionals—was plausible back then, and to see the relatively “normal” lives of the players, as the intro says, in a time before multi-million dollar contracts and naming rights. Also, as an American, I was intrigued to see the word “soccer” here and there—I thought it was always “football”...
November 2, 2024
Obviously this had a greater impact when first published in 1939. It features actual players from the Arsenal football team (soccer to us colonials). This was probably a big draw to British readers but was sort of meaningless to me as an American reader in 2024.
The first chapters were too soccer-ish for me, but once the detecting starts, the plot picked up. The Inspector was a dogged pursuer and the method of murder was unusual. I hardly ever figure out whodunit, and I picked a certain character until I realized it was an actual historical person connected with the team; therefore couldn't be the killer. I think including actual people halved the number of suspects, which I thought was unfortunate.
All in all, a fun read, especially for fans of football/soccer. 3 1/2 stars.
The first chapters were too soccer-ish for me, but once the detecting starts, the plot picked up. The Inspector was a dogged pursuer and the method of murder was unusual. I hardly ever figure out whodunit, and I picked a certain character until I realized it was an actual historical person connected with the team; therefore couldn't be the killer. I think including actual people halved the number of suspects, which I thought was unfortunate.
All in all, a fun read, especially for fans of football/soccer. 3 1/2 stars.
July 23, 2018
Mildly disappointing, but I am inspired by Martin Edward's useful Introduction to go back to the film which I have not seen for a number of years.
This is workmanlike stuff with too much conversation for my liking. There are also too many stock characters- the handsome lothario, the hard-bitten model, the plucky amateurs. It reads like a piece of thirties journalism rather than a work of fiction, almost too realistic in some ways, yet highly artificial in others.
As a mystery it was almost a non-starter for me as I spotted the murderer and motive early on. Inspector Slade is reasonably interesting but I am not terribly inspired to seek out more of his cases.
This is workmanlike stuff with too much conversation for my liking. There are also too many stock characters- the handsome lothario, the hard-bitten model, the plucky amateurs. It reads like a piece of thirties journalism rather than a work of fiction, almost too realistic in some ways, yet highly artificial in others.
As a mystery it was almost a non-starter for me as I spotted the murderer and motive early on. Inspector Slade is reasonably interesting but I am not terribly inspired to seek out more of his cases.
July 11, 2019
This was an interesting little murder mystery. I have watched the film (or the bits with Arsenal players and managers) on a number of occasions. The British Library have just released the book which was to accompany the film (this was going on even in the 1930s). Like so many Agatha Christie/Dorothy Sayers type murder mysteries it is incredibly contrived and completely unbelievable and only the unrealistic detective can look at the puzzle and come up with such a silly result. That said, references to Jones, Drake, Hapgood, Male and Joy as well as the manager and trainer Allison and Whittaker, it makes an almost unique piece of Arsenal memorabilia.
July 9, 2023
It doesn’t have the weirdness of the film, and Slade is a far more serious minded detective than Leslie Banks and his many hats, but this is a solid bit of crime writing. It’s workmanlike in the best sense of the word- it doesn’t try for something over elaborate but neither is it slight and silly. It’s the kind of solid, reliable entertainment that crime fiction has always needed and Gribble may not be a great stylist, but he’s got a nice line in psychology and dialogue (although it’s very sweet how stilted the patter between the actual Arsenal players is, nicely mirroring some of the worst performances in the film)
December 2, 2018
I love British Library Crime Classics and this was no exception.
I was curious about a book set in the soccer world and it was interesting to have a look at that world.
The mystery was a classic whodunit, engaging and entertaining.
I loved the plot, solid and without no plot hole, the cast of characters and the setting.
There was a bonus added because I discovered the movie and had pleasure in seeing it.
A very good mystery, highly recommended!
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
I was curious about a book set in the soccer world and it was interesting to have a look at that world.
The mystery was a classic whodunit, engaging and entertaining.
I loved the plot, solid and without no plot hole, the cast of characters and the setting.
There was a bonus added because I discovered the movie and had pleasure in seeing it.
A very good mystery, highly recommended!
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
June 10, 2019
Blimey, this was an official Arsenal tie in back in the day, with film, board game etc. But, football aside it is actually a cracking little murder mystery. And you don't need to know, understand or even like football to enjoy it. Written in 1939, it might appear prim and perhaps dated but it tells the same old story of men and women since the begining of time. I really enjoyed it but then I love this Golden Age of British Crime Fiction and LG was at the fore front of it.
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