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Inspector Harry Charlton #2
Midsummer Murder
Witting's second Inspector Charlton mystery, first published in 1937, is set in Paulsfield (clearly a fictional Petersfield in Hampshire). It is a market day and there is much noise and bustle. A bull decides it is time to liberate itself and goes on the rampage. As this is happening, a cleaner working on the statue in the middle of the square is shot dead, straight through the head. Inspector Charlton has very few leads on this case. There is no obvious motive for the cleaner's death, and when two further murders are committed within the same day, both taking place in the market square, the mystery has obviously deepened exponentially. Midsummer Murder is another Clifford Witting that will delight all his fans.
282 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1937
31 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Clifford Witting
37 books15 followersClifford Witting (1907-68) was an English writer who was educated at Eltham College, London, between 1916 and 1924.
During World War II he served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, 1942-44, and as a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1944-46.
He married Ellen Marjorie Steward in 1934 and they had one daughter. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a clerk in Lloyds bank from 1924 to 1942. He was Honorary Editor of The Old Elthamian magazine, London. from 1947 up to his death.
His first novel 'Murder in Blue' was published in 1937 and his series characters were Sergeant (later Inspector) Peter Bradford and Inspector Harry Charlton. Unusually, he didn’t join The Detection Club until 1958 by which time he had written 12 detective novels.
In their 'A Catalogue of Crime', Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor stated, 'Witting started feebly, improved to a point of high competence, and has since shown a marked capacity for character and situation, with uneven success in keeping up the detective interest.'
On the gadetection website it reports, 'Why is Witting so obscure? His detection is genuinely engrossing, and his style is witty, if occasionally facetious. He could do setting very well—Army life in Subject: Murder. His books have the genuine whodunit pull. He can brilliantly misdirect the reader (Midsummer Murder) or invent a genuinely clever and simple murder method (Dead on Time).
'He experimented with form: the surprise victim (whowillbedunin?) of Measure for Murder, or, weak as it is otherwise is, the riff on the inverted detective story in Michaelmas Goose. In short, he always has something to offer the reader, and found original ideas within the conventions of the formal detective story.
'And yet he’s barely known—no entry in 20th Crime and Mystery Writers, and only a passing reference in the Oxford guide. Only treated in detail in Cooper and Pike, and in Barzun.'
During World War II he served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, 1942-44, and as a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1944-46.
He married Ellen Marjorie Steward in 1934 and they had one daughter. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a clerk in Lloyds bank from 1924 to 1942. He was Honorary Editor of The Old Elthamian magazine, London. from 1947 up to his death.
His first novel 'Murder in Blue' was published in 1937 and his series characters were Sergeant (later Inspector) Peter Bradford and Inspector Harry Charlton. Unusually, he didn’t join The Detection Club until 1958 by which time he had written 12 detective novels.
In their 'A Catalogue of Crime', Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor stated, 'Witting started feebly, improved to a point of high competence, and has since shown a marked capacity for character and situation, with uneven success in keeping up the detective interest.'
On the gadetection website it reports, 'Why is Witting so obscure? His detection is genuinely engrossing, and his style is witty, if occasionally facetious. He could do setting very well—Army life in Subject: Murder. His books have the genuine whodunit pull. He can brilliantly misdirect the reader (Midsummer Murder) or invent a genuinely clever and simple murder method (Dead on Time).
'He experimented with form: the surprise victim (whowillbedunin?) of Measure for Murder, or, weak as it is otherwise is, the riff on the inverted detective story in Michaelmas Goose. In short, he always has something to offer the reader, and found original ideas within the conventions of the formal detective story.
'And yet he’s barely known—no entry in 20th Crime and Mystery Writers, and only a passing reference in the Oxford guide. Only treated in detail in Cooper and Pike, and in Barzun.'
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 5, 2021
actually, I have the 1953 paperback reprint from Hodder and Stoughton, complete with map of the village square as the frontispiece (something you rarely see these days so my heart went pitter-pat over that).
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/08/...
I went looking for older, contemporary reviews of this novel after finishing it, and in googling "Midsummer Murder Witting" without the quotation marks, got thousands of results for Midsomer Murders. I was a bit annoyed at first but then laughed because even though this book has nothing to do with Tom Barnaby and the gang from Causton CID, there is a character in this story who reminded me of Mrs. Rainbird from The Killings At Badger's Drift (which I recently read with a group on goodreads). Not unlike that creepy lady who spied on everyone in her village in Caroline Graham's book, there is a woman in this story who keeps a card file on everyone in her village. I guess the Mrs. Busybody must be a reality in some villages; on the other hand, both Barnaby and the Inspector in this book, Harry Charlton, came to a point where information gleaned from these respective sources became invaluable.
Midsummer Murder is book number two in Witting's Harry Charlton series, which begins with Murder in Blue (1937). I had to really go digging online for a copy of the edition of Midsummer Murder I have, but luckily, it seems that I won't have to work as hard to pick up the series opener, since the people at Galileo Publishers have seen fit to put that one back into circulation, to be released (at least here in the US) next month. Pre-ordered, for sure, along with his Measure For Murder (1941, book #5). His Catt Out of the Bag, book #4 from 1939 is already available for purchase, so I bought that one as well. As all of this buying might reveal, I liked the lead character, Inspector Charlton. I didn't particularly love the book itself, but the man intrigued me to the point where I would like to read more of his adventures in crime solving. As for the novel, I was more than mildly annoyed with the underlying motive that connected all of the crimes (yes, there are more than one), which to me was tenuous, at best.
As this is my first experience with Clifford Witting's mystery novels, I have no idea whether or not he does this in all of his books, but here he leads the reader on quite a merry chase through the police investigation before we realize at the very end that we've been had in a nice bout of misdirection. And I was fine up until that point, enjoying the mystery, putting the clues together in my head and even taking notes while reading. Normally the author's sort of "gotcha" moment is a good one, meaning that he or she has put together a story whose solution I never would have guessed because I was following the trail of red herrings. And while that happened here, when the killer was disclosed it was so out of left field that I had to go back and reread certain chapters just to try to figure it out. Still, it was fun up to that point so I can't complain too much, but somehow that final moment just didn't seem fair. Be warned that this book ends so abruptly that I was looking for evidence that some of the pages had been torn out of my copy.
Not great, but not bad, sort of middle of the road with an interesting lead character. In my mind, not quite as nicely done as the previous Séptimo Círculo books, but still a good read.
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/08/...
I went looking for older, contemporary reviews of this novel after finishing it, and in googling "Midsummer Murder Witting" without the quotation marks, got thousands of results for Midsomer Murders. I was a bit annoyed at first but then laughed because even though this book has nothing to do with Tom Barnaby and the gang from Causton CID, there is a character in this story who reminded me of Mrs. Rainbird from The Killings At Badger's Drift (which I recently read with a group on goodreads). Not unlike that creepy lady who spied on everyone in her village in Caroline Graham's book, there is a woman in this story who keeps a card file on everyone in her village. I guess the Mrs. Busybody must be a reality in some villages; on the other hand, both Barnaby and the Inspector in this book, Harry Charlton, came to a point where information gleaned from these respective sources became invaluable.
Midsummer Murder is book number two in Witting's Harry Charlton series, which begins with Murder in Blue (1937). I had to really go digging online for a copy of the edition of Midsummer Murder I have, but luckily, it seems that I won't have to work as hard to pick up the series opener, since the people at Galileo Publishers have seen fit to put that one back into circulation, to be released (at least here in the US) next month. Pre-ordered, for sure, along with his Measure For Murder (1941, book #5). His Catt Out of the Bag, book #4 from 1939 is already available for purchase, so I bought that one as well. As all of this buying might reveal, I liked the lead character, Inspector Charlton. I didn't particularly love the book itself, but the man intrigued me to the point where I would like to read more of his adventures in crime solving. As for the novel, I was more than mildly annoyed with the underlying motive that connected all of the crimes (yes, there are more than one), which to me was tenuous, at best.
As this is my first experience with Clifford Witting's mystery novels, I have no idea whether or not he does this in all of his books, but here he leads the reader on quite a merry chase through the police investigation before we realize at the very end that we've been had in a nice bout of misdirection. And I was fine up until that point, enjoying the mystery, putting the clues together in my head and even taking notes while reading. Normally the author's sort of "gotcha" moment is a good one, meaning that he or she has put together a story whose solution I never would have guessed because I was following the trail of red herrings. And while that happened here, when the killer was disclosed it was so out of left field that I had to go back and reread certain chapters just to try to figure it out. Still, it was fun up to that point so I can't complain too much, but somehow that final moment just didn't seem fair. Be warned that this book ends so abruptly that I was looking for evidence that some of the pages had been torn out of my copy.
Not great, but not bad, sort of middle of the road with an interesting lead character. In my mind, not quite as nicely done as the previous Séptimo Círculo books, but still a good read.
September 1, 2022
I find it difficult to pinpoint precisely why this second of Witting's detective novels, here reprinted by Galileo Publishers, did not quite work for me.
It has a wonderful opening, a rather draggy middle and an all too abrupt ending. The solution does spring a surprise - it involved the less likely of my two candidates for perpetrator-but it does feel like a bit of a let-down.
There are few clues and a basket of red herring. There is some wonderful writing, and rather too much of the arch and facetious. The author is, perhaps, rather over-present-I kept thinking of the narration of those travelogue/news reels which filled up the programme during one's visits to the cinema in the 1950s and '60s- but there are some delicious passages often at the expense of detective fiction and its practicioners.
Here is Inspector Charlton on that theme.
“I’m trying my hand at a thriller,” he said, “with an amateur detective hero who is persona grata at Scotland Yard and who drops a final ‘g’ every time he picks up a clue. I’m going to have a Detective-inspector who is stolid and unemotional, without a scrap of humour or imagination, and a Police-sergeant who is a figure of fun—‘an ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone.’ And, as film rights are more profitable than book royalties, my first consideration shall be not to write a good book, but to write a book that will make a good film—a story that is full of incident and situation, and free from such idle, plot-retarding chatter as you and I are now engaged upon.”
There are lots of interesting characters, and the town itself, based on Petersfield in Hampshire plays a huge part. It is easy to visualise, thanks to the cover picture and plan, as well as Witting's writing.
But, despite all the pleasures, it did feel like a chore in places, and my attention was not gripped throughout. However, I do recommended it.
3.75 stars.
It has a wonderful opening, a rather draggy middle and an all too abrupt ending. The solution does spring a surprise - it involved the less likely of my two candidates for perpetrator-but it does feel like a bit of a let-down.
There are few clues and a basket of red herring. There is some wonderful writing, and rather too much of the arch and facetious. The author is, perhaps, rather over-present-I kept thinking of the narration of those travelogue/news reels which filled up the programme during one's visits to the cinema in the 1950s and '60s- but there are some delicious passages often at the expense of detective fiction and its practicioners.
Here is Inspector Charlton on that theme.
“I’m trying my hand at a thriller,” he said, “with an amateur detective hero who is persona grata at Scotland Yard and who drops a final ‘g’ every time he picks up a clue. I’m going to have a Detective-inspector who is stolid and unemotional, without a scrap of humour or imagination, and a Police-sergeant who is a figure of fun—‘an ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone.’ And, as film rights are more profitable than book royalties, my first consideration shall be not to write a good book, but to write a book that will make a good film—a story that is full of incident and situation, and free from such idle, plot-retarding chatter as you and I are now engaged upon.”
There are lots of interesting characters, and the town itself, based on Petersfield in Hampshire plays a huge part. It is easy to visualise, thanks to the cover picture and plan, as well as Witting's writing.
But, despite all the pleasures, it did feel like a chore in places, and my attention was not gripped throughout. However, I do recommended it.
3.75 stars.
Want to read
February 8, 2020Synopsis: a maintenance man is shot while cleaning a statue in Paulsfield town square. Is this a random act? The police have to find out.
January 30, 2021
Trama bastante inverossímil, especialmente no final. A cada dois capítulos, o autor nos faz recapitular todo o que aconteceu antes. Romance descartável.
April 7, 2024
Definitely not Clifford Witting's best mystery novel. It defies and violates the classic rules of detective novels, and not in a successful or creative way. Definitely not a "fair play" puzzler, and at the end I could only scratch my head and wonder what the author had thought he was up to.
The story begins with a crowded market place in full panic because a bull has gotten loose. Only after the commotion has died down is it noticed that the lone workman cleaning up the statue in the square has been shot through the head. Who would want to kill this respectable citizen? As Inspector Charlton tries to interview the many potential witnesses, including the habitants and shopkeepers around the central market square, more people are shot and it becomes clear there's a sniper at work in the usually peaceful market town. The painstaking detective work involves a lot of theorizing about what angle the bullet might have taken and from what house/shop it might have been fired. Secondary characters, like the "sweet-toothed Irishman" and a couple of classic English eccentrics, enliven the reading experience. But the ending made NO sense whatsoever and left me dissatisfied.
Also: the book is very poorly edited. Missing words, words running together, and poor paragraph breaks abound. Did anyone at the publishing company actually proofread this book before it went out for sale? It seemed to me that this was a low-cost attempt to capitalize on the phenomenal success of the British Library Crime Classics series with their lovely retro covers.
The story begins with a crowded market place in full panic because a bull has gotten loose. Only after the commotion has died down is it noticed that the lone workman cleaning up the statue in the square has been shot through the head. Who would want to kill this respectable citizen? As Inspector Charlton tries to interview the many potential witnesses, including the habitants and shopkeepers around the central market square, more people are shot and it becomes clear there's a sniper at work in the usually peaceful market town. The painstaking detective work involves a lot of theorizing about what angle the bullet might have taken and from what house/shop it might have been fired. Secondary characters, like the "sweet-toothed Irishman" and a couple of classic English eccentrics, enliven the reading experience. But the ending made NO sense whatsoever and left me dissatisfied.
Also: the book is very poorly edited. Missing words, words running together, and poor paragraph breaks abound. Did anyone at the publishing company actually proofread this book before it went out for sale? It seemed to me that this was a low-cost attempt to capitalize on the phenomenal success of the British Library Crime Classics series with their lovely retro covers.
August 5, 2023
Well, that was a waste of time. I can't believe I dragged myself through it to the bitter end.
I'm really pickin' em this summer.
This book's 225 pages (in the ebook edition) could have been slashed by half and left a much better book. But nooo, the author must needs recapitulate every aspect of the square, the houses and businesses in it, their inhabitants and habits in every. single. chapter, sometimes more than once. To screaming point. Not content with that, he felt obliged to break the fourth wall with ridiculous "foreshadowings" that ruined any suspense he might have created and didn't bother to. To make matters worse, the closer I got to the ridiculous, annoying finale the more interruptions I was subjected to. This made the ludicrous tale even less appealing, and when I finally got to the reason for the crimes, the only reason I didn't throw it across the room is because it was on an ebook reader which is not responsible for the drek I put on it.
I'm really pickin' em this summer.
This book's 225 pages (in the ebook edition) could have been slashed by half and left a much better book. But nooo, the author must needs recapitulate every aspect of the square, the houses and businesses in it, their inhabitants and habits in every. single. chapter, sometimes more than once. To screaming point. Not content with that, he felt obliged to break the fourth wall with ridiculous "foreshadowings" that ruined any suspense he might have created and didn't bother to. To make matters worse, the closer I got to the ridiculous, annoying finale the more interruptions I was subjected to. This made the ludicrous tale even less appealing, and when I finally got to the reason for the crimes, the only reason I didn't throw it across the room is because it was on an ebook reader which is not responsible for the drek I put on it.
February 28, 2023
An Ok Mystery
I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous mysteries of Clifford Witting that I had read but I honestly have to admit I really didn’t care much for this one. Oddly I had earlier picked the murderer but later changed my mind. Nonetheless I am going to continue reading his books and hope this was an exception.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous mysteries of Clifford Witting that I had read but I honestly have to admit I really didn’t care much for this one. Oddly I had earlier picked the murderer but later changed my mind. Nonetheless I am going to continue reading his books and hope this was an exception.
July 8, 2024
What a great mystery! I love the characters and the humor in this series. I'm so glad Clifford Witting's books have been rereleased, as it would be a shame for today's classic mystery readers to miss these engaging detective novels.
September 13, 2022
Such A Treat
So many suspects! Loads of personalities & plenty of action! The puzzled inspector & his loyal very able Mr Martin are great!
So many suspects! Loads of personalities & plenty of action! The puzzled inspector & his loyal very able Mr Martin are great!
January 5, 2023
2.5 stars. A fun and easy read. Not a fair-play mystery.
December 26, 2024
Well written yarn with believable characters. I spotted the murderer early on but the story was still enjoyable.
March 30, 2020
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
April 9, 2023
“It began on the first Tuesday in July, which was market-day in Paulsfield.“
At midday, a workman cleaning a statue in the center of the town square suddenly falls, shot through the head. Amidst the tumult of market day activities, the din of roadwork, and the chaos created by a loose bull, no one hears or sees a thing. Within 48 hours the sniper will strike again, and again. Is a homicidal maniac abroad in Paulsfield? Inspector Charlton must find the criminal before they murder again.
This is the second of Witting’s mysteries, but interestingly, the events documented here occur prior to the events in the first book, Murder In Blue. Rather than having and amateur detective as the main protagonist, Witting reintroduces us to Detective Inspector Charlton (aka the “Doctor” because of “the soothing magic of his bedside manner”), and places the emphasis on the police investigation. Witting provides us with a classic map of the murder scene(s) at the start. Charlton’s initial focus is a detailed search for the sniper’s position, so this map was a lifesaver for this directionally challenged reader.
While this is a very well constructed mystery, as well as an entertaining and sometimes quite humorous read, it is let down by several factors. Witting is a skinflint when it comes to clues. While Witting provides a wealth of information, there is an absence of any real clues. Witting makes up for this by deluging the reader with a tsunami of red herrings. This makes it very unfair to the reader, who must depend on intuition to detect who the murderer is.
In addition, narrative bogs down as Charlton, quite literally, does everything he can to find out who the sniper may be.
“I’ve questioned everybody who might be in any way concerned with the crimes; made sure that two of the bullets were fired from the same weapon and that the weapon was probably a Parabellum self-loader; checked every Parabellum that is registered at Whitchester; localized the area from which the three shots could have been fired; investigated each crime separately and also in relation to the others; considered all the windows in the suspected area and the neighbouring roofs—”
Halfway through, the suspect pool has been narrowed down to five. From there the investigation goes no further, merely moving into a different phase—attempting to draw the shooter out. And there it stays, until the murderer is uncovered in what must be one of the most abrupt endings ever.
While it may seem, based on what I’ve already written, that I didn’t enjoy the book. Far from it. There are interesting characters and humor that make it definitely worth the read. Yes, it’s not a 5 star book, but it’s also not a meh.
At midday, a workman cleaning a statue in the center of the town square suddenly falls, shot through the head. Amidst the tumult of market day activities, the din of roadwork, and the chaos created by a loose bull, no one hears or sees a thing. Within 48 hours the sniper will strike again, and again. Is a homicidal maniac abroad in Paulsfield? Inspector Charlton must find the criminal before they murder again.
This is the second of Witting’s mysteries, but interestingly, the events documented here occur prior to the events in the first book, Murder In Blue. Rather than having and amateur detective as the main protagonist, Witting reintroduces us to Detective Inspector Charlton (aka the “Doctor” because of “the soothing magic of his bedside manner”), and places the emphasis on the police investigation. Witting provides us with a classic map of the murder scene(s) at the start. Charlton’s initial focus is a detailed search for the sniper’s position, so this map was a lifesaver for this directionally challenged reader.
While this is a very well constructed mystery, as well as an entertaining and sometimes quite humorous read, it is let down by several factors. Witting is a skinflint when it comes to clues. While Witting provides a wealth of information, there is an absence of any real clues. Witting makes up for this by deluging the reader with a tsunami of red herrings. This makes it very unfair to the reader, who must depend on intuition to detect who the murderer is.
In addition, narrative bogs down as Charlton, quite literally, does everything he can to find out who the sniper may be.
“I’ve questioned everybody who might be in any way concerned with the crimes; made sure that two of the bullets were fired from the same weapon and that the weapon was probably a Parabellum self-loader; checked every Parabellum that is registered at Whitchester; localized the area from which the three shots could have been fired; investigated each crime separately and also in relation to the others; considered all the windows in the suspected area and the neighbouring roofs—”
Halfway through, the suspect pool has been narrowed down to five. From there the investigation goes no further, merely moving into a different phase—attempting to draw the shooter out. And there it stays, until the murderer is uncovered in what must be one of the most abrupt endings ever.
While it may seem, based on what I’ve already written, that I didn’t enjoy the book. Far from it. There are interesting characters and humor that make it definitely worth the read. Yes, it’s not a 5 star book, but it’s also not a meh.
June 28, 2025
I loved this book, but I do have a few criticisms. I really liked the structure of the limited set of buildings where the shootings could have been done from, I laughed out loud many times, and I did fall for the red herring of Farquarson (I’m so glad he didn’t do it). But my critiques are: (1) the “mad” person was someone we already knew to be mad so that wasn’t much of a twist, (2) the police never seemed to have any actual plan for catching the murderer except to let them keep killing people and they didn’t even take precautions to protect themselves, (3) why was John Rutherford completely missing from this book, it’s not like the actor was busy working on another project, and (4) I needed more explanation at the end of how and why the murderer did it and how Charlton finally figured it out!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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