Death of an Airman

Inspector Bray #2

by Christopher St. John Sprigg

‘A mystifying and highly entertaining yarn’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘A most ingenious and exciting plot’ DOROTHY L. SAYERSIn full view of a half dozen witnesses, George Furnace, the flying instructor of the Baston Aero Club goes into a tail spin, crashes, and is killed. A regrettable incident apparently, but Edwin Marriott, Bishop of Cootamundra, who is learning to fly at the club, thinks otherwise. He is right. The intrepid bishop together with Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard investigate this puzzling murder.ABOUT THE AUTHORChristopher St John Sprigg was an English writer and Marxist thinker. Born in Putney, London, he followed his father into journalism joining THE YORKSHIRE OBSERVER as a cub reporter aged 15. Sprigg later ran an aeronautics publishing company with his brother, edited one of its technical journals and wrote FLY WITH AN ELEMENTARY TEXTBOOK ON THE ART OF PILOTING and LET’S LEARN TO FLY! He wrote seven ‘Golden Age’ crime novels, between 1933 and 1937, four featuring Charles Venables an unflappable crime reporter and amateur sleuth. At around the same time Sprigg discovered Marxism, joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1934. Fatefully, he signed up for the British Battalion of the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War and died at the Battle of Jarama River on 12 February 1937, killed by fascists whilst covering the retreat of his battalion with a machine gun. He was 29 years old.PRAISE FOR CHRISTOPHER ST JOHN SPRIGGCRIME IN KENSINGTON‘Well written, cleverly developed’BOSTON TRANSCRIPT‘Here is a story that will keep you guessing, told by a man who knows how’NEW YORK TIMESTHE CORPSE WITH THE SUNBURNT FACE‘Thrilling’NEW YORK TIMESDEATH OF A QUEEN‘An enjoyable story… told with youthful zest’MARTIN EDWARDS

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature, Classics, Mystery Thriller

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Christopher St. John Sprigg aka Christopher Caudwell was a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.

He was born into a Roman Catholic family, resident at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney. He was educated at the Benedictine Ealing Priory School, but left school at the age of 15 after his father, Stanhope Sprigg, lost his job as literary editor of the Daily Express. Caudwell moved with his father to Bradford and began work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer. He made his way to Marxism and set about rethinking everything in light of it, from poetry to philosophy to physics, later joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in Poplar, London.

In December 1936 he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigades there, training as a machine-gunner at Albacete before becoming a machine-gun instructor and group political delegate. He edited a wall newspaper.

He was killed in action on 12 February 1937, the first day of the Battle of the Jarama Valley. His brother, Theodore, had attempted to have Caudwell recalled by the Communist Party of Great Britain by showing its General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, the proofs of Caudwell's book Illusion and Reality. Caudwell's Marxist works were published posthumously. The first was Illusion and Reality (1937), an analysis of poetry.

Caudwell published widely, writing criticism, poetry, short stories and novels. Much of his work was published posthumously.

Reviews

[She's So Novel! ꧁꧂]

If you read Sprigg's bio on Goodreads, you will find a very interesting man who died way too young.

Certainly I would like to know more about him.

Reading this book, I would have sworn that Sprigg was a pilot. Reading his bio on Wikipedia Under his real name of Christopher Caudwell,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo... I found out that he was knowledgeable about flight and wrote a couple of books about it.

& this book got off to a cracking start when an Australian bishop turns up at the Baston Air Club wanting flying lessons. But there are some strange goings on...

The book was terrific at the start, (& had some wonderful characters throughout, like Lady Crumbles the ruthless fundraiser!) it did lose a bit of momentum in the centre, but the ending tied up all the loose ends. & just for once I guessed the chief villain - only two pages before the reveal but still!

One of the better Golden Age books I have read by a lesser known writer.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[BrokenTune]

The two detectives looked at each other, and, after thanking Lady Laura, walked over to the hangars. “An intelligent girl,” said Creighton. “I don’t know why one is surprised when a good-looking woman has brains.

What a fun murder mystery! Death of an Airman had everything I like about Golden Age mysteries: eccentric characters, humour, technical detail that makes it fun to follow the puzzle, red herrings galore, and a solution to the mystery that made it difficult to book down the book before the last page.

My favourite part was when Scotland Yard followed a lead that involved the covert sale of a French newspaper to "special order" customers in Glasgow which ended with the policemen being thrown out of the newsagents... I literally read this, giggled, and hoped that this would be more than a red herring.
A similar turn of plot in Death in the Tunnel had frustrated my reading experience of that book and I was relieved to find out that although there were a lot of similarities between the books, Death of an Airman was taking itself less seriously and, in consequence, was a much more enjoyable read. I laughed on several occasions, but I was also enjoying the hunt for clues and trying to figure out the mystery of how the victim was killed - because that was a real mystery for most of the book.

I wish we had many more works by Sprigg that we could discover, but Sprigg died at the age of 30 after had joined the Spanish Civil War. Had he lived, I wonder whether he would have injected some more of that irreverence and fun that made Death of an Airman such a joy into the rest of the mystery genre. Don't get me wrong, I love the Golden Age mystery reads, but instead of the xenophobia and snobbery that sometimes seems to run through these books, I would have loved to have seen more of Sprigg's tone of voice:

"Any convictions against the woman in your records?”
“Nothing serious. Dangerous driving, of course, and a narrow escape from a manslaughter conviction, but this type of reckless individual may always get involved in that kind of thing. They think it’s their duty to drive about the streets like maniacs. Oh, there’s a fine for assault when she bashed a fellow over the head with her ice-hockey stick for making some uncomplimentary remark about the sportsmanship of women players. It was perhaps excusable.”

[Libros Prestados]

Me gusta un misterio "quién lo hizo" más que a un tonto un lápiz, eso es así. Pero incluso teniendo esto en cuenta, este libro es apreciable.

Literariamente hablando tiene tan poco valor como cualquier novela de Agatha Christie, pero es muy entretenida. Además, el misterio es ingenioso y en la época en la que se escribió ya se estaba en unas novelas detectivescas algo más sofisticadas en cuanto al puzle. Ya se habían dejado atrás los misterios más simples (y probablemente lógicos) porque la gente ya se había leído suficientes libros del género y ya conocían los trucos y podían llegar a la solución más fácilmente. Así que esta novela es consciente de ello y complica lo suficiente el puzle . Además lo hace en momentos clave: cuando más o menos puedes discernir qué pasó, aparece una nueva información o un nuevo giro que te lía.

Y aún así, sigue siendo un misterio simple, de corte clásico, con personajes simpáticos (que no pasan de ser funcionales, pero cumplen esa función) y un ritmo vivo que no decae ni siquiera una vez se ha descubierto al criminal (en un último giro bastante emocionante).

En resumen, un "whodunit" apreciable y disfrutable de principio a fin, sobre todo para los amantes del género.

[Susan]

Published in 1935, this mystery was written by Christopher St. John Sprigg, whose short career was cut short by the Spanish Civil War. Although he had lost interest with mysteries at the time, he was young and idealistic, and might, had he survived, written more. As a fan of Golden Age mysteries, we are lucky that so many previously out of print mysteries are being republished and this is an interesting addition to the genre.

The Australian Bishop of Cootamundra, Edwin Marriott, arrives at Baston flying club, to ask for lessons. On his first visit, he witnesses something strange and later a plane crashes, the pilot dead. The Bishop is not content with the suggestion of accidental death and this leads to an investigation into murder and undercover activities at the club.

Although I was not as engaged as I had hoped to be, this is a perfectly competent mystery, with a number of good characters, possible suspects and motives. Overall, an interesting read and always good to read a mystery by a Golden Age author that I have not read before.

[Susan in NC]

4.5 stars for this entertaining, well-puzzled, briskly plotted, Golden Age British mystery. Lots of humor, interesting facts about flying, and a clever, twisty plot.

It all starts as a visiting Australian bishop comes to Baston aerodrome for lessons; his Australian territory is large, and although a plane is provided, the budget won’t stretch to a pilot. So, the bishop decides to use his leave back home to learn, so he can ferry himself about.

The humor kicks off right away as club secretary and general factotum “Sally” Sackbut, a wonderfully efficient, practical, smart and funny woman, signs him up and introduces him to the local members. Sprigg handles this initial scene assuredly, with humor - so often the expository passages at the beginning of a mystery leave you feeling you need a theater program…

Not long after, the bishop and Sally witness an experienced pilot fail to pull out of a tailspin and crash. They rush with other club members to the scene, but it’s too late, the pilot is dead. This was one of the few bits I had a hard time with - the local doctor, also a club member, is out on a call, so rather than call police, they bring the body into the club, lay him out, and it’s hours before the doctor arrives to officially declare the pilot dead. Meanwhile, the bishop notices something odd about the body.

No more plot, don’t want to give away spoilers, but I thought it odd they all waited for the doctor- I assume it was hesitancy to besmirch the reputation of the air club, and it was thought to be a straightforward, tragic accident, but it seemed odd. Otherwise, it all moved along briskly, and entertainingly. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it very much.

I will only say I thought Sally Sackbut and the Bishop were two favorite characters among several, until Lady Crumbles, a philanthropic fundraising dynamo of a countess and brother of another member, comes on the scene. An example of the humor:

Lady Crumbles lived in a passionate whirl of organization. Charity matinée succeeded to hospital ball…and people instinctively (but vainly) put protecting hands over their cheque-books when she approached. Vainly, because Lady Crumbles’ masterful and obtuse personality had the effect of a tank, and to be perfectly candid, her figure was planned on similar lines, which made the joint effect the more overpowering.

Great fun, so glad I finally read it, for the Reading the Detectives group upcoming read.

[Ivonne Rovira]

Readers will find Death of an Airman bittersweet, as it is one of the few books the author, Christopher St. John Sprigg, published in his lifetime. (Other works were published posthumously.) A committed Marxist, Sprigg joined the International Brigades and went to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he was killed at age 29.

No less than Dorothy L. Sayers proclaimed the novel as having “a most ingenious and exciting plot, full of good puzzles and discoveries and worked out among a varied cast of entertaining characters.” Readers will find they agree with Miss Sayers wholeheartedly.

In Death of an Airman, an Australian bishop finds himself in England and decides to learn to fly airplanes, the better to travel in his extensive diocese back home. That’s how Edwin Marriott, bishop of Cootamundra, finds himself on the scene when pilot George Furnace dies in a plane crash. While others chalk up Furnace’s death to a fatal accident, Marriot isn’t so sure. He eventually convinces the authorities that Furnace was murdered and that the secret to his death lies at the Baston Aero Club.

Sprigg’s delightful mystery made me wish he’d lived to write dozens; instead, he wrote only seven whodunits. I hope some of them will detail the further exploits of the dogged Inspector Creighton or Scotland Yard’s suave Inspector Bernard Bray. Or of his lordship, Bishop Marriott! And I hope that, as it has been doing with so many forgotten masterpieces from the Golden Age of crime fiction, the British Library will republish some more gems from Christopher St. John Sprigg.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

[Sid Nuncius]

I enjoyed Death Of An Airman very much. First published in 1935, it’s a good mystery, written in an engaging style.

An experienced airman is killed when the small plane he is piloting crashes at the aerodrome at which his flying club is based. It all seems like a tragic accident until some puzzling features become apparent and evidence of skulduggery begins to appear. The detectives on the case (and some civilian characters) eventually expose sinister malfeasance.

It’s all rather charming. The two detectives on the case are likeable and engaging (although one of them does seem remarkably slow on the uptake for a seasoned Inspector at times) and the other characters are neatly and quite convincingly drawn. The style is very enjoyable, with a wry humour often showing through. Just as a small example, one detective says of a possible suspect, “She is the daughter of a rural dean. That’s pretty bad, but not the sort of thing you can use in evidence against her.”

The narrative did get a little bogged down in what-ifs and hypotheses from time to time and the solution is just a trifle pat, but overall this is a very enjoyable Golden Age mystery and a fun read.

[Lyn Elliott]

This is the first one of a series of reissued English mysteries from the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ that I’ve read, and though it started off promisingly, the plot became increasingly flimsy.
Quite fun to read up to a point, but too many spiral turns strung it out way beyond the ideal length for my reading g journey

[Nicky]

Reviewed for the Bibliophibian.

I didn’t like this as much as most of the other British Library Crime Classics, and I can’t put my finger on why, really. It wasn’t worse than them in any palpable well, and probably better than one or two, and I rather liked the Bishop as a character. Perhaps it was a certain feeling of inevitability — having read Kerry Greenwood’s (obviously more recent) Cocaine Blues and Dorothy L. Sayers contemporary Murder Must Advertise, certain things seemed immediately obvious.

Mind you, when I say I liked the Bishop… after the opening of the story, he wasn’t much of a character; none of them were, really. Maybe that was my problem: it felt more like a puzzle than anything at times, and the two Inspectors were pretty indistinguishable (actually, were they both Inspectors? the details are slipping away already).

It’s an interesting read as part of an overall revisit of the Golden Age, and it’s not bad, but this is not one of the more surprising and absorbing of the series of reissues. I’m not in a hurry to read anything else by Christopher St John Sprigg, even if they republish one of his other works.

[Damaskcat]

This is another book in the excellent series of crime novels from the British Library archives. Apart from the background it could have been written today. It reads very well indeed and the characters are all too believable and the plot is exciting and well constructed.

It opens with a Bishop from Australia, on leave in England, visiting Baston Flying Club and asking to book some lessons. While he is there he witnesses an incident between the instructor and a club member which makes him curious. When the instructor is killed in what seems to have been an unfortunate accident the Bishop is unsure whether it was in fact an accident.

The author was less than thirty when he wrote it but it reads like a mature work of an author with many novels already published. I found it excellent reading and the ending was as full of suspense as any modern crime novel. I liked the detective characters who were not made out to be stupid so that the amateur seems that much more intelligent.

Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard is very well done indeed and I would love to read more of him as well as the Bishop - an unlikely but convincing pair of sleuths. If you want a well written crime novel with no bad language and what could almost be the plot of a twenty first century novel then try this one.

[Leah]

Those magnificent men (and women) in their flying machines...

When George Furnace, instructor of the Baston Aero Club, is found dead in the wreck of his crashed plane, everyone assumes it was a tragic accident, even though he was a skilled airman. Everyone, that is, except the Bishop of Cootamundra, who has signed on to take lessons at the flying school so he can fly himself around his vast diocese back in Australia. The Bishop has some knowledge of medicine, and he notices something strange about Furnace’s corpse. Enter Inspector Creighton of the local constabulary, closely followed by Inspector Bray of the Yard...

There are three main elements to this entertaining mystery – who, why and how – with some added confusion over whether this really was a murder at all. At points, there are reasons to think Furnace may have committed suicide, unlikely though that seems for a man of his character, and there’s still the possibility the Bishop is wrong and it was an accident after all. But Furnace’s death soon becomes almost secondary, since Creighton and Bray quickly discover in the course of their investigations that there seems to be an international criminal conspiracy going on around the airfield, in which they suspect some of the flyers are involved, either knowingly or as dupes of the mysterious Chief of the criminal gang. But which are which? Suspicions and accusations abound and the plot is increasingly complicated to the point where I had lost all capacity to keep the facts separate from the new theories propounded every few pages by Creighton, Bray, the Bishop and just about everybody else who appears in the book!

This is one of those mysteries where it’s important to switch off one’s credibility monitor and simply go with the flow. The mystery all depends on the detectives and forensic experts missing or misinterpreting clues all over the place. First published in 1934, I’d expect forensic pathology not to be up to modern standards, but here we have to accept that they can miss minor details like bullet holes and mix up times of deaths to a frankly ridiculous level. So long as you don’t mind the general implausibility, though, it’s fun accepting the “facts” as given and trying to work out how Furnace’s death came about, that being the key to finding out who killed him and why.

The first half of the book is set in and around the flying club, so has the feel of a closed circle of suspects in traditional Golden Age style. However once the international angle becomes apparent, Creighton and Bray follow leads up to Glasgow and over to Paris, before it all comes back to the flying club in the end for the final dénouement. This adds extra interest and also gives Sprigg the opportunity to talk a lot about flying and planes, which, as a pilot himself, he does knowledgeably and entertainingly, his love for flying shining through. (It’s sad to note that Sprigg died a few years later, flying as a volunteer pilot in the Spanish Civil War, aged just 29.)

The characterisation is what makes the book, though, and carries the reader quite contentedly through the plotting complexities. The book is full of “types” rather than stereotypes – the ex-WW1 pilots, the adventurous flyers out to break records in this still new field, the decent if stolid local policeman, the more incisive methods of the Yard detective. Then there are the staff and pupils of the flying school, and the locals who get involved in one way or another. Lady Crumbles walks over everyone in her mission to do good to people whether they want to have good done to them or not. Sally Sackbut runs the school with alarming efficiency. Tommy Vane is cheerful if incompetent as a pupil, finishing every lesson with a quick dash to the bar for a double whisky. Lady Laura Vanguard and Mrs Angevin are rivals as flying adventurers and also divide the attention of the males of the club, each having their own admirers. And the Bishop bumbles along, not very good at flying, not as good as he thinks he is at detecting, but always willing to listen to other people’s troubles and to offer them sympathy and advice. They’re all enjoyable and mostly likeable, even though we know some of them must be the baddies.

In my view, the plotting and structure of this are too messy for it to count as a top rank classic of Golden Age crime, but it’s full of gentle humour and has a warm-hearted tone despite the dark deeds. I enjoyed reading it and am sorry that Sprigg didn’t get the chance to have a long writing career – the youthful exuberance and writing skill he shows in this one may well have allowed him to become one of the greats in time, as he developed more discipline over plotting. Despite his short career, though, he wrote several other mystery novels, and a check on Amazon shows that some of them are available as Kindle e-books. I look forward to reading more of them.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Jan C]

Interesting but kind of touch and go. It got bogged down somewhere in the middle but I felt it did pick up. I think the author only wrote 2 mysteries - he went off to the Spanish Civil War and got himself killed. But, on the whole, I enjoyed this one.

A bishop comes home from Australia, decides he should use his leave to learn how to fly so that he could ferry himself around Cootamundra. Introduces himself to the secretary of Baston Flying Club (not sure if that is the correct name of it). She introduces him around and he meets Furnace. That is a short relationship since something like the next day or so Furnace is out flying and crashes. Everyone is surprised because he was an experienced pilot and had been in the recent war. They bring his body in to the spare (?) room and they watch over the body while they wait for the doctor. Finally, people have things to do so the bishop volunteers to watch the body. Something doesn't seem right to him. Shouldn't the body be in rigor? He's been dead a couple of hours by now. Finally the doctor arrives and gives a cursory exam. The police arrive, too. The bishop mentions the lack of rigor to the police.

Murder, drugs, aviation in Britain in the '20s.

I look forward to finding his other mystery.

[Rosa Dracos99]

Entretenida novela ambientada en los inicios de la aviación privada, cuando volar era un verdadero riesgo y cada día se intentaban nuevas hazañas. En este ambiente, un obispo australiano que quiere aprender a volar, investiga la muerte en extrañas circunstancias de uno de los profesores de vuelo.
Personajes bien construídos; trama sencilla, pero bien hilvanada. Lo que más me ha llamado la atención es que el lenguaje parece mucho más moderno que en otros libros escritos en la misma época (años 30).
Al mirar los datos del autor, he visto que también fue un poeta y pensador marxista; y que combatió en la guerra civil española, en las Brigadas Internacionales, falleciendo en la batalla del Jarama.

[Carolien]

The Bishop of Cootamundra arrives at the flight school in Banston, England seeking to be taught to fly a plane. His flying instructor ends up dead in a place crash, but the Bishop suspects all is not as it seems. Soon the Bishop, a local policeman and Scotland Yard are on the trail of an international drugs gang. The setting is fascinating in the early days of flying and it is one of the most ingenious murders I have ever encountered in fiction. A very interesting read.

[Emmett Hoops]

I quite honestly had to cringe while reading parts of this book. Some of the writing is straight out of a high school sophomore's creative writing class. Inspector Bray makes so many elementary mistakes that one might think this was a comedic exercise rather than a mystery. For example, at the beginning, he and others read a letter left by the dead airman, which says, in part, "Laura, I've never tried to find out since then, not because I'm afraid to try my luck, but because I've been getting into an awful mess, one of those messes one drifts into like a damned helpless fool. Suddenly two days ago I realized what an awful hole I was in, and how much worse it would be if I didn't end the whole business..." For many pages, everyone bumps around believing this to be a suicide note. As you read it, did you not think it was, at the least, ambiguous? Possibly even anything but a suicide note?
It is things such as this that mark this book as the work of an amateur. Although the quality of writing picks up in the last quarter, it really takes some tough slogging to get to that point -- and most readers will have given up by then. I would have, but I have this illogical need to finish any book I begin reading.

[Roman Clodia]

This is a fun and lighthearted read with some wit in the writing style. It goes off into more of a thriller direction than I prefer and the police can be a bit slow on the uptake. The Australian Bishop is an amusing point of view character so it's a bit of a shame that he gets sidelined during the plot. The flying club setting is interesting and gives this its personality - I learned more about flying and crashing light aircraft than I ever knew I needed! A very icky moment at the end, though as the love-lorn villain runs into a propeller blade... ouch... splat!.

[Pamela]

Classic crime - George Furnace, flight instructor at a small Aero Club, dies when his plane crashes into the fields as his horrified colleagues look on. The Bishop of Cootamundra, learning to fly in order to visit his remote Australian congregation, is puzzled by certain aspects of the death. His suspicions are picked up by local police inspector Creighton and Scotland Yard’s Inspector Bray and they begin to uncover a criminal scheme based at the Aero Club.

This was a clever plot, but it had more of a thriller than a mystery feel. The investigation was initially intriguing as the two police officers followed up small clues that began to unlock the truth. However, after a while the investigation appeared illogical as each time they uncovered a clue, they only questioned one or two suspects about it and took the rest at face value. I don’t think they would have accepted lies so easily.

The characters were an interesting bunch and there was quite a lot of humour too. It was also worth reading about those earlier days of aviation with the basic technology that has been surpassed by more advanced but less charming developments. Unfortunately the author died fairly young during the Spanish Civil War, as it would have been nice to see how he dealt with later events in his books.

[Jill]

Dr. Marriot is the bishop of Cootamundra, a large area in Australia. He has been given a plane to be able to go to all parts of his diocese, however he is unable to fly the plane. He comes across to England to take lessons in flying, and joins a club at Baston, where they assure him he wil be able to master the art of flying a plane. The club secretary, a Sally Sackbut. takes him under her wing, so to speak and soon has him in a plane to learn. She introduces him to various members of the club. Unfortunately, an experienced pilot he meets , goes on to crash a plane whilst he and Sally look on. The crash team rush to the plane only to find the pilot dead. The circumstances of this crash causes questions to be asked, and Marriot finds himself in the thick of it. The book starts with a certain amount of humour and this continues throughout, even though some motives turn out to be pretty dark.
An entertaining read.

[Roger Brunyate]

Classic Whodunnit Shows its Age

The cover in the style of one of the Maisie Dobbs books caught my eye, with its picture of a scarlet biplane flying over the White Cliffs of Dover. Only this is not a pastiche of a Thirties crime novel, but the real thing. British author Christopher St. John Sprigg apparently wrote several of them (and a lot else besides) before he was killed flying as a pilot in the Spanish Civil War at age 29. His books are now rare collectors' items, but fortunately the Poison Pen Press was able to republish this one in association with the British Library.

I enjoyed it hugely at first. Sprigg has two wonderful things going for him: a fascinating setting, and an engaging amateur sleuth. The fictional Baston Aero Club, somewhere not far from London, gives him the opportunity to introduce a varied cast of flying fans, professional pilots, and former aces, and it is always interesting when the author of a mystery introduces some technical element (here, the flying) that he really knows about. The splendidly improbable sleuth is the Bishop of Cootamundra, who hopes to learn to fly in order to pilot himself around his vast Australian diocese. He is a most attractive character, as well as a particularly astute one, and when one of the flight instructors is killed in a crash, he comes to suspect that it was actually murder, and begins talking to Inspector Creighton of the local police.

From this point, unfortunately, the book begins to fall apart. For one thing, the Bishop is gradually sidelined. Creighton begins to suspect that this is more than a local matter. He hands over to Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard, a more conventional figure than the Bishop, and he in turn consults others. The investigation reaches across the Channel but, in doing so, loses touch with the enclosed setting that is the essence and charm of the classic British mystery. It also becomes less plausible, and the solution of the original case dwindles in importance. Though that does not stop Sprigg from writing one of the longest examples of those tell-all penultimate chapters I have ever seen, here called "Method of a Murder," which is blatant delayed exposition run amuck.

"I say, look here, you're surely not suggesting…?" All the same, there is delight in those period dialogues and the attitudes that go with them. It was wonderful to enter that time-warp, until things began to fall apart. And how things have changed! At one point, Creighton and Bray, the local copper and the Scotland Yard detective, buy a French daily newspaper and examine it for clues. Each man reads it from cover to cover, then they show it to a Fleet Street reporter, who does the same. When was the last time it could simply be taken for granted that three such ordinary Englishmen would be so fluent in French that the fact is not even worth comment?

[Susan Johnston]

This is one of the reissued Classics and the reader must accept that the styles in the 1930's were far different from modern styles. Despite starting with the death of an airman (ergo the title), the story took some time to develop. The death is perceived to be suicide then murder then suicide and back and forth again.
The cast of characters is a pastiche of classic British stereotypes so it took a while for the story to catch me. However, once it did, it turned out to be quite enjoyable.
In fact, towards the end of the book, I found myself flying through the pages trying to find out if my suspicions were correct. I can say honestly that they were but there were still some surprises to be had. I like that.
The Australian Bishop and the Scotland Yard detective were a formidable pair. The poor local constabulary was plodding at first but was redeemed by the end and the two story lines were resolved in a satisfactory manner.
If you are looking for a mile-a-minute mystery, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a slower paced but well written journey to the past, this might fit the bill.

[John]

This is a superb book with everything one could want from a detective story. An unusual plot, good characterisations of the protagonists, a pair of engaging detectives and a gifted amateur, plenty of red herrings and loads of clues all written with a crisp and witty style. I literally had trouble putting this book down and stayed up half the night to finish it.

When you consider that Sprigg became a journalist at age 15, then an editor, wrote 7 novels, several other non-fiction books, was a poet, studied Marxism and became an activist, then trained for, and was killed fighting for the International Brigade in The Spanish Civil War when he was only 29 years old, you can see that here was a man of great substance.

I must try and find some more of his work. Apparently this is difficult so hopefully the British Library might publish some others.

Very highly recommended !!!

[Catherine]

I liked this mystery of a pilot whose death is initially written off as an accident a great deal. And I was glad I persevered past the point where there seemed to be a plot hole the size of the Grand Canyon, because the sleuths spotted their mistake and redeemed themselves pretty thoroughly. The tale is humorous, and entertaining - and while it's not that difficult to work out some of the plot, at least the reader's suspicions are confirmed stylishly and without dragging things out for long.

[Eva Müller]

I might have enjoyed that more if I cared more about aeroplanes because you will learn a lot about them in this book. Also, the case is not a 'typical' golden age mystery but one involving drug dealing/smuggling and while it does much better than some other books from this time that tried to deal with the topic, I just don't care about these types of stories as much.

[Alice]

A tale filled with the playful language and eccentric characters of detective fiction's golden age, plus an aviation mystery - what's not to like? I was particularly impressed by all the female pilots.

[Rosana Adler]

Entre 2 y 2,5 estrellas.

Tras un par de capítulos, prometedores, y hasta interesantes, en los que se presenta a los personajes y aparece el cadáver, la novela pronto va perdiendo interés.

Los personajes, excepto unos pocos (los policías, la directora del aeroclub, Sarah Sackbut, Lady Laura y, en menor medida, el obispo), carecen de personalidad. Varios de ellos son meros nombres para hacer bulto (resulta difícil recordar quién es alguno de ellos y su cometido dentro del club) y ser "sospechosos" en uno u otro momento.

El obispo, que parece va a ser el protagonista, no tarda en desdibujarse en favor de los policías. Y tiene alguna actitud carente de lógica (no decir lo que sospecha hasta después del entierro...)

Al principio parece que la historia va a transcurrir en el aeroclub, con su personal y alumn@s como protagonistas y sospechosos, pero un giro (más o menos interesante) lleva a los policías a Francia en largos capítulos que dan vueltas a lo mismo una y otra vez, en eternas conversaciones y especulaciones, a las que se suman las diversas teorías que pergeñan los personajes sobre lo que pudo suceder al aviador (¿accidente, suicidio, asesinato?), de qué manera, y quiénes tuvieron que ver, lo que suma muchas páginas vacías, aburrimiento y hasta impaciencia: es evidente que no pueden acertar lo sucedido tan pronto.

Deducir la identidad de un par de los personajes implicados cuando apenas ha transcurrido un tercio de la novela (hay una breve escena que parece no venir a cuento, lo que la hace más significativa) no ayuda a mantener el interés, y los largos capítulos finales especulando sobre la identidad de "El Jefe" (cuando es evidente al recordar la "pista" que se ha dado), o la esperada escena del obispo en un avión (para eso se ha descrito antes otro vuelo...) tampoco ayuda a disfrutar una lectura que se hace repetitiva, previsible y larga.

Quizá la novela, publicada hace más de ochenta años, tuviera su mérito e interés en ese momento, y tal vez no fuera tan fácil adivinar ciertos detalles, pero, leída en el siglo XXI, puede resultar decepcionante.

[Colin Mitchell]

Published originally during 1935 and written by a young man who was soon to lose his life during the Spanish Civil War and has been reprinted in the British Library Crime Classic series. An airman, employed as a flying instructor, at a fiction airfield on the south coast of England dies in a crash. Is all as it seems or is there other forces at play here? There are certainly plenty of twists and turns in this story to keep you on your toes as the local Inspector and Scotland Yard join forces to track down the Chief.

The characters start out well but soon sink into the realm of silly names and this rather put me off. Some good flying scenes, the author also wrote technical books on flying, with your stomach in your mouth as the aircraft loop and spin. Lots of action that is difficult to replicate in modern conditions. The ending, just a little contrived. Still a good enough read.

3stars

[Fantasymundo]

La historia discurre con un ritmo casi cinematográfico y reúne, de hecho, muchos de los elementos propios de un guión de cine de la época (o de las tiras de prensa: imposible no recordar las escenas aéreas del Agente X-9, de Dashiell Hammett y Alex Raymond, aparecidas el mismo año de la publicación de esta novela, 1934) mostrando un mundo en ebullición y un elenco de personajes memorables a la altura de los tiempos. Muy Seguir leyendo

[Paul Cowdell]

3.5 It's an efficient and fun 1930s romp, with all the encumbrances of the style of the period (yes, there really are characters called Lady Crumbles and Lady Laura Vanguard). These, coupled with a relative absence of any social observation, are perhaps surprising from a man who was on the point of adopting Marxism so comprehensively. Beyond being a reasonably adept writer, it might be easier to see Sprigg and Christopher Caudwell as basically different people.

[Maggie]

This was fun. It's got a blurb on the back from Dorothy Sayers, which is kind of perfect, given that the plot revolves around some wonky/technical 1930s flying stuff - which to me was reminiscent of the wonky/technical bell-ringing stuff in The Nine Tailors.

I also love these kind of exchanges amongst detectives: "Whether it is accident or design I don't know, but the circumstances are such that the murder is an impossibility, and yet it is equally impossible that he was not murdered."

[Steven Heywood]

"…Which explains why the Flying Bishop of Cootamundra (as he is known), and his wife, have a horror of detective novels."

A very enjoyable mystery populated by attractive and believable characters and told in a lively and cheerful fashion. I accidentally read it in one sitting when I meant to be doing something else. The quotation is the penultimate paragraph of the novel.