Miscellaneous Monday—Number Thirty

WE SHOULD NEVER forget the interactive influence the stage has had on written detective fiction—and vice versa. A few crime novels had their origin in stage plays, and not a few dramatic productions started out as mystery books or short stories. Wandering around the Internet as we tend to do, sometimes we come across plays with crime themes and the films and books derived from them; below we have a random selection of those productions spanning close to eight decades. Of course, this compilation isn't meant to be definitive (you probably know of others), and no doubt we'll come across more as time goes by. The best way to use this information is to click on each hyperlink as you come to it. (Note: For no good reason we can think of we decided to go in reverse chronological order.)

+++++++++
1982-1983:
--------------
"Whodunnit."
By Anthony Shaffer (1926-2001).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1982-1983.
Background and cast at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

++++++
1966:
-------
"Wait Until Dark."
By Frederick Knott (1919-2002).
Background and cast at Playbill online (HERE); described (with SPOILERS) on Wikipedia (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++++
1961:
-------
"Write Me a Murder."
By Frederick Knott (1919-2002).
Background and cast at Playbill online (HERE; SPOILERS).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++++++++
1951-1952:
--------------
"Dial 'M' for Murder."
By Frederick Knott (1919-2002).
Background and cast at Playbill online (HERE; SPOILERS) and Wikipedia (HERE; SPOILERS).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).

+++
"Twilight Walk."
By A. B. Shiffrin (1902-98).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1951-1952.
Background and cast at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).

+++
"The Number."
By Arthur Carter (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1951-1952.
Background and cast at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).

+++
"The Chase."
By Horton Foote (1916-2009).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1951-1952.
Background and cast at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

++++++

1949:
--------
"Detective Story."
By Sidney Kingsley (1906-95).
Described (no spoilers) on Wikipedia (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++++++++
1941-1942:
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"Arsenic and Old Lace."
By Joseph Kesselring (1902-67).
Reprinted in The Best Plays of the Modern American Theater, Second Series (1947).
Play in three acts (50 pages).
Full text online at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Angel Street" (a.k.a. "Gaslight").
By Patrick Hamilton (1904-62).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Author info at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"The More the Merrier."
By Frank Gabrielson (1910-80) and Irving Pincus (1914-84).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Cuckoos on the Hearth."
By Parker W. Fennelly (1891-1988).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Mr. Big."
By Arthur Sheekman (1901-78) and Margaret Shane (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
+++
"Brooklyn, U.S.A."
By John Bright (1908-89) and Asa Bordagen (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Clash by Night."
By Clifford Odets (1906-63).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Lily of the Valley."
By Ben Hecht (1894-1964).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Johnny 2 x 4."
By Rowland Brown (1897/1900-63).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).

+++
"Autumn Hill."
By Norma Mitchell (1884-1967) and John Harris (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).

+++
"The Life of Reilly."
By William Roos (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"The Walking Gentleman."
By Grace Perkins (1900-1955) and Fulton Oursler (1893-1952).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1941-1942.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
++++++++++
1925-1926:
--------------
"Canary Dutch."
By Willard Mack (1873-1934).
Based on a story by John Moroso (1874-1957).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
+++
"The Dagger."
By Marian Wightman (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"A Holy Terror."
By Winchell Smith (1871-1933) and George Abbott (1887-1995).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
+++
"Accused."
By Brieux (1858-1932).
English version by George Middleton.
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).

+++
"Caught."
By Kate McLaurin (1885-1933).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE; SPOILERS).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"Easy Come, Easy Go."
By Owen Davis (1874-1956).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"The Joker."
By Arthur Goodrich (1878-1941) and W. F. Payson (1876-1939).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
+++
"Twelve Miles Out."
By William Anthony McGuire (1881-1940).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"Alias the Deacon."
By John B. Hymer (1875-1953) and LeRoy Clemens (?-1951).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"The Man Who Never Died."
By Charles Webster (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"Chivalry."
By William Hurlbut (1878-1957).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"Money Business."
By Oscar M. Carter (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"Not Herbert."
By Howard Irving Young (1893-1952).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"The Great Gatsby."
By Owen Davis (1874-1956).
From the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"The Jay Walker."
By Olga Printzlau (1891-1962).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).

+++
"The Right to Kill."
By Leo Urvantzov (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"The Night Duel."
By Daniel Rubin (?-?) and Edgar MacGregor (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1925-1926.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
++++++++++
1922-1923:
--------------
"The Wasp."
By Thomas F. Fallon (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1922-1923.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"The Last Warning."
By Thomas F. Fallon (?-?).
Based on The House of Fear by Wadsworth Camp (1879-1936).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1922-1923.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"Persons Unknown."
By Robert Housum (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1922-1923.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
++++++++++
1920-1921:
--------------
"The Bat."
By Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) and Avery Hopwood (1882-1928).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1920-1921.
Cast and brief synopsis at Hathi Trust (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE; SPOILERS), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

++++++++++
1919-1920:
--------------
"The Crimson Alibi."
By George Broadhurst (1866-1952).
Based on the novel by Octavus Roy Cohen (1891-1959).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
Sources: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

+++
"At 9:45."
By Owen Davis (1874-1956).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"A Voice in the Dark."
By Ralph E. Dyer (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"The Acquittal."
By Rita Weiman (?-?).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other source: (HERE).
+++
"For the Defense."
By Elmer L. Rice (1892-1967).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"The Sign on the Door."
By Channing Pollock (1880-1946).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"The Unknown Woman."
By Marjorie Blaine (?-?) and Willard Mack (1873-1934).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Archive.org (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE) and (HERE).
+++
"The Ouija Board."
By Crane Wilbur (1886-1973).
Noted in The Best Plays of 1919-1920.
Cast and brief synopsis at Hathi Trust (HERE).
Other sources: (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

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"Why Would a Man Hire a Detective to Hunt for Him?"

"The Man from Mars."
By Rog Phillips (Roger Philip Graham, 1909-65).
Illustration by William E. Terry.
First appearance: Other Worlds Science Stories, May 1951.
Novelette (23 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text is faded.)

     "Business hadn't been too good for Gus Harper, so he welcomed a chance to take on a routine 'missing person' case. Routine, that is, until The Man From Mars made his appearance."

You remember that Hitchcock movie about the corpse that kept turning up everywhere, don't you? Private detective Gus Harper has a similar problem, only the "corpse" is very much alive and able to get around faster than normal people ordinarily do; and not only that, he wants Gus to find him—that is, his other self. Suddenly for our harried private eye, even a divorce case, never pleasant but gratifyingly uncomplicated, is looking a lot better than it used to . . .

Characters:
~ Gus Harper:
  "To sum Gus Harper up in one brief statement, he was not brilliant, but he was a genius. A contradiction of terms? No."
~ G. Harper:
  "'I see,' Gus said dryly. 'You didn't exist at all, and in order to exist you had to make people believe you exist.'"
~ Joe Purvis:
  "'I think I have enough for your fee, or can get it. I have three thousand, two hundred and eighty dollars left in the bank, and Mr. Blake said he'd be glad to loan me the rest on my farm.' Gus stared at him, his eyes large and round."
~ Irma Purvis:
  "Through the glass in the door Gus saw a young lady of perhaps twenty, looking very nice and homey in a bright print dress, stirring something in a steaming kettle over a spotless electric range. His estimation of Joe Purvis shot up ten thousand percent."
~ The Man from Mars:
  "Gus turned his attention back to 'the man from Mars' with a new understanding of why Joe Purvis had been willing to put out the fabulous sum he had firmly believed all private investigators get for a morning's investigation. It could be worse than having a mother-in-law live with you."

Typos: "truely great"; "naivity".

~ ~ ~

IN ADDITION TO SFF Rog Phillips also wrote a substantial amount of crime fiction, a prime example of which appears below:

   "It was a perfect murder."

"A Case of Homicide."
By Rog Phillips (Roger Philip Graham, 1909-65).
First appearance: Keyhole Mystery Magazine, June 1960.
Short story (10 pages).
Online at SFFAudio (HERE; PDF).

     "When the rich old gentleman decided to cut his five shiftless relatives out of his will, he was simply asking to become . . . a case of homicide."

There's no mystery about whodunnit; the first sentence tells us that. Neither is there any mystery about why he dunnit, and we soon learn how he dunnit and who's going to take the blame; all that remains is to see when or if the authorities will ever tumble to the solution. They ultimately do, of course, as a triumphant police captain is able to tell the murderer, "You committed a perfect crime. You overlooked only one small thing. Something you could not have foreseen or you would have abandoned your plan to kill your uncle." Maybe it's true about greed being contagious . . .

Characters:
~ Fred Granview:
  "The rich uncle who was going to change his will in the morning leaving all his money to charity, invited by the uncle for a Last Dinner during which he officially announced to all of them that in the morning they would be disinherited."
~ Reggie:
  "I'm not going tonight. If I went I would strangle him with my two hands!"
~ Paul:
  "Uncle Fred is doing this to deliberately bankrupt me, Henry. I have a note to meet the first of the month. If I can't meet it I'm through."
~ Audrey:
  "If only he had waited! In another two years my voice would be ready for the Met!"
~ Margaret Hanson:
  "You think I killed him, don't you?"
~ Theodore Hanson, Margaret's husband:

  ". . . had spent three years on his novel now and hoped to finish it in another year 

or two . . ."

~ Dr. Ingersoll:
  ". . . the family doctor, arrived within five minutes of Uncle Fred's death. He had taken one look at the knife protruding upwards from Uncle Fred's chest and turned angrily to Henry. 'I thought you said he had a heart attack . . .'"
~ Henry:
  "He realized it really was the last dinner with Uncle Fred. He had loved Uncle Fred as a father. In a sense Uncle Fred had created him."
~ Captain Bonner:
  ". . . was the real enemy. He had sensed it from the first moment he saw the man."

Resources:
- The Interweb has loads of information about Rog Phillips: Wikipedia (HERE), the SFE (HERE), the Fancyclopedia (HERE), and the bibliographies at the ISFDb (HERE) and eFanzines.com (HERE), the latter listing more than just SFF.
- The Man from Mars (or at least the guy who claims he's from there) says at one point, "Suppose everyone on Earth believed something to be true. That would of course make 
it the truth." But would it? See the Wikipedia article "Argumentum ad populum" (HERE) 
for a discussion.

This is definitely not G. Harper.

- The notion that there could be abundant water on Mars becomes a plot point in our story; see Wikipedia (HERE) for the latest about that.

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"We Sprang for the Gun Together, and Together We Caught It Up"

"The Guarded House."
By Arthur Stringer (1874-1950).
Illustrations by Gordon Mallett McCouch.
First appearance: Everybody's Magazine, August 1908.
Short story (14 pages, 3 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

     "The unseen enemy is the one we're always afraid of."

It seems like an easy target, a safe that even a novice yeggman would find a pushover, protected by a frail, fear-stricken old man; but first impressions can be misleading, 
because beyond the safe and the old man lie other, unforseen obstacles: a woman 
who won't stay dead, and a haunted painting, neither of which are willing to let go 
of a fortune without making a would-be thief pay for it—with his life . . .

Comments: Excessive descriptive passages can bog a story down. It's risky but, to establish the proper atmosphere, our author puts a lot of effort into scenic, almost photographic, description, which he successfully uses to create and sustain a certain mood and to ratchet up the suspense. This one fits comfortably in the spooky/rational approach to detective fiction employed so often by John Dickson Carr.

Resources:

- John Arbuthnott Stringer can best be described not as a detective fiction author but a thriller writer, at which he normally excelled; see the usual sources for more about him: Wikipedia (HERE), the SFE (HERE), and the ISFDb (HERE).

- Our protagonist uses some terms that readers of a century ago would have had little 
trouble recognizing, but which could have some of us scratching our heads: "McAdoo" (HERE), "Harpagon" (HERE), and "dummy-chucker" (HERE).

- Previous encounters with Stringer on this weblog: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

The bottom line:

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"At Last It Occurred to the Shivering Burglar That, If He Were Caught There, He Would Be Accused of Murder and Robbery"

HERE WE HAVE three short short stories from The Black Cat, the first one with a fine premise that falls apart at the end; the second one with a fine premise that barely manages not to fall apart; and the third one with a fine premise and a pleasantly amusing payoff.

"Amos Clubb, Detective."
By Swift Adams (?-?).
First appearance: The Black Cat, April 1906.
Short short story (7 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

The mysterious man with the goggles and whiskers shadowing one of society's Four Hundred has a reason that satisfies him—but his quarry doesn't have a clue . . .

Comment: Reminiscent of "The Solitary Cyclist" but with motor cars. That ending, though! Seriously, how the magazine's editor could let this one get by is beyond us.

Resource:
- FictionMags credits Swift Adams with only three stories, all in The Black Cat: "Penelope's Proposals" (December 1902), "Amos Clubb, Detective" (April 1906), and "Cupid Valiant" (March 1909).

~ ~ ~

"Where Burglars Are Welcome."
By Fred S. Brown (1852-1919).
First appearance: The Black Cat, April 1905.
Reprinted in Action Stories, August 1923.
Short short story (5 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

Sometimes a slip of the tongue is all it takes . . .

Resource:
- FictionMags about Fred Squire Brown: "Writer, journalist and editor. Born in Wallsburg, Virginia; died in New York City."

~ ~ ~

"The Clue."
By James Francis Dwyer (1874-1952).
First appearance: The Black Cat, October 1908.
Short short short story (4 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

Most folks, when they see a man walking rapidly down the street and making weird movements with his hands, would conclude they're in the presence of a madman 
who should be confined posthaste by the nearest policeman; but in this instance 
the nearest policeman views it as an opportunity to see justice done . . .

Resources:
- Unlike the two previous writers, prolific (over 1,000 stories) Australian author James Francis Dwyer's FictionMags short stories listing runs to nearly three full pages (not bad for an ex-con), quite a few of them straight adventures with series characters like The Texan Wasp, The Hoosier Hawk, "Red" O'Neill, Jan Kromhout, and Cameron of the "Coral Queen," but several with a short-lived sleuth named Vidaunt, Master Investigator, who featured in just four stories in The New Magazine (U.S.), 1910-11. Wikipedia (HERE), Pulp Flakes (HERE), and the Australian Dictionary of Biography (HERE) all have comprehensive pages devoted to Dwyer. Since some of his large output falls into the SFF genre, Dwyer earns a listing with the SFE (HERE) and the ISFDb (HERE).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Perry Mason of the Final Frontier

"Jurisdiction."

Kerry Dale No. 2.
By Nat Schachner (1895-1955).
Illustrations by Charles Schneeman (1912-72).
First appearance: Astounding Science Fiction, August 1941.
Novelette (28 pages, 3 illos).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text is faded.)

     "Kerry Dale, sky-lawyer, proves a crook may be smart at sabotage, murder and assorted crime, but it takes a navigator to steal a sky-mine!"

Even in deep space in the 24th century, the meaning of "jurisdiction" hasn't changed: "The geographic area over which authority extends; legal authority; the authority to hear and 
determine causes of action." So why is the captain of a rickety tramp freighter the only 
one who seems to understand that?

Characters:
~ Simeon Kenton, head of Kenton Space Enterprises, Unlimited:
  "For a solid half-hour he coruscated and sizzled. His language lifted the temperature of the hotel room by ten degrees. His epithets were triumphs of twisted word compoundings."
~ Sally Kenton, his daughter:
  "She loved her irascible father, who was known to all and sundry as Old Fireball because of his habit of exploding on the slightest provocation. They might tilt at each other and parry deft strokes for the sheer intellectual joy of the thing, but underneath her slim, proud beauty there functioned a brain as keen and hard as the one that had propelled old Simeon to the commanding position he had achieved on the spaceways and in the industrial marts of the System."
~ Jericho Foote, President of Mammoth Exploitations:
  "The cane whistled and sang about Foote's ears, slashed his body, cut down his upflung arm, thumped across his back as he turned to flee. Foote screamed for help, yelled for mercy. But still the cane sang and danced."
~ Kerry Dale, owner-captain of the Flash:

  ". . . preferred to be on his own. A lone wolf, pitting his wits and skill against the men of power and money. They had sought to use his wits and skill at law for their own benefit. 

They had thought to suck him dry and then cast him aside. Well, he'd show them."

~ Jem, the Flash's exec:
  "This here salvage business ain't what it's cracked up to be."
~ Sparks:

  "All radio men ran to a pattern. They were slight and wiry and dried-out and birdlike in the brighness of their eyes and the quickness of their movements. This particular Sparks was 

no exception."

~ Captain Ball, of the Flying Meteor:
  "You mean you want to take an assignment of something that is valueless?"
~ Roger Horn, Chief of the Kenton Space Enterprises Legal Department:
  ". . . that dithering ass . . ."

Comment: Considering the fine build-up our author gives to Sally (see above), it's a shame nothing is done with it.
Typo: "Simon Kenton".

Resources:
- According to Wikipedia (HERE), Nathaniel Schachner trained as a lawyer, which would explain the character of Kerry Dale as well as his only SFF novel, Space Lawyer (1953; HERE), a fix-up of two Astounding novelettes, "Old Fireball" (June 1941) and "Jurisdiction" (August 1941), today's story. Because there are quite a few references to the earlier tale (to which we don't have access at the moment), you could get the feeling that you've missed out on something. If Schachner had intentions of continuing the Kerry Dale series, he never followed through with them since he gave up writing SFF full-time in 1941.

- See also the SFE (HERE) and the ISFDb bibliography (HERE).

- In addition, there's a small Nathan Schachner collection at Faded Page (HERE), which includes two of his biographies of early American historical figures.

- Real world science stuff mentioned in our story: Venus (HERE; assumed to be a jungle planet); Vesta (HERE); the asteroid belt (HERE); Jupiter (HERE); Ganymede (HERE); the Trojan asteroids (HERE); and the three-body problem (HERE; it's probably not what you think).
- Previous ONTOS posts about the trials and tribulations of space salvage and asteroid mining are (HERE), (HERE: "The Risk Profession"), and (HERE).

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"Was It Conceivable That Nobody Had Heard the Sound of the Shot?"

"Murder!"
By Arnold Bennett (1867-1931).
First appearance: Cassell’s Magazine, October 1927.

Reprints: Liberty, October 1, 1927; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May 1942; EQMM (Australia), May 1949; and 

The Saint Detective Magazine, August 1956 (as "The 

Secret Murderer").

Collected in The Night Visitor and Other Stories (1931).
Novelette (14 pages as a PDF).
Online at Project Gutenberg Canada (HERE).

     "There is something to be said for murder, though perhaps not much."

A mercifully few men insist on being bloody-minded just for bloody-mindedness's sake, to such an extent, sometimes, that only a decimal 38 bullet from a Webley Mark III can offer a cure . . .

Characters:
~ Mr. Gontle:
  "'You see, the point about it is that until the breach is properly closed it cannot be fired. So that it can't blow open and maim or kill the would-be murderer.' Mr. Gontle smiled archly at one of his oldest jokes."
~ Lomax Harder:
  "I came down here specially to talk to you. I should have said all I had to say earlier, only you happened to be going out of the hotel just as I was coming in. You didn't seem to want to talk in the street; but there's some talking has to be done. I've a few things I must tell you."
~ John Franting:
  "He drew the revolver from his overcoat pocket, and held it up to view. 'You see this thing. You saw me buy it. Now you needn't be afraid. I'm not threatening you; and it's no part of 
my game to shoot you. I've nothing to do with your goings-on. What I have to do with is the goings-on of my wife. If she deserts me—for you or for anybody or for nobody—I shall follow her, whether it's to Copenhagen or Bangkok or the North Pole, and I shall kill her—with just this very revolver that you saw me buy. And now you can get out.'"
~ Dr. Austin Bond:
  "The detective-sergeant recoiled at the dazzling name of the great amateur detective, a genius who had solved the famous mysteries of 'The Yellow Hat,' 'The Three Towns,' 'The Three Feathers,' 'The Gold Spoon,' etc., etc., etc., whose devilish perspicacity had again and again made professional detectives both look and feel foolish, and whose notorious friend-ship with the loftiest heads of Scotland Yard compelled all police forces to treat him very politely indeed."
~ The Superintendent:
  ". . . hesitated. Why should the great amateur meddle with what did not concern him? Nobody had asked his help. But the Superintendent thought of the amateur's relations with Scotland Yard, and sent for the charwoman."
~ Emily Franting:
  "'I expect you were right,' she angelically acquiesced."

Comment: As always, plot is paramount in detective fiction, with characterization rightly subordinated to it; nevertheless, in "Murder!" Bennett proves that it's possible to integrate deeper characterization into a mystery short story's plot without completely spoiling the thing.

Resources:
- If you're fortunate enough (we're not) to have the April 1977 issue of The Armchair Detective, you might want to consult N. C. Ravenscroft's article, "Arnold Bennett — As a Writer of Crime Fiction." As of now, we have no idea what Mr. Ravenscroft's assessment was.

- Previous criminously-themed Arnold Bennett stories that we've highlighted are "The Christmas Eve Burglary" (HERE), "The Murder of the Mandarin" (HERE), and "Mr. Pen-
found's Two Burglars" (HERE); we're pretty sure that we're not through with him yet.

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