Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (1850-1933) was an Irish politician, newspaper editor, barrister later appointed County Court Judge for County Clare, and member of the Irish parliament. He wrote in multiple genres and in 1897 created the detective Paul Beck, who eventually married another of Bodkin’s series characters, lady detective Dora Myrl. Their son also became a detective, appearing in his own set of adventures.
Pigeon Blood Rubies (Eveleigh Nash, 1915; Black Heath, 2017) is one of Beck’s later outings. Since the story covers more than 20 years, it is to be supposed Beck undertook some of his other adventures during the time this one took to unfold. The story opens with Beck returning to London after a long stay in the country and discovering in his absence that the father of one of his friends, Lord Tresham, died suddenly a week or two previously. Lord Tresham was famous for his discovery of how to create rubies that looked genuine even to gemologists. The formula was known only to him and his three sons. Beck considered the death suspicious but had no evidence to support his belief. A series of homicides follow. All of them Beck thought related to a criminal attempt to obtain the method for creating synthetic rubies but the perpetrator was not identified or apprehended.
Since the formula was handed down from generation to generation on the day that each son of the family turned 21, after a period of inaction that lasted about 15 years, Beck turns his attention to the Tresham family again as the current Lord Tresham’s son neared his majority. This time he intended to bring the kingpin behind the earlier murders to book.
A long story leisurely told with plenty of drama and many subplots and numerous narrow escapes. Disguises, a criminal mastermind, impossible murder methods, questionable science, the tale is written in the style of the late 1800s and turn of the century, well before the trend for logical plots. The references to unreliable electricity and experimental aeroplanes help set the timeframe, as does the death of one of the characters after giving birth prematurely. That everyone including the mother considered dying inevitable make this part of the story really depressing. Beck is similar to Sherlock Holmes in that he has any number of odd skills that stand him in good stead in his career as a private investigator but he is more likable than Holmes ever was. Surprisingly readable even if sadly in need of tightening, I completed this book in a single afternoon. Recommended for students of early detective fiction.