Leonard Reginald Gribble (1908-1985) was an incredibly prolific English writer, beginning in his twenties. Gribble also wrote as Sterry Browning, James Gannett, Leo Grex, Louis Grey, Piers Marlowe, Dexter Muir, Landon Grant, and Bruce Sanders. He wrote mysteries, true crime, Westerns, and children’s books. He was a founding member of the Crime Writers Association in 1953, along with John Creasey, who rivaled Gribble in quantity of both pseudonyms and books.
The British Library selected one of Gribble’s more unusual works to reprint in 2018. The Arsenal Stadium Mystery was originally published by Harrap in 1939. It was curious in that the book was a spin-off from a film, not the other way around, as is so common now. The informative introduction, written by Martin Edwards, explains the background and the novelty of the book in some detail. Both the film and the book include the members and the staff of the London Arsenal football team among the characters, mixing real people with fictional.
The premise is a wonderful impossible crime. One of the players of the visiting football team, hale and hearty one minute, collapses on the field in full view of an enormous crowd with no one near him. When the team trainers can’t revive him, in addition to an ambulance, the Arsenal team manager calls the police. Inspector Anthony Slade of Scotland Yard with his assistant Sergeant Clinton are assigned to look into the inexplicable death. Once the autopsy report cites poison as the cause of death, a highly professional police investigation kicks off.
The victim was respected for his playing ability but not especially liked personally. His habit of stealing girlfriends and fiancées earned him a good deal of enmity, as might be expected. His business partner did not particularly enjoy working with him either. In short, Inspector Slade has a range of suspects to choose from.
This story is a decidedly competent police procedural. No amateur sleuths to be found here. Gribble was knowledgeable about contemporary investigative approaches and it shows. In addition, the sports aspect, which is rare in Golden Age mysteries, gives the story an additional touch of something out of the ordinary. Recommended for students of the Golden Age, police procedural fans, and readers who like the combination of sports and mysteries.