I am slowly working my way through the entire list of Littlejohn mysteries by George Bellairs. Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a Manchester bank manager as well as a freelance journalist. He published 57 popular classic police procedurals between 1941 and 1980 featuring Inspector, later Superintendent, Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard. Bellairs wrote the first one during his unoccupied time as an air warden. After he retired from business, he relocated to the Isle of Man and developed an enduring interest in the history, geography, and folklore of the island. Corpse at the Carnival (J. Gifford, 1958) is set there; it shows Bellairs’s affection for his adopted home and its people.
Newly promoted Superintendent Littlejohn attended a policing conference in Dublin and on his way back to London stops on the Isle of Man to visit his old friend the Archdeacon of Man. He had barely settled in for dinner at the archdeacon’s home when DI Knell of the Manx CID stopped in to ask for Littlejohn’s advice on a murder.
Uncle Fred had been a fixture in a rundown boarding house in Douglas for about five years. Earlier in the day he had walked slowly to the boardwalk where a parade and celebration were underway and quietly collapsed. He was dead before the ambulance arrived.
When Knell and his team located relatives, they learned that Uncle Fred was actually Frederick Mandeville Boycott, who had walked away from his nagging wife in Sussex some ten years ago and had hidden from her ever since. With the sizable bank account left in limbo by his disappearance and the quarrelsome boarding house residents, some of whom had questionable dealings with Uncle Fred, there were plenty of suspects to go around. Littlejohn built cases against one and then another, just to have them fall apart. The final resolution was as always a surprise.
Glowing descriptions of the coast, the land, and the people of Man take up as much word count as the mystery does. The fairies and other supernatural residents are acknowledged often, as Littlejohn travels around the island and enters their territory.
A fine introduction to the Isle of Man and an excellent mystery. Recommended.
Thanks for this review. I recently read my first book by George Bellairs (Death of a Busybody). I want to continue reading through them (but I think you must read much faster than I do).
This one sounds perfect, with the setting on the Isle of Man. We have somewhere between 30 and 40 of the Inspector Littlejohn series on Kindle. My husband is a fan also.
TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery
Thank you! I especially liked this one for all the background on the Isle of Man but I don’t think I have found a bad Littlejohn story.