George Bellairs, pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), is best known for his police procedural mysteries featuring Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard, which were released between 1941 and 1980. He also wrote a few stand-alone mysteries, among them Trouble in Zion published by John Gifford Limited in 1943 and then published as Death Stops the Frolic in the US by Macmillan in 1944.
Death Stops the Frolic opens leisurely with the usual small town and the eccentric characters of a Bellairs story. This one is set in Swarebridge, somewhere in west-central England, in a rural area that Mr. Samuel Pogsley decided was the perfect place to set up a factory years ago. Prosperity followed Mr. Posgley and the tiny village found itself run over by newcomers and hastily erected buildings. One of Mr. Pogsley’s lasting legacies was the establishment of Zion Chapel, a church that local residents found it expedient to join since their employment in Pogsley enterprises relied on their religious affiliation.
The action begins in October 1941 when the chapel congregation gathered to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. A parade around town with much singing was followed by much eating, then even more singing and recitations. Finally Mr. Alderman Harbuttle, senior deacon of the chapel, led a procession around the chapel grounds, something he did every year. In complete darkness because of blackout requirements, he led a conga line through the building and grounds and into the chapel itself, where he marched into the choir stalls and fell through a trapdoor that was unaccountably open. Members of the stunned group raced downstairs to find Mr. Harbuttle with a knife in his chest.
Superintendent Nankivell, chief of the Swarebridge police, and Sergeant Cresswell undertake to interview some 500 chapel members to establish their alibis, which was easy enough because someone was in front of and someone else was behind each person throughout the procession. No strangers were seen in the vicinity. The questions of who opened the trapdoor and who was lying in wait for Harbuttle to fall seemed unanswerable. Nankivell had an impossible crime on his hands. A second murder increased the pressure to identify the killer.
A sound if slow police investigation unfolds here along with amusing commentary on village relationships. The fight in the chapel between two village belles was hilarious. Finding names for his characters and places must have entertained Bellairs a good deal; Reverend Archibald Cowslip may be my favorite. Nankivell is not in the league of Littlejohn but this story is also one of Bellairs’ early efforts, and I can allow for growing pains. This title served as a pleasant way to remind myself just how well he wrote. Bellairs was incapable of writing a bad book. As always, I liked the first-hand view of daily life during wartime. A satisfying, unremarkable read.