John George Haslette Vahey (1881 – 1938) was born in Belfast and was educated at Ulster, Foyle College, and Hanover. He first worked as an architect and then as an accountant and then became a full-time writer. His first of 52 novels was published in 1916 and his last in 1938, according to the Golden Age Detection wiki, http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930959/Loder%2C%20Vernon. He wrote under his own name as well as the pseudonyms of Henrietta Clandon, John Haslette, Anthony Lang, Vernon Loder, John Mowbray, Walter Proudfoot, and George Varney.
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Haslette_Vahey, gives a ninth pseudonym, Arthur N. Timony, cited in Who’s Whodunnit: A List of 3,218 Detective Story Writers and Their 1,100 Pseudonyms: Library Studies No. 5. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina. 1969. p. 160. The same article in Wikipedia credits Vahey with 66 books, saying he published as many as seven in a single year.
Fly Country, a mystery/thriller/romance written under the name Anthony Lang, was first published by Andrew Melrose in 1928 and then languished for nearly 100 years until Spitfire reprinted it in June 2024. It has a sound mystery and a well-concealed surprise ending under a layer of melodrama, typical for the time, and set against the backdrop of the British colonialization of Africa.
Orphaned Patricia Repton sets up as a business agent, against the wishes of elderly family friends who want to marry her off safely. She is beginning to fear that may be her only option when a rough-looking type asks her to sell his mining claim in Africa for him. He offered a stack of official papers and maps as evidence of the credibility of his claim. Pat vets them as carefully as she can, considering the distance and the unavailability of the signatories. A potential buyer responds to her advertisement, they have mutual acquaintances and establish their bona fides to each other satisfactorily. The miner and the buyer agree on a price and money changes hands.
A day or two later the miner is found shot dead in his room, apparently an accident, although questions are left in Pat’s mind as well as that of the police investigator. Soon after, the right of the dead man to sell the mining claim is questioned, and the buyer who is young, attractive, and wealthy is determined to go to Africa to investigate, despite his growing interest in Pat.
While not their intent, these older mysteries routinely provide a level of social history that I find fascinating. The expedition at the time was lengthy, expensive, and very dangerous, yet it was an intrinsic and accepted part of the British economy. The entire process of preparing for the trip and the trek itself are described as well as the living conditions at the site of the mine. From a distance of nearly 100 years it’s hard to believe people routinely undertook travel so arduous.
Vahey’s writing style was more of the early 1900s, melodramatic and overblown. Not for him the brisk and to the point procedural. I see similarities between him and John Creasey: highly prolific, multiple pseudonyms, shallow characterization, and facile plotting. While his work can’t be considered among the top tier of crime fiction writers of the time, I am still a little surprised that more hasn’t been written about him. For students of Golden Age crime fiction and readers of historical mysteries.