A well-read copy of the last book Edith Caroline Rivett (1894–1958) wrote under the name Carol Carnac came my way recently. Its price, modest relative to better preserved copies, made its acquisition a given, despite my goal to stop buying books. (Ha ha) Long Shadows was published by Collins in 1958, six months before Rivett died, and in the US by Doubleday under the title Affair at Helen’s Court.
The fifteenth case of Inspector Julian Rivers meanders more than his previous outings but it’s got a great scenario. A grateful wealthy patient gave Dr. Crosby Ravensworth a country mansion to establish a high-end medical clinic for the benefit of the rich. The clinic had been around for a couple of years when Burton Latimer arrived, telling Ravensworth that he had been living overseas and that he knew he was seriously unwell. He demonstrated acquaintance with many influential people that Ravensworth knew, and the good doctor set his staff to work on Latimer, including asking his old medical school buddy Dr. Brough Sowerby, a popular London consultant, for his opinion.
Sowerby was somewhat concerned later when he learned journalists were asking questions about Helen’s Court, fearing that Ravensworth was courting publicity to drum up business, something the UK medical profession considered improper. He visited the clinic one weekend to discuss it with Ravensworth and found Ravensworth in a dither.
Latimer died unexpectedly in the night. Ravensworth sought to contact Latimer’s stated next of kin and found the individual did not exist. In fact, he could not substantiate any of the information Latimer provided. Latimer had offered no banking or payment information, simply assuring Ravensworth that money was no object, and now it appeared that Ravensworth had been thoroughly hoodwinked by a skilled con man.
Sowerby recommended calling the police and arranging for an independent post mortem, neither of which Ravensworth was willing to do. He wanted to inter the deceased and forget about him as soon as possible. It looked as if he would get his way when Inspector Rivers received an anonymous letter suggesting the affairs of Burton Latimer at Helen’s Court warranted law enforcement’s attention.
The last thing Ravensworth wanted was to find Scotland Yard in his clinic asking questions. However, he had no choice but to tell Rivers everything. Rivers ordered a second PM and took the dead man’s fingerprints. The PM showed death was caused by an overdose of digitalis, and the fingerprints showed the deceased to be William Jones, the leader of a daylight gold robbery more than 25 years before. The thieves managed to take two boxes of gold but in the end most of the gang was captured, including Jones. Jones was sent to prison and escaped six months later; no trace of him or the gold had ever been found.
The police were unable to learn where Jones had been before he appeared at Helen’s Court and talked his way into a free home with topnotch medical care. While Rivers was awestruck by the ingenious retirement plan Jones concocted and his audacity in its execution, there was no doubt that he had been murdered, very likely by a member of the gang who did not get his share of the gold, and finding killers was Rivers’ job. So he interviewed colleagues who might remember the robbery and with their help began tracing each of the gang members.
Here is where the story falls short of earlier mysteries. While I do not look to Carnac/Lorac for hard-driving action, I have come to expect her books to proceed at a steady and deliberate pace. I found the investigation here was as much coincidence and speculation as solid police work.
Still, it’s a brilliantly creative story and the culprits turned out to be a complete surprise. A thread about the morality of deliberately providing medical care to only the wealthy I expect reflects a general concern of the UK during the late 1950s. By then the cracks in the well-intentioned National Health Service were apparent, and a global recession had taken hold of the country. The issue gets more than passing discussion here and I gather it was a concern of Rivett’s, who was likely dealing with her final illness by then. Rivett also makes multiple references to predatory and sensation-seeking journalists, so many that I think we can assume she suffered from their attentions.
While not her best work, this last Carnac is still a joy to read.