Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973) was a British author most well known for her creation of Arthur G. Crook, an entertaining beer-drinking lawyer whose ethics do not always align with those of other attorneys. Crook had some 50 adventures published under the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert between 1936 and 1973. Malleson also used the name J. Kilmeny Keith and later she adopted the name Anne Meredith for her straight fiction. Before Crook came to life, Anthony Gilbert wrote mysteries about an aspiring politician named Scott Egerton. Crook turned out to be so popular, Gilbert dropped Egerton and focused on her Cockney lawyer instead.
Crook insisted that his clients were always innocent people, which meant his usual defense was to find someone else to accuse of the crime. He is not a courtroom lawyer and the reader seldom sees him there. He does his best work as an investigator, stepping well outside his role as a barrister.
Miss Pinnegar Disappears was published by Collins in 1952. It crossed the Atlantic and was published in the U.S. by Random House as A Case for Mr. Crook in the same year. It is dedicated to fellow mystery author Edmund Crispin. Miss Frances Pinnegar, an elderly retired nurse living quietly in Kensington, misses her bus one Sunday morning and Mr. Arthur Crook offers her a ride in his tiny beat-up vehicle. She and Crook get on wonderfully, as she had heard of his work from some of her patients. He left her with his business card which she did not expect to need.
A late-night visitor to Miss Pinnegar a few weeks later turns her life upside down. A niece by marriage believed to be dead in the London blitz appeared, needing a place to stay. Miss Pinnegar’s nephew has since remarried and the appearance of an earlier wife would wreak havoc in his life. Miss Pinnegar is no one’s fool and suspects that Violet is involved in criminal activity, which proves to be the case. Her only goal is to escape the gang that is now pursuing her. Miss Pinnegar is eager to help her move on. She prudently however calls Mr. Crook and asks for his assistance. He agrees to meet her the next day. When he arrives at her apartment, Miss Pinnegar is gone.
Like Patricia Wentworth and Agatha Christie, Gilbert used the Blitz and the wartime disruption in records and communications to create plausible plots around confused identities. Along with Miss Pinnegar’s unquestioning acceptance of a car ride from a complete stranger, which left me aghast, this acceptance that people thought to be dead might not be shows the timing of the story better than any flat statement could.
This adventure is more of a thriller than a mystery, as the villains identify themselves early. Gilbert focused on the characters here. She delighted in making Crook utterly outrageous, the antithesis of the staid dull lawyer. Miss Pinnegar herself is a wonder, crisp, businesslike, and up to nearly every trick that the bad guys play despite her age and physical infirmities. Crook found Miss Michael, the lady who lived across the landing from Miss Pinnegar, enthralling. Bizarrely dressed and insatiably inquisitive, she saw everything and heard everything and Crook loved it.
This one is for readers who especially enjoy the series, like me, or who enjoy the insight into post-war life or who like well-drawn and original characters.