The works of Australian sisters Margot Goyder (1896–1975) and Anne Neville Goyder Joske (1887–1966) have been on my reading list for awhile. Writing under the name Margot Neville, the pair wrote short stories, plays, and humorous novels before creating Detective Inspector Kevin Grogan and Detective Sergeant Les Manning of the Sydney police force. Wikipedia cites the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s assessment that the police characters were unrealistic. I didn’t find them so but I am unfamiliar with the policing tactics of Australia. However unlikely they might be, Neville’s readers appreciated the two well enough for more than 20 books about them to be published.
Their fourth case Murder of a Nymph (Geoffrey Bles, 1949) takes place in a small rural community an hour away from Sydney. The nymph is Enone McGrath, young, beautiful, thoughtless, and interested in men, especially men with prior claims. She’s contracted an engagement with a wealthy widower twice her age but has not stopped her advances to any man who interests her in the moment. Her female peers despise her, the men are fascinated by her, and her aunt who serves as her guardian is unable to exert the smallest amount of influence over her.
Perhaps it was inevitable that someone would reach breaking point. Enone’s battered body is found not far from the bus stop the morning after she was expected to arrive to celebrate her approaching twenty-first birthday. Any number of the people in the area hated her, so there were plenty of motives, and time of death was unspecific, so alibis were largely meaningless. In addition, the residents wandered in and out of each other’s houses at any time and for any reason or no reason at all, and establishing who was where when was nearly impossible. A financial motive was also present: the trust Enone’s aunt was managing was to be wrapped up on her birthday and some of the principal had vanished.
I enjoyed this Golden Age style mystery, although I am not convinced all of the clues to the killer were presented. A couple of nicely timed surprises added interest to the narrative. I especially appreciated the sisters’ description of the setting. One or both of them must have been gardeners, as the flowers and shrubbery of Australia in late spring receive detailed attention in almost every scene. Like E.C.R. Lorac, they lavished entire paragraphs on the beauty of the bucolic countryside.
Adequate characterization, well realized setting, strong writing, and a sound traditional plot: I liked it enough to want to read others in the series. Fans of Lorac, Catherine Aird, and George Bellairs should consider these books. Finding them is not always easy, unfortunately. Bookfinder.com shows several paperback copies of this title at reasonable prices.