Ronald Arthur Vennor Morris (1877-1943) was born in Wales but mostly lived in England, working in London before moving to Hove in Sussex. The Lyttleton Case (Collins, 1922) is his only work of fiction. It was selected for the Detective Story Club, the forerunner of the famous Collins Crime Club. Despite its success, Morris did not produce a sequel unfortunately. He wrote numerous articles and poems as an active member of the Theosophical Society and the Order of the Golden Dawn. His younger brother was fantasy author Kenneth Vennor Morris.
The book opens as investment banker James Lyttleton tells his daughter he has to go to the office early. She did not see him again. A series of cables advised her that he was going to New York. After a week or so with no further word, she wired the hotel where he always stayed and was told he had left without mentioning where he was going. After determining that no one in his office had heard from him, her fiancé, a newspaper reporter, traveled to New York to inquire with little success. He reported the missing man to the New York police and then returned to England to report Lyttleton missing to Chief Inspector James Candlish of Scotland Yard, with whom he had had business dealings.
A separate thread deals with Candlish on leave, discovering the body of a young man in a stream as Candlish roamed the Southshire downs searching for rare flora and birdwatching. An autopsy revealed the young man died of natural causes but the lack of identification stymied attempts to notify his family. Candlish had to hand the matter off to the local police but it was too odd to forget.
The two threads merge in an interesting twist. I have seen this plot device in mysteries from the last part of the 20th century but not in vintage detective stories. Likewise Lyttleton’s daughter takes a back seat during most of the story while her fiancé acts on her behalf, to be expected for the 1920s, until she steps up with a gun at a critical point.
Candlish is an intelligent and original creation with the potential to be the lead in a series. His fascination with natural history and his desire to find a rare plant is an appealing quirk that makes him stand out from other detectives. It is too bad that Morris did not pursue another book about him.
Unlike many books of the time, this one was released recently in print and electronic form and it’s easy to find an affordable copy.