Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch (1868-1933) took holy orders after university and had a long career in the church. He wrote 24 books, including an autobiography. He developed an interest in mysteries, first writing short stories featuring a railway detective named Thorpe Hazell that were published in The Strand magazine, Railway Magazine, Pearson’s Magazine, and Harmsworth’s Magazine. Another short fiction character was the spy Captain Ivan Koravitch. Later he wrote several full-length detective novels. Whitechurch was one of the founding members of the Detection Club. His stories were admired by Ellery Queen and Dorothy L. Sayers for their “immaculate plotting and factual accuracy: he was one of the first writers to submit his manuscripts to Scotland Yard for vetting as to police procedure. The Golden Age of Detection Wiki, http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930628/FrontPage, lists the following titles in his crime fiction bibliography:
- Thrilling Stories of the Railway aka Stories of the Railway (1912)
- The Templeton Case (1924)
- The Adventures of Captain Ivan Koravitch (short stories) (1925)
- The Crime at Diana’s Pool (1927)
- Shot on the Downs (1927)
- Mixed Relations aka The Robbery at Rudwick House (1929)
- Murder at the Pageant (1930)
- Murder at the College aka Murder at Exbridge (1932)
His second book The Templeton Case (Edward J. Clode, 1924; Spitfire Publishers, 2022) is set in Marsh Quay, a village in South Downs, near Frattenbury, a favorite fictional town where Whitechurch set several of his stories. Amateur explorer Reginald Templeton who recently returned to England after years abroad, is stabbed on his yacht soon after docking. County Detective-Sergeant Colson wants desperately to solve the case without the assistance of Scotland Yard, so his superiors give him extra time to work through the various leads that dissolve almost as soon as Colson discovers them.
This early police procedural has a fine plot, carefully executed with plenty of misdirection and clues to help the reader along. Colson talks the case over with his wife, who points him in the right direction more than once, a precursor of the married detective duos who came along later.
A couple of points for the potential reader to consider: This is a book of its time, with an unfortunate number of instances of anti-Semitism on full display. Secondly, it is set on the coast, and there are many references to yachts, canoes, dinghies, and such and details about using them, so many that my eyes glazed over. After a seemingly endless passage on the difficulties of navigating the quay at low tide, I began skimming over these sections. Nautical readers will enjoy them no doubt.
An intriguing contribution to vintage crime fiction!