Margaret Hinxman (1924-2018) was a preeminent UK film critic who turned to writing crime fiction after a wildly successful journalistic career. Her obituary in The Guardian describes her cinematic work in detail: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/17/margaret-hinxman-obituary.
Her crime fiction was largely unknown in the US, with only one of her nine books published here, as noted by Steve Lewis in the Mystery*File blog: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=64604.
The Corpse Now Arriving (Collins, 1983) has clear autobiographical overtones. The protagonist is Kit Morley, a freelance journalist and critic who lives in the south of England in a small house she bought after separating from her husband Richard. She takes the Lymhampton commuter train routinely into London for her work with the Daily Gazette. The commuters have gotten to know each other on the 45-minute twice daily ride and more enduring friendships have developed in the buffet car, where cocktails smooth the jagged edges of a rough day in the office.
Kit had exchanged a few words with talkative Maisie Butler here and there and knew she was even more voluble after a drink or two. But she’d never seen Maisie just plain hammered, nonetheless here Maisie was, soused to the gills and hysterical with the other passengers trying to calm her. Maisie staggered into Kit’s compartment and sobbed that someone was trying to kill her. Kit was startled but wary, considering Maisie’s state. The train arrived at her station and Kit extracted herself from Maisie’s grip, assuming the others would see that Maisie got off at the terminus and needing to get started on a last-minute assignment.
When Kit took the same line two days later, she learned that instead of reaching the station safely that night Maisie had fallen out of the train and died. Kit was stunned and then guilty, feeling that the incident wouldn’t have occurred if Kit had stayed with her. Kit reported to the police that Maisie thought someone was trying to kill her. The police dismissed the notion and Kit.
Despite active discouragement, Kit felt compelled to ask questions. The more information she collected about Maisie, the more she learned about some of the other passengers. The picture emerging was quite different from the one that they presented, and Kit wasn’t sure what to do about it. In the end she took an unusual but satisfying approach.
I found this story original and absorbing. No car chases, no shootouts, no drama, only a concise, tightly plotted, and well-written puzzle with a surprise ending and strong if economical character sketches. For obvious reasons I particularly appreciated the brief reference in the early pages to the two dull books that Kit got assigned at the last minute for review. Neither of them were interesting and she had no idea what to say; after an all-nighter she managed to cobble together enough verbiage to satisfy the reviews editor. I heartily sympathized.
Even now Hinxman’s mysteries don’t seem to be easily found in the US, unfortunately, because they definitely deserve attention.