Freeman, R Austin - As a Thief in the Night (1928)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

One of Freeman’s three or four best, although not one of his best-known books. The crime is modelled on the Maybrick case: murder of a chronic invalid by arsenic poisoning suspected by his brother, with suspicion falling on his wife. Narrated by Rupert Mayfield, once engaged to the victim’s dead sister-in-law, Stella Keene, and now unsure whether he loves the victim’s wife or the ward. Characterisation superior to other Freemans, even the drug-addicted and neurotic secretary, while the murderer is a superb portrait of obsession. Science, as usual, fascinating, especially the midnight exhumation and autopsy.

I can't agree with Nick here. The story is fairly engrossing and the method of murder new for the time, but Freeman gives the solution away ten times over in the earlier part of the book. Rupert is supposed to be a King's Counsel, and must have reached that exalted position at a fairly young age, but he shows such a blank incomprehension of the obvious that it is hard to credit him with even a normal intelligence. Dr Watson is a mental giant by comparison. His dithery goings-on with the members of the suspected household are merely irritating and the overblown sentiment which Freeman uncharacteristically milks from the situation is distinctly mawkish. The murderer, meanwhile, swings between cool-headed skill and expertise in committing crimes and feather-brained ineptitude while following them up. There are some good moments while we watch Thorndyke (and Polton) at work, but I can't call this a Freeman classic.

Jon.

As is her custom, Mrs Barbara Monkhouse is away for a week or two helping organise a women's emancipation movement but this time she returns home to find her husband Harold is dead.

The exact nature of chronic invalid Harold's illness has never been diagnosed although he's been ailing for years. During Barbara's absence Harold's brother Amos visited him and was so shocked by his appearance he insisted on an expert opinion. It is all to no avail, however, for a few days later Harold dies of arsenic poisoning. Was it administered in his food or drink or perhaps added to his medicine? Everyone in, or with access to, the house at the time is under suspicion -- domestic science teacher Madeline Norris (Harold's daughter by his first wife), Harold's highly strung secretary Anthony Wallingford, the servants, and even medical man Dr Dimsdale, not to mention regular visitor and narrator Rupert Mayfield, a barrister and inseparable childhood friend of Barbara Monkhouse and her now deceased stepsister Stella Keene. Mayfield asks Thorndyke to investigate so that innocent parties can be cleared of suspicion, but the true depravity of the culprit is only revealed at the close of the novel.

My verdict: This entry in the Thorndyke saga revels in a particularly inventive plot, richly decorated with such details as mysterious bottles of unknown origin and an infernal machine in the post, not to mention what well may be the most inventive way of administering poison ever utilised in the annals of detective fiction.

Etext

Mary R