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Quayle of the Yard

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 8 months ago

Trent, Paul - Quayle of the Yard (1935)

 

 

It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between this book and John Rhode's Hendon's First Case, with which it shares a similar origin. Both were published in 1935 and took as their foundation the changes which were taking place at that time within the UK police force, which was attempting to adapt its recruitment policy more along the lines of the Army and Navy to attract a more educated kind of personnel which could be trained for the higher ranks in a similar manner as Commissioned Officers were in those services. The new police college at Hendon was fundamental in this change of policy, and both books deal with recruits who had come through it - in Rhode's case Jimmy Waghorn, who has recently completed his course - and in Trent's book the young Peter Quayle, who is nearing the end of his training. The latter novel, however, is perhaps closer to an earlier- style crime adventure story than one of classic detection and it also contains sections

which might be called inverted, where Quayle's adversaries are seen planning their

criminal activities and responses to his investigations.

 

Quayle himself is the second son in a family which has a long tradition in the army and he visits home during his holidays at the same time as his elder brother, who has followed the family custom, returns from India. Once there they discover that a daring series of jewel thefts have been taking place in the neighbourhood. Naturally, the younger Quayle is determined to help solve the crimes and before long he has visited the scenes of the crimes and made some deductions. But his investigations are complicated when his brother falls in love with someone connected to his chief suspect and the local police refuse his assistance. Needless to say, this does not deter Quayle and after a series of adventurous scrapes he is able to recover the missing loot and identify the criminals.

 

An enjoyable read, Quayle of the Yard is however firmly of the early school of golden age crime, featuring a central character who is intelligent, brave, a master of disguise and prepared to sacrifice his professional duty in order to help a friend. It is interesting to note that it is Rhode's Waghorn, with his modern approach to professional responsibility and human frailties that more closely resembles the type of character that would become the central protagonist of the post-war detective story.

 

 

R E Faust

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