Walling, RAJ - The Doodled Asterisk aka A Corpse by Any Other Name (1943)

Walling's A Corpse By Any Other Name (1943) has its high point in Chapter One, which contains a vivid description of air raid in war time Britain. Reading it should make anyone skeptical about the "morality" of bombing civilian targets. The scene is that favorite Walling setting, a hotel, but the bombing eventually transforms it out of all recognition. After this point, Walling introduces a plot about two men who have disappeared, and their complex trail of espionage activities from Lisbon to England. This anticipates a similar, even more elaborate and ambiguous plot in Walling's next novel, The Corpse Without a Clue (1944). In general, much of the imagery of Name will reappear in Clue, but in a more complex, less straightforward, and more mysterious manner. Both books deal with war time espionage. Both describe the ruin that Hitler's bombing brought to Britain, Name by depicting the bombardment, Clue more subtly and more powerfully showing the long term aftermath. Both stories deal with bodies found in hotels after murders; Clue adds ambiguity by not identifying its corpse at the start. Both books contain much travel to rural parts of Britain, always a Walling specialty. Name is especially interested in unspoiled parts of rural Britain, areas so remote that they have not changed for hundreds of years. Name starts out well, but gradually becomes less and less interesting as it goes along. Its first few chapters are full of fairly interesting material, but eventually it turns into a huge shaggy dog story. The reader does not know much more at the end than they did in Chapter Four.

Mike Grost