Tyrer, Walter - Such Friends Are Dangerous (1954)

This one had a gasp of a surprise in the final chapter.  Never saw it coming.  And that makes for an excellent writer who knows exactly what he is doing.  Even if it may be a trick used many times by modern writers it still is an absolute surprise in the context of the story.

The story deals with the investigation of the drowning death of Kitty Pinnock, the town tramp, who managed to inveigle her way into the lives of nearly every man in town taking from them what she wanted and discarding them when she found a new conquest. There are plenty of secrets uncovered from a multitude of characters and there are several suspects found among the discarded men Kitty left in her wake of seductive destruction. However, lingering in the background of the involved investigation is Helen Luton, a mousy housewife whose husband is one of Kitty's abandoned projects, and Vera Sylvaine, Helen's ultra-hip writer friend who constantly reminds Helen that she is undervalued and underappreciated by her husband. Mrs. Luton is painted as a buffoon by Tyrer and the reader may wonder (as I did) why several chapters are devoted to her conversations with Vera who seems to be quite a bad influence despite her supposed good intentions. A clever reader may begin to glean the author's intent but I challenge anyone to come up with the genuine and fully accurate solution. For me it came as a jaw dropping surprise.

Up till the final pages the book is a scathing satire on village life so the reader is paying attention to all the gossip, all the deceit, the facades being ripped away by the police inspector and his accidental Watson, an intrusive reporter looking for his "big break." There is quite a bit of legitimate detective work on the part of both the police inspector and the reporter who at one point seems determined to solve the crime himself and who comes up with some very unusual ideas about how and why the crime was committed. While all this is going on Tyrer has something hidden up his sleeve which he presents almost on the final page when the murderer is unmasked and a horrifying secret is finally revealed.

This is an excellent book by a man who spent his early career writing school boy adventures, moved on to short stories and novels.  The latter portion of his career was split between magazine story writing and contributing several thrillers for the Amalgamated Press "Sexton Blake Library" series.  I like to think that this book was a personal triumph for Walter Tyrer as it appears to be his only foray in writing for a truly adult audience.

J. F. Norris