Adams, Herbert - Death of a Viewer (1958)

Since it was published in the 1950s, Death of a Viewer hangs its toes over the precipice marking the end of the GA period, but what the hay, the Roger Bennion series began in the 1930s so let's agree this entry is grandfathered into the general area of discussion.

Captain Oswald Henshaw tells his lovely young wife Sandra their financial resources are gone -- but suggests if he sees her in comprising circumstances with Ewen Jones, Member of Parliament for an East London constituency, there could well be financial benefits. Ewen's father is Lord Bethesda and his stepmother is worth half a million. Naturally they'd want to keep scandal -- such as Hensaw bringing an action for alienation of affection against Ewen -- from breathing nastily on the family name.

Major Bennion becomes involved because Ewen lives in one of the houses built by Bennion Senior near the London docks. These homes are intended for disabled servicemen, old age pensioners, and the like and Bennion Senior wishes the better-off MP, who became a tenant due to a loophole, to move out so Lord Bethesda's elderly gardener can retire and live there.

Ewen refuses but asks Bennion to visit the family home of Welton Priory "in that charming part of the country where Sussex joins Hampshire". Several Labour MPs are meeting there that weekend to secretly discuss plans to make the party more Socialist. Bennion's presence will suggest the gathering is the usual sort of house party -- and while he's there perhaps he'll persuade Ewen's father to buy him, Ewen, a house or give him an allowance! The Henshaws will also be attending as Ewen's guests, and thus the wheels of the plot begin to turn.

Before too long there are interesting conversations overheard, furtive visits to bedrooms, and fiery political rhetoric that does not go down too well with the MPs. The viewer's death occurs in a room full of people during a TV play about the Battle of Britain, and with very little to initially go on except a scrap of paper and a house full of suspects Bennion and Scotland Yard's Superintendent Yeo and Inspector Allenby cooperate to solve the crime.

My verdict: Ewen gets on his soapbox and in doing so reminds readers of the unrest in the air in the 1950s, including calls for the abolition of hereditary titles, Church and union reform, disgust at the possibilities of easier divorce, and legalisation of what is quaintly described as the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. These references will make the legendary Cheltenham colonels who so often write to the editor of The Times weep with joy, but alas they tend to swamp parts of the earlier part of the novel and do not add very much to the plot.

However, once we get to the actual detecting the story runs along nicely. More than one house guest has what they might see as good reason to act against the deceased, so most of them are suspected at one time or another and the solution roars up after an unexpected twist which certainly caught me by surprise. I reget to say however that on the whole this novel is not one of the best I have read.

E-text

Mary R.