Hull, Richard -- Excellent Intentions (1938) aka Beyond Reasonable Doubt

A

The book doesn’t just have ‘excellent intentions’—it is excellent.  Hull uses a new technique (apparently also used by Mary Fitt, in Case for the Defence?): the trial of an undisclosed person for the altruistic murder of Henry Cargate (potassium cyanide in his snuff, in a railway carriage) alternates with flashbacks to the investigations of Inspector Fenby (who also appeared in The Ghost It Was).  The detection is sharper than in Ghost: it’s more circumstantial, with a very detailed time-table.  (Hurrah!)  I knew who the culprit was, thanks to COC, although I don’t think it’s meant to be a big SURPRISE!  The final twist is what gives the book its crowning excellence: ***a retiring judge, in order to meet the demands of both justice and humanity, sums up dead against the accused, in order to get a successful appeal***.  Excellent indeed.

Borges didn’t like the book—too predictable.

·        Characters’ names used in other books: Benson (chef in Keep It Quiet, suspect in Ghost); Anstruther (in Keep It Quiet).

·        Hull an entertaining writer—lacks Berkeley’s sourness and mean-spiritedness, and the angst and despair / nihilism of the moderns (Symons called the Iles school ‘facetious’).

Nick Fuller.