Rhode, John - Vegetable Duck (1944)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

One of the very best Rhodes. Waghorn is in fine shape as, assisted by Dr. Priestley from his armchair, he tracks down the man who disposed of two unwanted relatives using only a vegetable marrow, a splendidly surreal idea that has its ... roots ... in Freeman's "Rex v. Burnaby." The crime is ingeniously planned, the plot is complex, and the detection engrossing, with more humour and characterisation than the author usually allowed himself.

The period from the middle-forties until the end of the decade was one of sustained quality from the prolific Major Street. After several stories which unsurprisingly drew on the UK's perilous situation during the early part of the war – such as They Watched by Night, Night Exercise and The Fourth Bomb – the changing outlook in 1944 allowed him to return to a more traditional detective oeuvre. In the immediate aftermath of the war he produced two of the best books from his middle period, The Lake House and Death in Harley Street, the latter particularly praised by Barzun and Taylor in their definitive Catalogue of Crime.

This title, from 1944, is also high quality stuff, drawing on the famous Wallace case and featuring echoes of R. Austin Freeman's short story 'Rex v. Burnaby'. In that story a knowledgeable murderer manages to poison his victim with rabbit meat tainted with digitalis by feeding the rabbits foxgloves, to which they have a unique tolerance. Here the instrument of destruction is nothing more prosaic than a vegetable marrow and once again digitalis is the poison utilised.

Inspector Waghorn, that Rhode stalwart, is soon on the case and his suspicions fall on several people in turn. Complications ensue, as one might well expect, including a letter which appears to have vanished and then reappeared and a further death but, with the aid of recurring characters ex-Supt Hanslet and Dr. Priestley, he is finally able to uncover the real solution. Here Priestley is physically inactive - a trend which continued with increasingly fewer deviations in his later years - dispensing advice and criticizing errors of logic from the comfort of his study armchair, but his interventions are no less effective, though the seasoned Rhode devotee might hanker for the early days when he was physically more energetic.

R E Faust

See also http://prettysinister.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/vegetable-duck-john-rhode.html