posted on 21 Aug 2022

Come Home and Be Killed: A London House Mystery by Jennie Melville

Published in this format in the USA in 1964, Come Home and Be Killed is the kind of mystery-thriller I’d normally pass over without blinking .But I was drawn to this one because it has a dust jacket designed by the wonderful Edward Gorey. Admittedly, it’s not one of his best efforts in my opinion but, even so, it’s still striking and unmistakably by the great man. At the time I spent my £2.99 on it, I'd never heard of the book and I also had no idea who the author, Jennie Melville was either.

A bit of research solves the identity of the mystery author – it is actually the pen name of prolific British crime novelist, Gwendoline Butler (1922 – 2013) who is perhaps most famous for her crime thrillers featuring John Coffin. There were over 30 titles in that series alone but in addition she did a dozen stand-alone novels and a second series – the Charmian Daniels books – which she released under the non-de-plume of Jennie Melville (and there were a further 20+ in that list).

Come Home and Be Killed is the first of the Charmian Daniels sequence and its quite an odd and unsettling read. Detective Constable Daniels is an understated, meticulous and calmly efficient character who is faced with solving what seems to be a knotty domestic puzzle that gets gradually darker as the story untangles. Career woman, Kathy, is often away from home on business but she loves her house and shares it with her mother, Mumsy, and her half-sister, Janet. Amongst the neighbours – especially Emily who lives next door –  Kathy is seen as put-upon and exploited by her ungrateful family.

When, one day, Kathy returns home and finds that neither Mumsy or Janet can be found she assumes at first that they have decided to do something together without telling her. But an uneasy feeling grows that they have not just gone out but disappeared – something that seems to be confirmed by the concern showed by Janet’s boyfriend Rob, who eventually turns up at the house telling Kathy that the two had a date to go out that evening.

And what about Kathy? Is someone out to kill her and are the missing women behind a plot to get rid of her?

As unsettling and spooky as all this seems, Kathy and Rob start to act even more oddly and the reader is sent plenty of signals that all is not what it seemed at the outset. At this point enter Detective Constable Daniels to bring a sense of order and perspective to what is a scenario that seems to be rapidly spinning out of control.

I really don’t think it would be wise to tell you more about the unfolding mystery of the disappeared women because this is, after all, a mystery thriller that relies on the reader puzzling their way through the dead-ends and false trails.

But I am also aware that I’m making the book sound a bit more interesting than it actually is. This isn’t top-drawer writing by any stretch of the imagination and the plot seems to rely rather too heavily on unlikely – and often unrevealed – events that test credulity. The characters are thinly drawn and the quality of the prose is no more than serviceable. The book is the very definition of a beach or train journey read – easy going but about as satisfying as a packet of crisps.

A little bit of rooting around was enough to establish that it's a title which is quite hard to find in paperback or hardcover. You’ll probably have to hunt this down on the second-hand market.

 

Terry Potter

August 2022