posted on 20 Dec 2023

The Deductions of Col. Gore by Lynn Brock

As I noted in my previously published review of his novel, Nightmare, Lynn Brock was the pseudonym of Irish playwright, Alexander Patrick McAllister. Early in the 20th century his plays were still popular and commercially successful but by the 20s he was ready to try something new and so he turned to detective novel writing. The first he published in 1924 was The Deductions of Col. Gore and it proved to be something of a groundbreaking hit.

Here we have many of the key constituents of what would become recognised as ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction: a cast of upper-class protagonists, an amateur detective, a mysterious death/murder, plenty of red herrings, an extraordinary exposition of detail and a final revelation. 

Colonel Wickham (Wick) Gore has left his army posting in Africa and is looking forward to spending time with his old crowd of friends and socialites back in the UK. His old flame, Barbara Lethbridge ( irritatingly known to all as ‘Pickles’) has married the austere Dr. Melhuish and Gore has previously sent them a rather odd wedding present – a display of African weapons, including a knife that would later play a key role in the murder mystery. 

It soon transpires that Pickles is being blackmailed by one of the social circle – Barrington – who is holding incriminating love letters from a previous indiscretion before her marriage to Dr. Melhuish. When Barrington turns up dead in his car, she can only turn to Gore and ask him to help her and he, rather reluctantly, takes on the role of detective.

I’ve already had to substantially simplify and trim the plot to come up with anything like a coherent precis of the action but what follows is positively labyrinthine by comparison and I’m not going to even try to give you any pointers. The real pleasure of this story is its entirely unnecessary complexity and the sense of bewilderment that we come to share with the good Col. Gore.

What really keeps this book afloat however is the really charming hero. Gore is pleasingly hopeless – by turns, naïve, wrongheaded, dogged, honourable and ultimately successful. I lost count of the number of times he gets the solution wrong before landing on the right solution when, in fact, there is nowhere else to go. There’s none of Poirot’s smugness or the unbearable chippiness of Lord Peter Wimsey; Gore is an amateur out of his depth but determined to do the best for a friend.

If you’re a fan of Golden Age detective fiction, love insanely convoluted plots and a delightfully original detective who isn’t really a detective, you’ll love this one. If, on the other hand, you prefer your mysteries more streamlined and you don’t want the outcome screamingly obvious about half way through, you might want to give this a miss.

I read the beautifully produced Collins Crime Club hardback edition with a reproduction vintage jacket that can be picked up for well under £10 on the second hand market.

 

Terry Potter

December 2023