Saturday, September 25, 2021

The Hardway Diamonds Mystery by Miles Burton (1930)

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About this edition: This is one of five titles released  simultaneously in a Christmas boxed set. These are the only five titles appearing in the green cloth binding..



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About the author: Miles Burton is a pseudonym of Cecil John Charles Street, MCOBE (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street. Here is a Wikipedia article about him. He has one other title in the Mystery League series: The Secret of High Eldersham.

Characters:

  • Lord Hardway
  • Lady Daphne Hardway, his wife, owner of the diamonds
  • Dick Penhampton (a.k.a. Captain Blackwood) - Lady Daphne's brother
  • Jerry Gould (a.k.a. Sid Evans) - Dick Penhamton's service buddy
  • Alison Weatherleigh - Dick's girlfriend
  • Dr. Weatherleigh -   Alison's father, of Lestridge Hall
  • Thomas "Pussy" Herridge - second story thief
  • The "Funny Toff" - legendary master criminal
  • Ibbotson, retired money lender, second theft victim
  • Detective Inspector Brooks - of the C.I.D.
  • Sir Edric Conway - of Scotland Yard

Locale: England

Synopsis: Pussy Herridge breaks into Lord Hardway's home one foggy night and makes off with Lady Daphne Hardway's valuable diamond necklace. On the street, he is immediately nabbed by an apparent plain-clothes man, who handcuffs him and relieves him of the necklace. Pussy manages to escape and flees, still in handcuffs. A local constable grabs him on suspicion, and it turns out the plain-clothes man was likely a fake.

Detective Inspector Brooks investigates his sources at the waterfront, trying to find who the fake was. Shortly after, he turns up dead.


Lady Daphne's brother, Dick Penhamton, decides to investigate on his own. He and his buddy, Jerry Gould, take a room at the waterfront and assume new identities (Dick = Captain Blackwood, Jerry = Sid Evans). Dick gets a lead on the "Funny Toff", the criminal who is rumored to be behind the theft. He gets his name from his maniacal laugh. Dick gets a summons to a night meeting, and arrives to find the only person present is Pussy Herridge - dead.

Next Ibbotson, retired money lender, has jewels stolen from his home. This is followed by a theft from Seccombe & Armitage, diamond merchants.

Review: This is a most enjoyable adventure. The opening episode of Pussy wandering in the fog puts the reader directly into a lonely, mysterious fog-bound night on the back streets of London. His flight while handcuffed is quite hilarious - and reminds me of the similar episode in John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps. The next episode concerning the packing box dumped in the street is audacious and a Leslie Charteris-like adventure.

Speaking of Leslie Charteris, Dick Penhamton is very similar to Simon Templar (The Saint): an immaculate, wealthy, educated amateur who detects on his own to chase down the ungodly. Alison plays the part corresponding to Charteris' Patricia Holm. When Dick heads out to the riverfront appointment, the atmosphere of the decaying house on the mud flats is perfect and quite creepy. 

If you enjoy The Saint, you will enjoy this book. Now I am on the lookout for more Miles Burton titles. Just found that British Library Crime Classics has reprinted his Death in the Tunnel in paperback, and grabbed a copy online. 

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