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About the author: Andrew Garve is a pseudomym of Paul Winterton. He was born in Leicester , England. He was educated at the London School of Economics and at the London University. In 1929, he became a staff member of The Economist. From 1933 to 1946, he worked for the News Chronicle. In the Second World War, he was a foreign correspondent in Moscow. He also wrote under the pseudonyms 'Roger Bax' and 'Paul Somers'. (Fantastic Fiction).
Major characters:
- Edgar Jessop, Assistant Foreign Editor
- Bill Iredale, Foreign Correspondent
- Nicholas Ede, Editor
- Lionel Cardew, promoted
- Dawson Munro, governor of the Outward Islands
- Katherine Camden, reporter
- Joe Hind, News editor
- Inspector Haines
Locale: London
Synopsis: Edgar Jessop is a quiet, unassuming, Walter Mitty-like Assistant Foreign Editor at the Morning Call, a daily London paper. He has been working faithfully for years, eyeing the eventual position of Foreign Editor. That position becomes vacant and Jessop interviews with Editor Nicholas Ede for it, but Ede puts him down and suggests sending him to Malaya as a correspondent instead; and insists he is promoting flashy, young Lionel Cardew to the position instead. Jessop is full of resentment at being passed over and blames Ede, News Editor Joe Hind, and Cardew.
Jessop resolves to get rid of them somehow, and rise to his deserved position. Ede, Hind, and Cardew are to lunch with Governor of the Outward Islands (and former Morning Call employee) Dawson Munro. Jessop slips into the dining room first and deposits some cyanide-laced olives on the sideboard. Hind is the unfortunate one to eat one first, and dies on the spot. This brings in Inspector Haines, who immediately calls it murder.
Review: I thought this was a conventional murder mystery, but Jessop is shown as the murderer right away, so I will call it a thriller: the mystery being will be caught? and how many others will he kill?
I always enjoy newspaper office settings for mysteries, especially in the golden age of newspapers - with competing editions and chaotic newsrooms always under deadlines. Usually a reporter is cast as the amateur detective. Not this time - the newspaperman is the villain. The character development is interesting, we like Jessop at first, and anyone who has been passed over for promotion in favor of someone young and flashy will identify - and sympathize - with him. Gradually, we see his demeanor change as he becomes bent on revenge.
The newspaper staff know a killer is among them - and the most interesting part of the book is following the staffers as they try to figure out who it is.
A good read - with undertones of age discrimination in the workplace, which still ring true today.
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