Why Slug a Postman by Seldon Truss, 1950

 

About the author: We don't know much about Seldon Truss other than his full name was Leslie Seldon Truss, he is from the UK, and lived 1892-1990. He also wrote as George Selmark. He has two titles in the 1930's Mystery League series:  Turmoil at Brede and The Hunterstone Outrage.

Major characters:

Miss Flavia Melrose, owner of the 36 Chester Grove boarding house

Ann Smith, her newly hired secretary/housekeeper

Vincent Dyall, the butler

Mrs. Emily Bagster, the cook

Minnie Smithers, the maid

Emerald Cheese, scullery maid

The boarders:

Miss Adria Blenkarne, Ann's estranged aunt

Miss Fiona McPherson

Mrs. Dampier

Dr. Martin Jones

Sir James Arbour

Lady Blandish-Smyth

Countess Beatrice d'Armande

and...

Bettine Willoughby, Ann's roommate

Mr. Murdoch, Adria Blenkarnes's attorney

Chief Inspector Gidleigh

Locale: London

Synopsis: It all begins when a postman is slugged while collecting letters from a pillar box outside Miss Flavia Melrose's boarding house at 36 Chester Grove. The attacker makes off with letters having been posted from the house.

The boarding house, which Miss Melrose attempts to keep disciplined and upscale, has an eclectic assortment of residents, both men and women. She hires a new secretary/housekeeper, Ann Smith, whose estranged aunt, Adria Blenkarne, is one of the residents. Ann tries to fit in, but has trouble with the uppity staff, headed by butler Vincent Dyall and cook Emily Bagster.

Ann brings canned tins of salmon to Mrs. Bagster for dinner. One tin is clearly bad, rusted and swelled up. Ann directs it be discarded. There is a mixup, and it finds its way into the meal. Several residents come down with food poisoning. Frail Adria Blenkarne succumbs, despite attempts to save her by the resident doctor, Martin Jones. 

Miss Melrose, blaming Ann for disobedience, fires her. Ann leaves the house and moves in her friend Bettine Willoughby. Bettine helps her obtain a job at the lingerie counter at the local Blue Chain store.

Chief Inspector Gidleigh investigates, and finds arsenic in Adria's body. Then Miss Melrose is found dead in her locked bathroom. Ann teams up with Dr. Jones to try to find the culprit and establish her innocence.

Review: This is a lot of fun. We start right off with the postman getting slugged in the first paragraph, but that plot line is then left until the very end. The action occurs in a dysfunctional rooming house ruled by the authoritarian Miss Melrose. 

Some of the boarders are given names but we never hear anything of them. Miss Fiona McPherson, Mrs. Dampier, and Lady Blandish-Smyth are just filler.

There is a teasing love interest throughout the story between Ann Smith and (sometimes) Dr. Jones and (sometimes) Sir James Arbour.

Chief Inspector Gidleigh also appears in Draw the Blinds, and perhaps other titles.