In Whose Dim Shadow: A misunderstood Locked Room

Connington was an author who began writing detective novels , such as a recreation : there was a voice saying that in the 30s, several professors were reading mysteries for leisure  .. but it is also true that many illustrious minds wrote them: Dorothy Sayers , Nicholas Blake , Edmund Crispin , Thomas Kyd , and in fact J.J. Connington , whose name was in reality A.W.Stewart, who was a famous scientist and professor of chemistry .

In Whose Dim Shadow, is a novel of 1935 . That is the main feature by Connington , ie the atmosphere ( the full moon , dark, mysterious secret passages, for example . ) does not exist here . The novel in fact looks like a Whodunnit, characteristic of the mid-30s , a novel puzzle to as many of those years, though always fascinating and very well built (although, once again, the murderer is, for the expert reader, very easy to find : I found him at least 150 pages before the end ).

The fact is that Connington is always too respectful vs the reader, and often says too much about the suspects , flaunting the features , so ... at some point , who has an analytical memory of what he  read , and who knows that 2 +2 is always 4 , must understanding who is the murderer , also if  improbable ) .

In this case we have a police officer, William Danbury, who is eager to shine , but to do it, he would need something really interesting, that by sheer coincidence , it happens under his nose: while he is on patrol at night , Mr. Geddington who lives on the street Grove No. 5, begs him to intervene in a stable, because you heard a gunshot . Danbury who is not looking for it , finds a nice hot hot body in a vacant apartment , where is in progress a work to painting the walls : in the middle of a room is the body of a man , his face disfigured from a gunshot fired in face, in the midst of a can of paint spilled, blood stains on the floor and a handkerchief that was soaked by it , and into a can of paint , a gold cross in the shape of Tau. In addition, the corpse wearing gloves, rubber shoes and has a truncheon in his pocket, by very effective craft. The investigations have suffered very difficult .

There is apparently no real clue , so that even the clothes are free of riconoscitive plates , and none of the tenants of the building , at first sight recognize him. There is a free-lance journalist , intrusive and perpetual hunt for the scoop, Barbican , which was the first to rush and the first to help the agent Danbury and his colleague to isolate the crime scene ; there is the architect Barnard ; George Mitford 's former office clerk who lives very modestly with a small income , and who dreams of fairy-tale places of Japan; there is a couple who always invites people into their apartment , extraction of high social or at least wants to believe it; there is the lady Sternhall , of French origin that gives lessons of his original language in his house, and his brother , a kind but decided from the dodgy : the woman is alone, because her husband , is always away on business , and at the time of the discovery of the corpse, is far away. In short, a varied fauna . To these are added two other types , which together with some tenants, usually go home Sternhall to learn or improve French : Bracknell 's Ambrose , a young and handsome preacher of a Christian sect , and Miss Huntingdon , a girl who fells in love with him . The fact is that the body , reassembled , and especially his face, clean from the blood and made presentable , make sure that the body is recognized and associated with Mr. Sternhall that at the time of death should have be far away, and that instead he was very close to his home. You will find that he led a double life , because he had two wives, so he was a bigamist : he had fired a poor clerk and had haunted him , and he himself was persecuted in turn by a blackmailer who knew his secrets. You will find that  Bracknell was what had lost in the scuffle with the Sternhall the pendant in the shape of Tau , but he was not the murderer: to remove himself from the suspicions of the police he did not hesitate to put in the middle Miss Huntingdon who was infatuated : in short, a great villain ! The same  lady Sternhall didn’t tell many things to Sir Clinton Driffield, Chief of Police and the protagonist of the many novels of Connington .

The corpse will not be alone in the rest of the novel , but will be accompanied by a second , that of the employee ( he was the one who happened to be fired from Sternhall ) than eager to earn thousand dollars placed as pets for people for who would reveal to the police the details useful to catch the murderess , recklessly flaunting them by referring to a letter that he intends to send to attention of the Chief of Police : precisely this recklessness will cost him his death. The killer , that if someone had not already identified , we understand  now who he might be, kills him simulating a suicide in a Locked Room . The death will be recognized instead as murder when around the corpse will recognize two different types of blood. Sir Clinton in the last pages , with the help of his friend Wendover (a kind of Dr. Watson , but much more acute than the companion of Sherlock Holmes) , will nail the murderer ( in case you had not yet figured out who he could be ) and explain the obscure points of the drama: the last pages before the final revelation have only a summary of the summary , since the murderer comes already turned before that is twenty pages before he is stopped.

If the novel , in the succession of titles by Connington , it loses a lot in the atmosphere and buys in the creation of the riddle and its solution, a character is very recognizable , as it is a real brand of production by Connington : as we said J.J.Connington really was a great scientist , and in all his novels , Stewart introduced a few electronic devilry , or some invention or some gimmick that had contacts with physics or chemistry . In this novel , particularly interesting is the analysis of the blood vessels and organs of the body , and the comparison with the blood found on the floor , on the significant assumption that if it was the blood gushed from the wound , it would have coagulated all at the same time . And instead the fact that there is clotted blood and fresh blood reinforces the hypothesis of a tampering of the crime scene. Also there is the characteristic data of the absence of fingerprints , obtained using lycopodium powder .

The club moss ( Lycopodium ) is a genus of vascular plants belonging to the family Lycopodiaceae, fairly widespread throughout the world. Its spores , being highly flammable , are used for fireworks and even at the circus . However, in this novel, A.W.Stewart took advantage of the intrinsic property of lycopodium powder , to be refractory to the water , as it has large absorption properties , and because of this property , specifically used in the pharmaceutical industry : because the sweat is a percentage composed of a certain amount of water , covered the fingertips with lycopodium , they would not leave fingerprints. Another salient feature of the novel, is that it begins without an introduction (in use of other British novelists of the time: Christie , Marsh, Heyer ) at which it is  the early genesis of the crime: in this , the novel is very similar to the American novel .

Essentially , in fact, one of the differences in structure between American crime fiction and the Anglo-Saxon par excellence, is the absence of an introduction : the novel begins with the murder , and only then begin the investigation of which the reader participate: in other words the reader is treated to the detective. From this, the tendency will be originated , for example in Queen , to organize a duel between writer and reader, with the challenge to the reader. But in the British detective novel , before the murder , there is an introduction that introduces the reader to the environment in which the crime takes place , ie in other words, the reader is treated to the narrator . It seems to me a substantial difference,  because if at the British novel, the player has an advantage over the detective because he has witnessed the events whose the detective knows nothing , and so the final solution will be even more a defeat of the reader, because the detective knew nothing and instead managed to finish first,  in the U.S. , the reader is really on the same level of the detective , and then the duel took place with equal intensity by both parties and there is a real chance that the reader draws the detective's ability to solve the problem. In its essence, the novel would seem  an archetype of a procedural , in which, as in all Connington’s novels , investigations are carried out by the police:  to act is the Chief of Police, which behaves like a real investigator , however, supported from other law enforcement agencies . It is not a unique case : in fact, more or less in the same year, was born on the other side of the globe , from the pen of Anthony Abbot, another similar investigator: The Chief of Police, Commissioner Thatcher Colt.

The curiosity is that in this novel there is a Locked Room , not known to most. Written in the same year of The Hollow Man by Carr, in 1935 , it presents several individual characters that connect itself to this novel by Carr , and to another novel by Carr, The Gilded Man (published as Carter Dickson) with Sir Henry Merrivale , in 1942: for example, the owner of the house, found that comes in disguise, with rubber gloves and with rubber shoes , and a truncheon in his pocket; in The Gilded Man there is the master of the house who plays the role of a thief in his house , complete with gloves and shoes rubber and he is attacked : the only difference is that in that case he was seriously injured , but here he is killed. Even there (The Hollow Man) , as here , there is a Locked Room , but what interests me is to point out that once again , it would seem to me that was Carr to model Connington , and not the opposite. The dates of publication are in fact symbolic, but in its essence, the novel is very different from other most classic novels. Here the staging of the crime novel approaches to the very most celebrated Carr ( had already appeared several novels Carr, with their characteristics, before 1935 ) : there’s the typical tendency to act out a situation in which several elements appear bizarre and each of they in turn suggests that a sub-mystery must be explained. Interesting also appears to be the dual assertion of Sir Clinton about Locked Rooms : before he says to have thought at least six ways to use a trick to close a door from the inside,  as an intellectual exercise; after he recomes on the six ways to close a door from outside. Not only. He also explains that connecting the barrel of the gun to the barrel of the key and then the trigger on a string, you would be able to shoot the gun inside, pressing the string from the outside; or gripping and turning the stern of key and then using pliers from outside.

This is another example of “Conference of Fell” as that  in The Hollow Man by J.D.Carr. . For more, the trick used by Connington can be ascribed to the first group of examples cited by Carr for closing a door from the outside: a rod is inserted into the ring of the key so as to constitute a guide for two wires made ​​to pass under the door. In fact in The Hollow Man, we read : “…Chimneys, I regret to say," Dr. Fell pursued, his gusto returning as his abstraction left him, "chimneys, I regret to say, are not favoured as a means of escape in detective fiction--except, of course, for secret passages. There they are supreme. There is the hollow chimney with the secret room behind; the back of the fireplace opening like a curtain; the fireplace that swings out; even the room under the hearthstone. Moreover, all kinds of things can be dropped down chimneys, chiefly poisonous things. But the murderer who makes his escape by climbing up is very rare.

Besides being next to impossible, it is a much grimier business than monkeying with doors or windows. Of the two chief classifications, doors and windows, the door is by far the more popular, and we may list thus a few means of tampering with it so that it seems to be locked on the inside:

"1. Tampering with the key which is still in the lock. This was the favourite old-fashioned method, but its variations are too well known nowadays for anybody to use it seriously. The stem of the key can be gripped and turned with pliers from outside; we did this ourselves to open the door of Grimaud's study. One practical little mechanism consists of a thin metal bar about two inches long, towhich is attached a length of stout string. Before leaving the room, this bar is thrust into the hole at the head of the key, one end under and one end over, so that it acts as a lever; the string is dropped down and run under the door to the outside. The door is closed from outside. You have only to pull on the string, and the lever turns the lock; you then shake or pull out the loose bar by means of the string, and, when it drops, draw it under the door to you. There are various applications of this sameprinciple, all entailing the use of string (John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man, London, Hamilton, 1935, Chapter XVII: The Locked-Room Lecture ) .

It would be interesting to see the dates of publication of Carr's novel, and the novel of Connington, both of 1935, to determine which of the two had been published before the other.

To the trick used by Connington to open a door from the inside, using a slash inserted into the ring of the key, will refer, however, Anthony Boucher, in his novel The Case of The Solid Key, 1941, without making the name of Connington: in this Boucher’s novel is introduced  a locked room, closed from inside by a Yale lock .

Pietro De Palma

P.S.

To compare other methods used in contemporary Locked Rooms or before of "The Hollow Man" by Carr, I point out the wonderful article by John Pugmire dedicated to "Locked Room Lecture" of Dr. Fell, to be read on his website LRI:

http://lockedroominternational.com/uploads/3/1/4/4/3144886/a_room_with_a_clue_cads_59.pdf

However, the trick of Connington, then reported by Boucher, to me does not seem appear.

J.J.Connington: Tragedy at Raventhorpe, 1927

J.J. Connington was better known by the pseudonym which Alfred Walter Stewart, born in 1880 and Professor of Chemistry and Radioactivity, first in Belfast and then in Glasgow, wrote several novels, publishing since the early '20s until his death in 1947.

Tragedy at Raventhorpe, tells about the tragedy that occurred in the Castle.
Sir Clinton Driffield, County Superintendent of Police, has been invited to the Castle of Raventhorpe, to visit the art collections there contained, among which 3 medallions attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Owner of the castle and the estate is Maurice Chacewater. He opposed the brothers Attilio and Johanna intends to sell the medallions. For this reason, the castle is also an American mediator, JBFoss (with butler and chauffeur), in addition to Johanna's boyfriend, Michael Clifton, a cousin of Chancewater, Ida in Rainhill, and a friend of theirs, Faustus Polegate. One day, Maurice organizes a party at his castle in the mask, during which the most valuable pieces of the collection will be exhibited to the public of those present. Sir Clinton tries in every way to convince him of the extreme danger of this event, as anyone could enter the castle, protected by a mask. But Maurice is adamant. And so, on the evening of the festival, the unthinkable happens: the medallions are stolen. But not the originals but the three copies that were made since the original. It is quite strange because the thief, admitting that he did not know what were the originals and copies them, did not steal all six pieces and not just three, the copies? But the most striking thing, and that Driffield has to discover, is where the thief is over, given that in the confusion after the coup, was chased in the moonlit night, but arrived on the terrace which is overlooking the lake, between the benches and statues the pursuers do not find the thief in another way: he has vanished.

It’s possible the thud they have heard, corresponded to the thief who dived into the lake? Sir Clinton does not believe. The lake is full of sharp rocks: why risk crashing?
Meanwhile, it transpires that the theft was actually committed by Attilio and Faustus Polegate, opposed the sale of the piece of art. What a surprise when one sees that the fake theft has superimposed a real steal! In practice, the thief, disguised as Pierrot, has come a little before two, stole the three copies, leaving the originals, which were then attached below the bottom of the case, the conspirators, to simulate the disappearance.
It’s a coincidence that the two thefts are occurring simultaneously? The fact is that if the thief is not found, it is also true that the landlord comes found holed up in one of the many houses of Fate, salient feature of the estate, and would return if you do not find their homes, a curse would fall on belonging to the head of the family that owned the castle. And so the fairy houses, still exist, scattered in the woods around the castle. Why was Maurice in one of them, with a haggard expression?
Sir Clinton wants to see clearly, the hostility of his hosts: because, even though by now knows the fake theft, wants to continue to investigate? The reason is that the Superintendent of Police suspects that someone else, quite rightly, is interested in three pieces. It’s dredged the lake and it’s found the costume of Pierrot.

Foss offers Chancewater to duplicate parts, with technology that is with him, but he is assassinated shortly thereafter, with a Japanese sword, stored in another showcase of the museum. He was with Maurice: witness Thomas Marden, butler of Foss, who says Maurice is the murderer. It just says that those two were together, then he came, he saw his master in the blood, breaking a window and slid his hand seriously injured, but said he did not see Maurice go away: another disappearance.
Now there's a murder, on which Sir Clinton has to have its say.

And he must to find out if the murderer is really Maurice, and where he is going to end. At the same time spreads the rumor that a mysterious Black Man has appeared in the wood on the evening of the theft. In short, things people can lose his mind. Meanwhile the gamekeeper warning them that he heard a gunshot near the ruins of the ancient tower, in the woods, a bit 'after the assassination of Foss. But he has found and seen none.
Sir Raventhorpe Clinton knows that there are secret passageways: one that can be opened in its own room in the museum? It caters to Attilio, but that is outside. It must therefore be expected to arrive by train, the next day, to gain access to the secret passage, which actually opens in a niche in the museum. From the gut, in the dungeons of the castle, arriving to a cell, where they find a blood stain. Attilio said to be arrived a little earlier, but the Inspector Armadale who knows but that did not take any train, accuses him of lying. It’s Attilio involved?

Here is the second corpse! Maurice is found in the woods behind the old tower, with his head crushed by a gunshot fired at point blank range. The absence of blood stains and hypostatic, give rise to the suspicion that the body has stiffened elsewhere.
Meanwhile we learn knowing from Marden he was appointed by the owner to send a mysterious package, which then turns out to contain a clock entirely new; also on the box are not fingerprints. And also that Foss was about to leave the castle without anyone knowing, including him: he had seen the driver stopped the car waiting.
But then someone puts into question the words of Marden. Driffield and the Inspector Armadale, his contender in this case, are discovering a mysterious device, called "Otofono Marconi": what it was? Turns out to be an amplifier of sound.
And they are discovering also that Foss was not a mediator but a magician and trickster.
Sir Clinton tends a trap the killer, and after a further drain on the terrace, will be able to catch him, to be chosen, after they have once again tried to fade between the benches and statues of the lakeside terrace.

Let's say that the novel is one of those who Connington longer remains fixed in memory: the reason lies in the great atmosphere. Connington it was an unrivaled master. And the tension is such that two hundred pages are read with a pleasure and a rare tenacity. Then, from this point of view, nothing to say. Furthermore, the novel is one of those in which the author sees at once the tendency to use all the newfangled inventions and that in those years, science and technology could generate: it will be seen for example in the description and use of 'Otofono Marconi. The same gimmick, combined scientific acumen in the investigation, very close Connington to Conan Doyle and at the same Freeman, so that Sir Clinton Driffield in some way can be also compared to Dr. Thorndyke: the see for example in the investigation on the drops of blood found, and the explanation that they can make, whether they are round or elongated, whether they are abundant and they are sprayed, and the explanation of the hypostatic stains. Details as in other novels by other authors, were explained by members of the Scientific Police, or by Medical Examiners. And here the investigator concludes everything. Like .. Sherlock Holmes.

The main thing that I feel to say about its gothic atmospheres, is that in addition to secret passages in the novel I jumped in the eyes the chase scene at night, by moonlight: these night scenes are a bit peculiar to Connington and they are found in some of his novels: for example if there is another in The Case with Nine Solutions (car ride with the fog, at night). Because I believe the case to put them out? Because Carr, in The Grandest Game in the World, essay of 1946, admitted that he was greatly tax and admirer of Connington.
Do you remember the scene in It Walks By Night, in which, after a walk in the park, on a night lit by the glow of the moon, is it discovered Vautrelle murdered? Well, the scene for me is very, very similar to Connington: Carr surely must have been influenced by him, in his first novel. And if it seems like this scene, there are other, always at night, by moonlight, in other atmospheric Carr’s novels, such as Death-Watch or The Crooked Hinge. And the statues on the terrace? To me that scene is reminiscent of Carr’s The Corpse in the Waxworks.
So many awards, but also flawed.

First, the novel is akin to that series in the twenties and before that, he spoke in crime, gangs of criminals, burglaries, where offenders are not members of the aristocracy or upper middle class (which will happen in the '30s) but criminals, or just organized. So, the modus agendi identified, and the explanation of "Quis, quid, ubi, quibus Auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando" it will be easier than expected to identify the culprit, because, to those who were not able to locate it, are given to understand who he is before the conclusion of the novel.
However, the main and fundamental flaw of this novel, is the relief of the figure of Maurice Chacewater and death: Maurice was assassinated, but not suicidal. Because he has murdered Foss? No, because he was seized with neuralgia, by an illness, or an attack of agoraphobia!
The paradoxical thing is that this crisis that originated in his suicide, is in the hall of the museum, just as it is in the company of Foss which showed the three original jellyfish, and even more ironic is that he feels the need to enter secret passage in just a moment before, but just a moment before, that Foss is killed. And the secret passage, rather than wait until the crisis is over as other times (he knows nothing of what goes on behind the museum room), incidentally, decides to end it, killing himself. So are put in place mechanisms that only in a novel appendage could be realized. And then take away spontaneity and "truth" to the action. Moreover, the characterization of the character is significantly incomplete: this agoraphobia, could have been better faceted.

The predilection of Connington for psychosis, it is indeed a fact: sleepwalking, agoraphobia, kleptomania. Who else of great, manifest preference for psychosis? Ellery Queen. Possible that in addition to Carr, Connington had come to affect Ellery Queen?
Can say, indeed .. quite possible.
Kleptomania that appears in a Queen’s novel is incontrovertible evidence. Like the rest of left-handedness, present before in Connington and then in Queen.

Pietro De Palma