Sexton Blake on the Home Front by Mark Hodder

Author:Mark Hodder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd

THE END

THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

by John Drummond (John Newton Chance)

THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 3rd Series, Issue 91 (1945)

THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

“EVEN IN THE midst of war,” I said, “you were also taking on cases that involved ordinary crimes being committed against ordinary people.”

“I had always done so,” Blake remarked.

“True, but previously, that sort of tale tended to get lost amid the glamour of the master crooks and their ambitious schemes. You claimed, in one of our previous interviews, that such villains owed their existence to a phenomenon you call the Credibility Gap, but by the forties, they were noticeably absent. The stories started to feel more realistic in the sense that the criminals, crimes and victims were, by comparison, bordering on the mundane. Had the Credibility Gap closed?”

He made a sound of confirmation. “The second conflict slammed it shut. There was no cognitive dissonance, as there had been when the Great War erupted. Instead, there was a weary sense of familiarity; a horrible feeling of ‘here we go again.’” He brushed a strand of tobacco from his trouser leg. “It led to a post-war period of what might be termed ‘cosy crimes.’”

I consulted my notepad. “With titles such as The Case of the Night Lorry Driver, The Holiday Camp Mystery, The Case of the Doped Heavyweight, The Income-Tax Conspiracy, The Riddle of the Night Garage, The Mystery of the Missing Angler, and so forth. Didn’t you start to feel bored?”

Blake put aside his pipe and sighed. “I didn’t choose to become a detective because I wanted to be entertained. My motive has always been a straightforward one: to help people in distress and to right wrongs. It matters not one jot to me whether a crime is against a lord or a labourer, whether it is committed by a Zenith or a zero. So, no, I didn’t get bored.” He gave a rueful smile. “I’m not sure the same can be said of the readers.”

I made a sound of agreement. “By the early fifties, sales of The Sexton Blake Library had dropped considerably,” I noted. “The next story, though, dates from 1945. It was written by John Drummond.”

“His real name was John Newton Chance,” Blake said. “He was a good one for mysteries.”

“A bit of an Agatha Christie.”

“Yes.” He smiled. “Are you aware that, back in 1926, Mrs Christie went missing for ten days?”

“I recall reading something about it, yes.”

“It remains one of my favourite cases.”

“You were involved?”

“It was I who found her.”

“What? That’s … but why was the story never published? It’d be a sensation!”

“She made me take a vow of secrecy.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Can’t tell you.” He raised his eyebrows. “The vow!”

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