The Lake of Darkness by Ruth Rendell

Martin wins a hundred thousand pounds in football pools. He decides to give away half the money to deserving needy people he knows and keep the other half for himself. He makes a list of people he could help and approaches them in person or by post. He mainly wants to help some of these people by paying money for buying a house preferably outside London. The story takes place in the late 1970s and and Martin feels that ten thousand pounds would get a house in country side. Martin's desire to see the visible effect of his charity creates some interesting situations. Sudden philanthropy makes people question so what is in it for him? Why does he want to giveaway the money? What should I do in return? Rendell plays quite well with this idea.

Martin's friend Tim had been responsible for Martin winning the pools. Tim gave him the winning combination. Martin decides not to give Tim a share of the winning money because he is sure that Tim would fritter it away. Martin meets Francesca and falls in love with her. Something is wrong with Francesca what exactly we don't know.

Finn is a hitman. He is a plumber, a handyman and a hitman. How many he may have murdered we don't know. We do know that at least two people he had definitely murdered. As in other Rendell stories, these two threads are going to intertwine and what would happen then? Martin would meet Finn at some point and something dangerous is going to happen then. Rendell slowly builds up the tension before the final dénouement.

Martin and Finn are typical Rendell characters. Martin, the successful accountant unsure about his sexuality, wanting to giveaway the money but not wanting to give some to his friend who actually gave him the combination, expert in accounts not seeing the obvious fault in his plan. There is something wrong with Finn and it is not spelt out except to say his mother had been over forty when he was born and she is schizophrenic. There is the talk of astral body, levitation, poltergeist activity, a little mystery about him. Finn is a recurring character in Ruth Rendell books, under different names with slightly different characteristics reminding me of characters in Sight for Sore Eyes, The Saint Zita Society and The Monster in the Box . Did I say that I love Rendell's standalones more than Wexford books as they are more intense?

Published in 1980 The Lake of Darkness is one of the few books by Ruth Rendell that I haven't read before. Looking forward to read Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's The Child's Child-the darker the better.

White Face by Edgar Wallace

A man with a white mask dubbed 'White Face' is causing havoc in London West End by relieving rich women of thousands of pounds worth jewellery. Nobody knows who White Face is. It looks like the work of a lone operator. Who is the White Face? This story is not a robbery case but a murder case. Dr.Marford of Tidal Basin witnesses a scuffle between two men on the pavement outside his clinic. One man falls down and the other confused runs away. After a while the fallen man rises and has a brief conversation with a passing policeman. The Policeman walks away and the fallen man falls again. An opportunistic small time thief makes an attempt to steal from the fallen man, the policeman notices it and catches him. They find that the fallen man is stabbed. Who stabbed him and how? Is it the devil of the Tidal Basin? Is it the White Face? How could whoever stabbed the man do it without being noticed by the people in the crime scene?

Initially I thought that crime reporter Michael Quigley is going to play a major role in investigating this case. But it is not so. While other policeman play a role, it is Chief Inspector Detective Mason who solves the case. Some of the interactions are funny. For example, when the thief caught at the crime scene quotes poetry while interrogation and detective asks him where he learnt it. He points out

“When I'm in stir I only read poetry," he explained. "The book lasts longer because you can't understand it.”

When the reporter Quigley questions Mason about the case, he responds

“You shall have the story when it's properly cooked—at present the oven is just heating up.”

In this work of fiction, Sergeant Elk explains the difference between real police work and a work of fiction.

“It was all about who-did-it. First of all they introduced you to about twenty characters, told you where they were born and who their fathers were, and what money they wanted and who they were in love with—you couldn't help knowing that the fellow who did the murder was the red-nosed waiter. But that's not police work, Dr. Marford. We're not introduced to the characters in the story; we don't know one. All we've got in a murder case is the dead man. What he is, who his relations are, where he came from, what was his private business—we've got to work all that out. We make inquiries here, there and everywhere, digging into slums, asking questions of people who've got something to hide.”

If you ever wondered what a Jury is, Elk explains
“The jury," said Mr. Elk oracularly, "is a body or institution which gives everybody the benefit of the doubt except the police.”

When Bray complains that his subordinate Elk is taking over the investigation sidelining him, Mason tells him

“As a matter of fact, you oughtn't to complain. These darned regulations about questioning prisoners are so framed that it's good to have some other officer responsible for breaking them—you can always pass the kick on to him. Shoot 'em in, Bray.”

While this book is not as fun as Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace I read last year, it is a fairly decent mystery. Even though I guessed who White Face is, Wallace plays a nice little trick that very soon I am off track. I couldn't really guess how the man is stabbed with none of the witnesses seeing it.

This work is in public domain in countries where copyright is Life+70 and can be downloaded for free from Feedbooks.

The Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham

Albert Campion narrates this story. I liked the interactions between Campion and Lugg, his butler, reminded me of Wooster and Jeeves. The story starts with the announcement of R I Peters funeral in the 'Deaths' column in the newspaper and an anonymous letter addressed to Campion about Peters' death. 'Pig' Peters was a school bully whose funeral Campion promised to attend after an unpleasant bullying incident in school.

Few months later, Campion starts a murder investigation. Who do you think is dead, this time? It's our late Pig Peters again. So what is happening here? Who killed Peters? Who is sending the anonymous letters to Campion? If Peters was dead this time, who died before? Whose funeral did Campion attend?

I worked out the mystery before the end. There were a few surprises though. Didn't realize that Lugg would play such a huge role in the mystery. About the methods for investigation Campion points out that,

I am not one of these intellectual sleuths, I am afraid. My mind does not work like an adding machine, taking the facts in neatly one by one and doing the work as it goes along. I am more like the bloke with the sack and spiked stick. I collect all the odds and ends I can see and turn out the bag at lunch hour.

Published in 1937, The Case of the Late Pig is a very short novel, enough to whet my interest into reading more Campion mysteries.