Book Review - Anthony Berkeley's The Wintringham Mystery
The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley
Published by: Revelation Press
Publication Date: 1926
Format: Kindle, 268 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
When Stephen Munro inherited a comfortable fortune he had two choices. One was to squirrel it away and live sensibly. The other was to live his life to the fullest until his funds ran out. He chose the later. Which is why at the age of twenty-seven he has taken a job as the footman to Lady Susan Carey at Winteringham Hall in Sussex. He has given up hopes of a carefree future with Pauline Mainwaring and is ready to take whatever the world will throw at him. His omniscient valet, Bridger, knowing that Stephen will be unable to take what the world has in store has already secured a job for himself with Lady Susan as her under-gradener. It wouldn't do to leave Stephen adrift in the world. Who knows what might happen? As it transpires, murder is what happens. But not at first. At first Stephen is in for a rude awakening. Because despite Lady Susan and her niece Millicent being somewhat charmed by Stephen's attempts at making a go of things, the butler, Martin, is not. Martin is going to put Stephen through his paces, with the added complication that there is to be a house party and Stephen knows most of the guests and he now must answer to William. Because all the footmen at Winteringham Hall are called William. The guests, Stephen's friends, soon start arriving. Or at least some of them were his friends before his newly reduced circumstances. There's an old friend of Lady Susan's, Colonel Uffclume, the explorer John Starcross, dandy Henry Kentisbeare, a bright young thing, Baby Cullompton, Lady Susan's niece and Stephen's friend Freddie Venables, and worst of all, Pauline Mainwaring with her new fiance, the "Stock Exchange Knight," Sir Julius Hammerstein. They are soon joined by Cecily Vernon, who had been staying with Lady Susan but was to have left earlier in the day and has now returned to Winteringham Hall. Of all of them Freddie is having the hardest time treating Stephen as staff. And when he gets up the idea to hold a seance, well, despite being a footman, Stephen is roped into the scheme. At the seance Cecily disappears. Everyone but Lady Susan is up in arms. Stephen is sacked but asked to stay on as a guest. She wishes him to look into Cecily's disappearance. Because she has an idea on how she did it, just not how she had the knowledge. Plus, it gives the old lady a chance to play matchmaker and get Stephen and Pauline back together and get ride of the odious Sir Julius. But putting the pieces of the puzzle together is easier said than done, especially once there is a ransom demand and Martin ends up dead. But if Stephen can just connect the dots he might get the girl of his dreams and a happily ever after.
The Winteringham Mystery's claim to fame is that not even Agatha Christie could solve it. The story was originally serialized in The Daily Mirror when it was the vogue to run competitions to see if the newspaper's readers could solve a case. And the prizes were quite significant, about $20,000 by today's standards. Agatha Christie was known to enter them, tying with eleven others for the runner's up prize for the Daily Sketch's The Mystery of Norman's Court. Notably she entered The Daily Mirror's competition under her husband's name, Colonel A.E. Christie. Alas, even though she was a runner up, she was unable to solve to disappearance of Stella, Cecily's original name, and this inability has led to the book's claim to fame. Though The Winteringham Mystery was out of print for nearly ninety-five years, so perhaps she got the last laugh? But it's still interesting that she was unable to answer "How did Stella Disappear?" and "Who caused her disappearance, and why?" I figured out the who and was mostly right on the why, I mean, money being the why is the oldest answer in the book... But I don't think I would have been awarded a prize. The genius of Anthony Berkeley is his answers are in plain sight so when he actually explains it you nod sagely and go, yeah, I could have solved it, all the while knowing you totally didn't. And this book had a light touch. Fun characters, witty dialogue, and while I was sad that the Jeeves and Wooster vibe established in the first chapter didn't continue throughout the book with Bridger barely being seen afterwards, that P.G. Wodehouse banter still continued. Because this would be Bertie Wooster solving crime. The stakes? The stakes are amusing an old woman. And I want to be that old woman. I want my whims catered to, I want to call someone named Stephen William just because. I want to not call the police if it's my prerogative. And, I want to be a blatant matchmaker. That last one I think is a little jab at Agatha Christie's expense because she's always matchmaking but never being explicit about it, here, Lady Susan is like, yeah, I'm matchmaking while you solve crimes, and? I mean, sure Lady Susan might strain credulity by her methods, but, I say the method to her madness is what makes this book work, makes Stephen as layabout cum footman cum crime solver believable. What I didn't find believable is that everyone was intimately familiar with chloroform and that this is viewed as a Christmas book. It takes place in September. Well, no one gets it one hundred percent right. Not even Agatha Christie.
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are gateway drugs to the best of British comedy. For me it all started with Peter's Friends, which is technically not a comedy, but Fry and Laurie also go beyond the bounds of the comedic label, so I think that's a good starting off point. From there I found The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Blackadder, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and, of course, Jeeves and Wooster. To this day they are to me everything that is great and good about British acting and television. I will listen to or watch anything that they are in, but it's when they are working together that they reach new heights. Jeeves and Wooster was actually made concurrently with A Bit of Fry and Laurie and I think that them working together at all times made the relationship between Bertie and Jeeves that much more real. What's more, their personalities kind of fit their characters so much so that at times I might wonder if Stephen Fry is wandering around Hugh Laurie's house tidying it up and putting things to rights. Stephen Fry's fussy side comes out while Hugh Laurie's goofy side with a large dollop of musicality come to the fore. Jeeves and Wooster is pure fun comfort viewing, it has the beautiful country houses, troubles that aren't too troubling, and there's the fact that you'll see all your favorite British actors playing minor rolls which were constantly being recast, usually to delightful results. I mean four different actresses playing Aunt Dahlia kind of lends itself to the idea that Bertie has a never-ending stream of interfering aunts. But series two was when the show found it's stride. Series one they rouged Laurie's checks so much he looked like a comical vaudeville drunk. But in series two Simon Langton took over as director! Not only did he direct the seminal Pride and Prejudice adaptation, the one with Colin Firth, but episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, Love for Lydia, Rebecca with Jeremy Brett, Poirot, Rosemary and Thyme, Foyle's War, and Midsomer Murders! Plus series two happens to have my most watched episode of Jeeves and Wooster. How is it I've seen "Chuffy" what seems like a million times? Perhaps because it's the episode where Jeeves quits... Heaven forfend! Don't worry, it all works out! It always does in the England that never was of P.G. Wodehouse.
