Tenant for Death

by Cyril Hare

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 200
Series: Inspector Mallet #1
Rating:

Synopsis:

Two young estate agent's clerks are sent to check an inventory on a house in Daylesford Gardens, South Kensington. Upon arrival, they find an unlisted item - a corpse. Furthermore, the mysterious tenant, Colin James, has disappeared.

In a tale which uncovers many of the seedier aspects of the world of high finance, Hare also introduces his readers to the formidable Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard.

Cyril Hare’s Tenant for Death was apparently adapted from a play, but it works well in the novel format too, and introduces Hare’s Inspector Mallett (not to be confused with Mary Fitt’s Superintendent Mallett — and I think there may be another Mallett in classic detectives stories somewhere, too?). Like Suicide Excepted, which I actually read first (the order doesn’t really matter as there’s little character/plot progression), it’s worked out pretty cleverly, though does less by way of character study.

To say too much is to spoil it, as usual with a mystery, but the whole thing hinges on one useful coincidence — in a way that works really well rather than feeling contrived. The rest is a fair amount of routine questioning, following the police as they try to work out whodunnit and why. There are plenty of motives floating around, since the deceased is a scammer and twister, and is thoroughly unlikeable in the tradition of victims throughout vintage crime stories.

I think Hare does actually have a decent touch with character, even when they’re a bit sketched in: when it came to Suicide Excepted I was quite invested in what happened to Anne, and found here that I was holding my breath (metaphorically) to figure out what Harper’s involvement was, because he seemed like a decent guy.

Overall it’s a little bit less engaging and innovative than Suicide Excepted, but very solid; I’m glad I’ve given Cyril Hare’s work a try!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)