Forgotten Book - The Party at No. 5 aka The Cellar at No. 5

I've often written about my enthusiasm for the novels of Shelley Smith. She was an ambitious writer, who was always keen to do something different, and that approach (while not necessarily conducive to great commercial success) and the flair with which she pursued it meant that she was one of the most impressive British crime writers of the 1950s. I regret the fact that her books aren't more widely known.

The Party at No.5, which dates from 1954, offers a good example of her skill and economical and effective literary style. It's essentially a novel about character, about the vagaries of human nature. It's also a book which is about women and the relationships they have with each other. The male characters (including a solicitor whose grasp of the law struck me as very shaky) only have minor parts, although they are depicted with Smith's customary cool insight and wit.

Mrs Rampage is an elderly woman with a rambling old house in London. Actually, by modern standards I don't think she is really ancient, but attitudes to older people were different then, in a rather depressing way. She is persuaded to take in as a sort of companion-helper a woman called Mrs Roach. Mrs Roach is, on the surface, a very pleasant and caring individual who has an unrequited longing for a younger woman, Eleanor, who is stuck at home with her aged father. But the two women don't hit it off and although Mrs Rampage becomes increasingly dependent on Mrs Roach, her unpleasantness towards the other woman is a catalyst for crime.

This isn't a whodunit, but I found it a highly suspenseful read. Smith's prose is clear and engaging and her depiction of the way that relatively minor character flaws can lead to very damaging consequences is compelling. It's a tribute to her gifts that although I didn't much like either of the two lead characters, I became intrigued by them and wanted to know what their fate would be.