Forgotten Book - Bricklayer's Arms aka Shadow of a Crime

Bricklayer's Arms is a novel by John Rhode first published in 1945. It's an engaging story and I should say right away that is one of the most enjoyable books that I've ever read by this astonishingly prolific author. All too often the ingenuity of his murder methods is matched only by the flatness of his writing, and in some of the books it can be a real slog to get to the explanation for the unlikely m.o. and the revelation of a culprit whose identity was predictable, even if the howdunit element wasn't. In Bricklayer's Arms, however, Rhode shuffles his story ingredients with real skill. Even the title is a rather pleasing joke (which was denied to American readers, who were presented with the commonplace alternative Shadow of a Crime).

A striking feature of the book is that almost all the detective work is done by Jimmy Waghorn, with the aid of a capable local sergeant. We hardly see Dr Priestley and frankly I didn't miss him. I'm sure that Priestley had a loyal following in his day and that commercially it made sense for Rhode to write this as a series mystery. But, as can happen with a long series, Rhode was trapped by his own formula. By 1945, Priestley's presence in the story - I know it's heresy to say this, so far as some Golden Age fans are concerned! - was not just anachronistic but pointless. In my opinion, this book would have been better written as a conventional police investigation, perhaps rather in the Freeman Wills Crofts mould.   

So what of the story itself? It opens with the discovery of the body of a motorcyclist, a young estate agent who has come to grief on a village road near a railway bridge. It turns out that his uncle was driving on the same road, and that the uncle has a motive for murder. The uncle had been lured out by a phoney telephone call - a device that Rhode uses twice in this book as well as in other stories such as Vegetable Duck and The Telephone Call. But gradually, and rather pleasingly, the plot thickens. A second killing, late in the story, is neatly contrived.

The twists and turns of the mystery are so good that I wish Rhode had paid more attention to presenting his characters in greater depth, so that their psychological motivations were more compelling. Including a map would also have been a big help. At the end of the book, I got the impression that Rhode was in a rush to get finished and crack on with his next book. This is a story with great potential, which is partly realised, but could have been even better. Nevertheless, it beguiled me on a protracted train journey and definitely exceeded my expectations.