When I first read Anthony Berkeley's 1938 stand-alone novel Not to be Taken, many moons ago, I recall that I was slightly underwhelmed for most of the book, even though it was agreeably written. And then the later developments in the story enabled me to understand what Berkeley had been trying to do, and I ended up by being very satisfied. I thought I'd take another look at the book to see if I still felt as positive about it.
The answer is yes. This is a quietly told village mystery, set in rural Dorset. The narrator, Douglas Sewell, is a fruit farmer. Berkeley went to school in Dorset and he understood country life pretty well. His observations about gossip are spot on, and he also uses a scene with a local gossip-monger to impart key information relevant to the plot. It's quite a subtle piece of writing.
What I didn't know when I first read this novel was that it was originally a serial, published by instalments in the very popular magazine John O'London's Weekly. The magazine used it to set a competition for readers, with a total of £350 in prizes - no mean sum back in 1938. When the book became a novel, it incorporated a Challenge to the Reader, very much in the Ellery Queen tradition.
The novel's subtitle, which became the actual title in the US edition, was A Puzzle in Poison. And this is a mystery which does exactly what it says on the label. There's little obvious detection - Roger Sheringham does not feature - but the apparently low-key storytelling is deceptive. In fact, this is a pretty ingenious mystery, and I'm not really surprised that none of the entrants in the competition came up with the complete solution. A pleasing read. The cover image, by the way, comes from the website o a London book dealer, Stephen Foster. If you want this copy, alas, it will set you back £1250. (And there are two costlier copies on Abebooks as I write). Berkeley is a very collectible author and his first editions don't come cheap.
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