The Wychford Poisoning Case

Mrs Bentley is on remand waiting to be tried for poisoning her husband John Bentley. Roger Sheringham, on no very definite evidence, believes her to be innocent even though he hasn't met any of the people involved in the case. He travels to Wychford with a friend who has a cousin living in the town to do some investigation himself in an attempt to clear Mrs Bentley's name.It soon becomes clear that there are several people who just might have committed the crime and all of whom have motives for wanting Bentley dead. This is a well written and interesting crime story which will leave most readers guessing. I thought I'd worked out who did it but I was completely wrong. The solution is not at all what I expected.This book is somewhat notorious for a couple of scenes in which a teenage girl is spanked by one of the characters. If it is taken in context it reads just like horseplay between two people who have known each other since childhood. The girl's parents clearly weren't bothered. It is all too easy to read a sexual motive into it with twenty first century eyes but it didn't read like that to me. It's good to see this book back in print.

This is the second mystery featuring Roger Sheringham and was first published in 1926. It follows “The Layton Court Mystery” (1925) and is followed by, “Roger Sherringham and the Vane Mystery,” in 1927. However, while most of the books in the series have been re-released, and now most are on kindle, author Anthony Berkeley refused to allow this to be re-printed and it has now become difficult to track down. Indeed, while the first of Anthony Berkeley’s Sherringham novels was published anonymously, the author of this novel was given as, “by the author of the ‘Layton Court Mystery’” and Berkeley, who often used pen names, did not put his name as author until the third in the series.At the start of this book, Roger Sherringham is staying with his friend Alec Grierson, who we met in, “The Layton Court Mystery,” and who is now married to Barbara Shannon. It is a year since events at Layton Court and Sherringham is interested in a case of murder which he has been reading about in the newspapers. A Mrs Bentley is accused of poisoning her husband with arsenic and is soon to stand trial for her life. Public opinion is against Mr Bentley’s French wife – known to be having a love affair, his family and friends became suspicious of her behaviour and turned against her after her husband’s death. However, Sherringham is convinced she is innocent and is determined to clear her name. With Grierson eager to help out again, plus the fact that Alec has family in the town of Wychford where the poisoning occurred, the two set out to investigate.It has to be said that this is, at times, a rather silly storyline. Anthony Berkeley was determined that his amateur detective would not always be correct and sure of himself, as Sherlock Holmes, always seemed to be. Therefore, Sherringham jumps to conclusions, makes mistakes and often berates himself. Besides that, he has no basis for believing Mrs Bentley being innocent than the newspaper stories, supposedly read by all the other readers, who have failed to jump to the same conclusions. Alec Grierson is little more than a sounding board, as is young Sheila Purefoy; the daughter of Alec’s cousin, who they stay with while in Wychford. Although Berkeley’s character is not a misogynist, much of the language used here seems written to allow the author to rant about his own, particular issues, and much of them have to do with women. During one chapter, Sherringham claims that “nearly all women…. are idiots,” and continues that they are, “not over-burdened with brains.” Despite the fact that he later values women’s opinions and respects female characters within the novel, it may have been one of the reasons he later decided to keep this novel out of print.There is also much horseplay between Alec and Sheila, which, to modern eyes, certainly seems a little inappropriate – it ranges from throwing things at each other to a great deal of spanking. These may have been the reasons why Berkeley decided to leave this mystery out of the series when new editions were printed, but I do have to wonder whether it was because Sherringham admits to Alec during the novel, that the reason he is not married is because the woman he is in love with is already married – a circumstance that Berkeley also shared. Regardless, this is certainly not a bad mystery. The setting of a small village, and good range of suspects,, are classic Golden Age, while the investigation is fun to follow. I am delighted that I managed to track down a copy of this book and found it a very enjoyable mystery.

I raed a lot of cosy crime from the first half of the 20th century. I don't understand the reasons for the 5* reviews of this. Although correct as far as they go, they are incomplete: they overlook shortcomings in the style, content and pace of this story. I came to it after The Poisoned Chocolates, which I enjoyed for its layered plot and fairly consistent pace. By contrast, this spends long periods with nonsensical and repetitive psychological theorising in the absence of any material evidence or clues. On a number of occasions, characters go off to collect significant information/clues by interview etc, but these scenes are not documented, simply reported in abbreviated form by the protagonists on their return. I can cope with the easy prejudices of the time, but the long passages of psycho-gibberish based on the turn of a nose or a squint made it tedious. The scenes including a father watching benignly as a couple men hold his daughter (aged 19-20) down by the neck over a chair arm while taking turns to spank her is not only wierd in itself, but is an inexplicable inclusion when so many scenes relevant to the plot line are reduced to a couple of sentences of reported action. The run up to the end is disappointing and the conclusion feeble. Not surprised he didn't use the same name for subsequent publications.

I'm a great fan of Berkeley in his various guises. This book is brave in having the detective trio seeking to clear the accused without ever meeting the suspect. And they never have access to thee police evidence but investigate with all the problems an unofficial amateur outsider would have. But ultimately there are just too many dull passages and no suspense. Interesting story but not a page-turner.

Rather poor. As far as the plot is concerned, this is a short story with an anticlimactic ending , full of unnecessary padding like reviews on contemporary murderers and their methods and mistakes. The by-play between the sleuths and the young girl was banal and unreal. I cannot recommend it, I'm afraid.