Puzzle Doctor

The Mystery Of The Peacock’s Eye by Brian Flynn

17598113076At the Hunt Ball in Westhampton, Sheila Delaney dances the night away with a stranger – a man who wanted only to be known as Mr X. At the end of the evening, he departed as mysteriously as he appeared…

Months later, private investigator Anthony Bathurst is approached by the Crown Prince of Clorania. It seems that his majesty has been a little indiscrete with a relationship with a young lady and a blackmailer is determined to put a spanner in the works of the Prince’s upcoming marriage.

Meanwhile Chief Inspector Bannister is taking a well-deserved vacation at Seabourne when he is called on by the local constabulary to help them out. At a local dentist, the dentist found himself locked in a store room and the young girl who he was treating has been found dead, apparently injected with cyanide.

Soon the three events prove to be more related than anyone would suspect. Bathurst and Bannister find themselves on the trail of a ruthless murderer. And what exactly is the Peacock’s Eye?

You will notice the cover picture above isn’t a cover picture. You see, this book is a little on the obscure side. There is little information out there about the author, and this is one of his better known books. [NB the lovely picture of a peacock has been replaced by the cover image – thanks to Santosh for the image]

According to gadetection, Flynn was an “English author and an accountant in government service, a lecturer in elocution and speech, an amateur actor”. He wrote about fifty crime novels, all (?) featuring Bathurst, and has the following wonderful review from Jacques Barzun – “Straight tripe and savorless. It is doubtful, on the evidence, if any of his others would be different.” Not sure which book that refers to, but it doesn’t bode well, does it? Flynn, despite his 50 books, doesn’t feature in “Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers” and the first I heard about him was when I unwrapped a Christmas present (i.e. this book) from my sister-in-law. It was published by John Hamilton under the Sundial Mystery Library banner along with a bunch of other authors that I’ve never heard of – J. M. Walsh, Donald Deane, Eusatace L. Adams, amongst others…

So, what is it like? Well, it’s one of the best mystery novels that I’ve read in a long time – the best Golden Age mystery, certainly. Flynn does a lovely job of playing the two sleuths against each other in an almost playful way, rather than an antagonistic one, which makes a pleasant change from the norm. Usually when presented with a new sleuth, we get the cliché of the new detective having to prove themselves so it makes a nice change.

Flynn’s writing style is pretty fun, although to be fair, he wins massive points from this Maths teacher for the following exchange:

“You hold a distinct intial advantage over me, Mr X. Anonymity is such a terribly strong position in which to entrench one’s self. To you I am Sheila Delaney – to me you are – an unknown quantity.”

He smiled appreciatively. “Yet one usually conclude by finding the value of X – shall we say.”

“If one is successful,” she replied, “you have to be successful, you have to be discover the true value.”

Yes – flirting with Maths. About damn time. But while there is a lot of fun dialogue here, there are a few signs of the time is was written – not convinced about referring to a Jewish character’s “Hebraic cleverness” or astonishment at “an Irishman’s discretion” – and some rather impressive disguise skills are on show towards the end of the tale.

Plotwise, this is damn clever. Despite looking as if it’s going to be one of those interview-interview-interview-reveal tales, it’s actually a cleverly clued mystery. Some of the interview sections are extremely well-done, such as the section where Bannister is on the trail of some missing money that bounces around a number of suspects until it basically returns to the beginning. And the reveal is very well done. This is a properly clued whodunit (although some of the clues are… interesting) and the murderer is a genuine surprise, despite making good sense.

I’ll echo the tagline of my John Rhode reviews – good luck finding a copy – but this is definitely worth digging out. As I said above, one of the best mysteries I’ve read in ages. Highly Recommended. And there will be more of Flynn coming soon…

UPDATE: Cover image located! Thanks, Santosh!

41 comments

    • 1928 – I really should start including the date of books. It’s Flynn’s third book, after The Billiard Room Mystery and The Case Of The Black Twenty-Two.

      I think if you’ve read it, you’d remember. The solution, while not unique in the genre, is pretty memorable…

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      • Thanks for the info!

        I think if you’ve read it, you’d remember.

        Not if I read it in the late 1960s or early 1970s, which is what that vague memory is hinting. That was many thousands of books ago . . .

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  4. I attempted to read the first one BILLIARD ROOM MYSTERY years ago and it was so laughably bad that I quit. I also tried to read THE LADDER OF DEATH (I think that’s the title) but it was also dull and often stupid and never finished that one either. I’ve never returned to Flynn. I own four of Flynn’s books and one of them is PEACOCK’s EYE. Maybe I’ll give him the ol’ third try to see if he strikes out in my estimation of what’s good among vintage mysteries.

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    • Yes, there are 4 Brian Flynn books available at Hathi Digital Trust (The Murders Near Mapleton, The Spiked Lion, The Billiard Room Mystery, The Crime At The Crossways). However, they can only be read online.
      Of course they can be downloaded but only page by page, which is quite tedious !

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  8. “Straight tripe and savorless. It is doubtful, on the evidence, if any of his others would be different.”
    This comment refers to the book Conspiracy At Angel. This is the only book by Brian Flynn commented upon in Barjun’s A Catalogue Of Crime.

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  14. Sutherland Scott in his book Blood in Their Ink: The March of the Modern Mystery Novel (1953) states that “The Mystery Of The Peacock’s Eye , which contains one of the ablest pieces of misdirection one could wish to meet, is in many ways his finest novel.” He also recommends The Orange Axe and The Padded Door.
    Unfortunately, later on in the book Scott lists some novels , which includes The Mystery Of The Peacock’s Eye, in which ————————-. Thus this book has been spoiled for me !

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    • The first part of that info is on the gadetection website entry for Flynn. And it’s a shame when people carelessly state stuff like that – never sure what it gains them.

      Purely from my paranoia, I’ve over-obscured what you wrote, as I think it might give one or two of my more contemplative readers a bit of a clue.

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  24. I had a copy of this, at one time. I also had Barzun & Taylor on my shelves. Looked up Flynn, and didn’t bother reading the book.

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    • As I said before, Barzun is dead right about the one title he read. The best Flynn’s are the earlier ones, but even among the weaker later titles, Conspiracy At Angel stands out as rubbish…

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  29. I just finished it an hour ago. Fooled me completely.
    I don’t want to shock you PD, but as far as the reading experience goes Flynn reminds most of … R Austin Freeman. Very strongly so in fact. Although Thorndyke can be grating in a way Bathurst wasn’t.

    “Well worth a Look” would be my rating.

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  31. Just read this as my first Flynn in what was due to be preparation for your talk at Bodies from the Library 2020 – hoping it may be resurrected in 2021. I was completely bamboozled! I loved the Hobbs/Sutcliffe cover names for the plainclothes policemen – a cricketing Sign of the Times. Many thanks for all your hard work in bringing these back into print. Up next The Orange Axe.

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  34. I had tried one Flynn book previously, The Billiard Room Mystery, but after seeing your blog and on another blogger’s recommendation, I read The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye. Really enjoyed the clues and red herrings in this.

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