Sir Austin Kemble, Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard, has a tricky case on his hands. Obviously the first thing that he does, rather than rely on his own officers, is to call for the sleuth who has helped him out in the past, Anthony Bathurst. John Pender Blundell, a codebreaker in the Great War has been found dead in Bushey Park. His face is scratched and his body badly beaten, as if attacked by a savage beast. But the cause of death? Cyanide poisoning.
Another death with the same modus operandi is soon discovered, and another, this time without the wounds but locked in his own bedroom. With no apparent connection between the three men, Bathurst finds himself faced with a serious puzzle. How do the events link to the recently returned-from-apparent-death heir to the title of Lord Trensham? And what exactly is the spiked lion?
UPDATE: An image of the real cover has been located. But because I like it so much, here’s the fake one I made…
Meanwhile, back to the contents of the book. It’s the 13th novel from Brian Flynn, from 1933, and there are actually two genuine reviews from the period. Both the New York Times and the Saturday Review of Books (also from the US) praise it highly, although the latter review (which is only about 50 words long) does hint that the ending flouts plausibility… which they might have a point about, but not in a bad way. To quote the NYT: “Bathurst’s retarded solution, a characteristic shared with other of the excellent Flynn novels, is construed with unerring logic and its every step accompanied by an unfailing interest.” Have to say, that’s not a use of the word “retarded” that I’ve come across before – I think it just means that his method of deduction is not explained until after the killer is unmasked.
By the way, there’s also a NYT review of the next book, The Ladder Of Death, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t written by the same person – it’s not remotely complimentary.
But back to this one, so if two esteemed reviewers loved it, surely I did too…
Yup, this is loads of fun. The locked room “suicide” isn’t a highlight – there’s no reason for the locked room as nobody thinks it’s suicide for a second and all it does is give a big hint to the murderer’s identity. (This is actually the second Flynn locked room where he forgets to give a reason for the impossible crime.) Other than that, there is a lot of nonsense going on here – the reason for the poisoned/savaged bodies is hilarious – but it’s taken with enough lightness to be entertaining and enough seriousness to still be a proper mystery. And it is a fairly clued mystery as well, despite it taking a much cleverer reader than me to work out what the blooming heck is going on. I guessed the killer early on but as to the grand scheme and who did what to who and why? Missed most of that…
Bathurst – still an enigma as to who exactly he is or what he does – tackles the mystery with gusto mostly on his own. Inspector MacMorran is lurking in the background but unlike in the later books, it’s a more formal relationship. Later on, they will be drinking chums, but here, McMorran refers to him as Mr Bathurst and basically is just there to arrest people. But more on the development of Anthony Bathurst in an upcoming post…
The disappearance of Flynn from bookshelves still baffles me – not just from bookshelves but almost from existence. Maybe the fact that he never got a Green Penguin release or was part of the Detection Club? But while his plots may get a little bizarre at times, he is an entertaining writer – much easier to read than some of his contemporaries. I’m still hopeful that someone is going to pick up his back catalogue for reprinting as there is loads to enjoy, not least this one. Highly Recommended.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
This book is freely available on Hathitrust. Now, you have intrigued me to read it immediately!
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Please do. I really want to know if it’s just me who likes Flynn.
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The Hathitrust edition is exactly the same one that I paid a few quid for! Guessing that’s the one being reprinted as well…
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As realthog knows, downloading anything from Hathitrust is really tedious. One can download only page by page and not the entire book at a time. Of course, one can read the entire novel online on the screen without downloading.
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Actually, I have already mentioned it in your post on The Mystery Of The Peacock’s Eye.
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Ah, forgot that. I guess that’s what the people flogging the copy did then. Thanks for the reminder.
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Just started reading and found that the page 13/14 was missing. Did a quick check and all other pages seem to be fine. Did your book had that page?
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Now I was definitely paying attention when I read it but… no, those pages were missing.
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The Indian reprint company selling the book at Abe Books definitely mention that page 13/14 is missing !
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Only for the paperback edition. For the £55 deluxe edition, there’s no comment. So, £45 for 2 extra pages? Or a ridiculously priced leather bound edition with 2 pages missing…
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[…] his earlier appearances. He is of Irish descent but as he asks the person who puts that to him (in The Spiked Lion) how he knows, we can presume that he has no accent. He went to Uppingham School, a prestigious […]
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You may or not may not have seen this, but here’s the link to a bookseller who has a US edition of THE SPIKED LION with its dust jacket:
https://www.yesterdaysgallery.com/pages/books/20802/brian-flynn/the-spike-lion-an-anthony-bathurst-story
Also, I have to agree with the NY Times reviewer’s assessment of THE LADDER OF DEATH. I found it utterly boring, stopped well before the halfway mark, and never finished it.
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Well out of my price range but thanks for the image – I’ll add it to the post. Although I did quite like my version…
I haven’t found a copy of The Ladder Of Death yet – I’ll let you know what I think when I do. Have you read any other Flynn?
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[…] The Spiked Lion by Brian Flynn – another fun outing from this long-lost writer. […]
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[…] often Brian Flynn plugged his earlier titles – The Five Red Fingers, The Case Of The Purple Calf, The Spiked Lion, The Sussex Cuckoo, and the immediately preceding title, The Fortescue Candle, twice. And they’re […]
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Here is a podcast on EQMM 75th Anniversary Symposium Part ! held on 14.10.2016.
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/eqmm/episodes/2016-10-14T09_42_51-07_00
In the portion between 14 minutes and 15.35 minutes, it is clearly mentioned that Mystery League magazine published complete novels in contrast to other magazines which published condensed versions.
Hence The Spiked Lion appearing in issue 3 is a complete novel.
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Many thanks, that ties in with what Jeffrey Marks told me. So the question becomes why would the US novel publication be abridged? I’ve heard of it for paperbacks, but not for a hardback release…
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[…] had accomplished the task he had set himself.’ The plot is convoluted but enjoyable nonsense best summed up by this synopsis: ‘How do the events link to the recently returned-from-apparent-death heir to the title of […]
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