[READ: December 20, 2022] Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders
I admit that I thought this book was called Skeleton’s Guide… which I thought as very funny.
But it turns out that Skelton is a barrister (and this is the second book in the Skelton series). David Stafford is a British writer who has written largely for TV and theatre until he started writing novels. He has written plays with Alexei Sayle (for fans of The Young Ones).
This mystery is set in 1929. That setting allows Stafford to avoid any kind of contemporary details that might help speed the case along. But it’s written in such a way that you’re not frustrated by it–you can simply get into the nearly 100 year old technology (and lack thereof).
In November 1929, a woman’s corpse is discovered in a suitcase. She is identified and her husband, Doctor Ibrahim Aziz becomes the prime suspect. They find some evidence and there is a rumor that she was cheating on him. So clearly he is guilty. Especially since he’s not from England–he’s Egyptian.
Arthur Skelton is a barrister. He’s not 100% successful, but he gives his all in hopeless cases. So he is called in to represent Aziz.
Skelton is concerned for diplomatic matters if Aziz is executed here. He is related to a wealthy and well-connected family back in Egypt.
The story, despite dealing with a gruesome murder, has some funny moments. Skelton’s clerk Edgar is trying to lose weight and is quite miserable.
Have you ever had tea with lemon? Edgar asked
Why would I want to do that?
Some people like it.
Russians, you mean?
I thought they had it with jam.
I’ve never actually believed that. Flies in the face of reason.
I read that tea with lemon instead of milk and sugar is very good if you’re on a reducing diet.
Skelton sighed, You’re not portly.
They go to the jail to meet Aziz who is on solitary confinement (for his own safety). Aziz is smart and talks about his innocence. He even makes some valid points : “if I was the killer, why would I go to all this trouble to disguise the identity of the cadaver then dump it in the nearest available quarry and fail to destroy the bloodstained rug?”
Edgar postulates that Aziz’s wife 9who is supposedly the dead body) was actually having an affair and they wound up killing someone who looked like her in order to frame Aziz and get him out of the picture.
There’s a side plot of sorts from Skelton’s cousin Alan. He had recently become something of a travelling preacher–with joke telling and banjo playing. Wherever there was a need–pit disaster, flood, fire–they would go. They were bringers of comfort.
His letters to Arthur are amusing and at times actually help to advance the plot.
Stafford also has some fun with Skelton’s wife who had a rule about Christmas presents: the children were allowed three each: one frivolous, one active and one educational. But Skelton decides to get the kids a guinea pig (“a step up from a stuffed toy really … [but if it dies] you know. You get another. Same difference”).
What else is fun about the story is that Skelton is also working on other cases. Like Charlie “Bottomless” Pitt, a local criminal whom Skelton had successfully defended twice. But this third time was a really difficult case. And worse yet was Charlie’s mother Phyllis–a formidable woman who was like a teacher from Elementary school.
But the focus is Dr. Aziz, who gives Skelton some worrying news. His family has monetary reasons for wanting the British to leave Egypt. He suggests that his family could have been responsible for his wife’s death.
That the story pivots on a larvae found in the suitcase (and a medical examiner who is really into etymology) just tells you how wild this story can get.
I really enjoyed it. And now I need to track down Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons.
Leave a Reply