I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: June 6, 2023] Jumping Jenny

I tend to receive unexpected books at work.  The most recent shipment included a couple of “Classic” mysteries.

This book is from a collection called British Library Crime Classics.  I enjoyed the book and thought I’d look for more from this series although I see that there are at least 100 books in the series, so that’s gonna take awhile.

The book opens at a costume party.  The fascinating theme is “famous murderers and their victims.”  Honestly I had to wonder how anyone knew what any of these people looked like.  Can you dress like a murderer?

In celebration of this party, the host, Ronald Stratton, has erected three gallows on the roof of his house.  He has put stuffed dummies in each one.  And if you are wondering about the title:

“In times gone by, a hanged man was sometimes colloquially referred to as a ‘Jumping Jack'” -Martin Edwards in the introduction.

And as such, a hanged woman might be called a Jumping Jenny.

At the party is renowned mystery writer (and therefore amateur criminologist) Roger Sheringham.  We don’t see the story from Roger’s point of view, but it is a fairly close third person perspective with Roger.

Roger doesn’t know that many people at the party, but he gets on with everyone fairly well.  But there is one young woman who is quite the exhibitionist.   Her name is Ena and she is married to Ronald Stratton’s brother, David.

And I’ll just jump in here to get the sexism out of the way.  The book is totally sexist in a 1930’s British way.  Ena speaks loudly of wanting to get drunk, she likes to show off her physical prowess (and yes, she is a total pain in the ass, no doubt).  But everyone seems to think that her death would be the best for everyone. Indeed, David has fallen for someone else but he knows that Ena would never allow for a divorce.  Logically the only way for him to be free of the horrible woman is her death, etc etc.  There’s talk of keeping women in their place and the like.

It’s not surprising given when it was written, but it’s pretty shocking to read in print.  I was actually also surprised to see a married lady state this (was this a common attitude in 1930s England?)

One mistake doesn’t make a series.  Besides, I never think a first marriage ought to count, do you?  One’s so busy learning how to be married at all that one can hardly help acquiring a kind of resentment against one’s partner in error.  And once resentment has crept in, the thing’s finished.  Anyhow, there one is, all nice and trained to the house, the complete article for the next comer. … One isn’t the same person at thirty-four as one was a twenty-four, wo why should one be expected to be suitable to  the human being who fitted ten years earlier?  Probably both of you have developed, on completely different lines.   I think one should change partners when one’s development is complete, except of course in the rare cases where the two do happen to have developed together

I had to wonder if Berkeley didn’t approve of marriage.  It seems interesting that he gives that speech to a woman given how women seem to otherwise be put in “their place.”

“Ass of a woman…. Why does he imagine it’s clever to like her whisky neat, and a good deal too much of it at that?”

Also, if you’ve never heard of an Apache Dance–good grief!

However, if you can get past this attitude (it pops up often enough, but the sexism isn’t central to the mystery), the mystery is quite clever.

So, Ena has been flouncing about talking about how much she hates life.

One can’t help asking oneself, is there really any use in life? … Sometimes I think that the best thing to do would be to put an end to it all…. whether a gas-oven isn’t after all the easiest solution.

However, we all know that people who talk like that are never serious and never actually kill themselves.

But the great amateur detective is wrong about this because a few chapters later Ena is found hanged from one of those gallows (thanks Chekov).

The reader knows exactly how Ena dies–we actually watch the murderer do the deed.  However, when the police arrive later they are told (and believe) that Ena committed suicide.

But when Roger checks out the crime scene (everyone is hesitant to call the police because they don’t want the creepy nature of their party getting out and about), he sees that a chair was now in place for Ena to have jumped off of.  But it certainly wasn’t there when they found her body earlier.   He suspects that someone killed Ena and then put the chair back in place to make it look like suicide.

Now, no one cares that Ena is dead.

“There isn’t a single person connected with this family who won’t be absolutely delighted t hear that Ena’s dead.”

Of course, this attitude is actually bad for everyone at the party because it implicates everyone in murder if the police decide it wasn’t suicide.  And Roger knows that someone is guilty.

So, he more or less plays detective to find the guilty party expressly for the purpose of protecting him (or her, but more likely him).

What’s especially funny about this is that he is certain that someone picked up Ena and put her in the noose–which automatically rules out certain people who could not have physically done that.  When in fact, she (being dramatic) put the noose around her own neck.

However, Roger goes about questioning some people for details.  I love that the very first person he questions turns it around and say he was sure that Roger was the murderer because of the way he tampered with the crime scene.  That man, Colin, winds up being the Watson to Roger’s Holmes and tries to help him look at other suspects.

It’s one of the few murder mysteries that I’ve read where the “detective” is 100% wrong in just about every count–because he’s starting from the wrong premise.

In fact, once Roger reaches a conclusion about what happened, he actively starts tampering with witnesses in hopes of steering the police away from what he believes actually happened.  It’s all fairly shocking, really.

Indeed, as the inquest continues, its starting to look more and more like Roger himself will get the blame for things.

The end of the book is pretty outstanding.