Men For Pieces by Brian Flynn

Men For Pieces (1949) is book 36 in Brian Flynn’s Anthony Bathurst Mysteries series. Along with this one, Dean Street Press are republishing books 37 through to 40, Black Agent (1950), Where There Was Smoke (1951), And Cauldron Bubble (1951), and The Ring of Innocent (1952). And all five books come out today! Brian Flynn wrote 57 mysteries, of which, I believe, 53 of them feature his brilliant gentleman detective Anthony Lotherington Bathurst. Dean Street Press have republished book one, The Billiard-Room Mystery (1927), through to book 40. 

I have not read the first book, or the second. In fact, I have only read one other book in this series. It was one of the books around the middle, and I was not overly impressed by it. However, I was on holiday at the time and after a two day long journey in the car we ended up at the most abysmal rental. It was so damp that if you sat on the couch you cold feel moisture seeming into your clothes. It was dirty. It smelled, unsurprisingly. And a mere dribble came out of the shower. Even Clark—who is a dog, for anyone who does not know—kept giving the couch suspicious sniffs. Needless to say, I could not get comfortable and spent the entire time we were there sitting outside, waiting for it to be over. It is doubtful that any book I read in that environment would have impressed me. The sad thing is, I was only made aware of this fact through reading Men For Pieces. I had such a great time reading this book, and absolutely loved our detective, Anthony Lotherington Bathurst, that I am determined to start the series from the beginning and read my way through all the books, including that one that didn’t get the attention it deserved from me the first time around. But before I go off on a Brian Flynn binge, let’s talk about Men For Pieces.

Peter Oliver worked at Delaney’s bank, until the day he didn’t show up. Everyone there assumes he is sick and just failed to let them know. But his fiancée Stella Forrest knows something is wrong when he fails to come from lunch to the restaurant where she works. With Peter’s parents and siblings away for Easter the couple spent much of the weekend together. The last words he said to her on Monday night were, “Usual time tomorrow” (39).* 

When Stella spots Anthony Bathurst walk into her restaurant the next day, she immediately recognises him. Desperate, she sends him over a note providing him with the broad strokes of the situation and begging him for his help. Anthony being the person he is, believes her, despite the dismissal of the situation from his lunch partner, Chief Detective Inspector Andrew MacMorran. Soon the worst is realised. Peter Oliver is dead. Found in the bathroom of his parents’ home, dressed in evening wear with his throat cut, the bloodied straight razor held in his left hand. All signs point to suicide, but one. The bath plug wound around the wrong faucet.

Through the investigation £20,000 worth of foreign bonds are discovered to have gone missing from Delaney’s bank. It’s looking more like Peter got himself into trouble and killed himself in remorse. Then few days later the bonds are returned to the bank. Curiouser and curiouser. But when Stella goes missing, the situation becomes even more unclear. Why would the person who sounded the alarm on her fiancé’s disappearance not stick around until his killer was brought to justice? Anthony tries to make sense of it by talking it out with pathologist, Greatorex.

“On Good Friday—that's only five days ago, my dear chap, not even a week—this desperate, terror-haunted man takes his girl to Hampton Court. The next day they do a ‘flick’ at one of the best cinemas. Sunday sees them at Southend and Monday they visit Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens in April, Greatorex. Very lovely, you know. Ever been there?”

Greatorex closed his brief-case and stood up. “What the hell are you trying to say, Bathurst?” 

Anthony shrugged his shoulders. “Simply that this man, who's now a corpse, was, but a few days ago, in love with love and life. Doing all the delightfully normal things that a healthy man, with his arms round a pretty girl, wants to do. Are you following me, Greatorex? Friday, Hampton Court, Saturday, the cinema, Sunday, Southend, Monday, Kew Gardens, and Monday night—after kissing his girl good night—off with his own head, and so much for Peter Oliver! Well, Greatorex, does it add up, do you think?” (52-53)

From the start, Anthony is able to put himself in the shoes of the dead man, Peter. While initially the physical evidence tells one story, that of suicide, the person Peter was and his relationship with Stella, tells a different story. All Anthony and his buddy MacMorran have to do is fill in the gaps, and find out who would want to kill Peter. Because from the looks of it, the man didn’t have an enemy in the world. 

The mystery in this book is strong. I certainly did not see the ending playing out how it did. But I do think that one could in theory solve the mystery. That is, if one was a bit better at that sort of thing than I! My only real complaint about this book is that I would have liked to find out more about our sleuth, Anthony Lotherington Bathurst. The series is named after him, so clearly it’s his show, but I did not get any sense of what his personal life is like outside of the case, or even if he has one. We know he’s a good person. He isn’t just solving murders for fun. He has a moral conscience and has not been desensitised or become cynical by the job like MacMorran who brushes Stella’s note off with, “I’ve seen this sort of thing before” and “[h]ysteria takes all sorts of forms” (32). This gives an unflattering impression of MacMorran, when he really isn’t a bad guy, he just does not seem to be as inclined to see the individual situation, because he has been at the job so long. And let’s be honest, Anthony has a talent for ferreting out the truth and seeing the details that others miss. That is why he’s working with Scotland Yard in the first place. At least that’s what I assume. We don’t get an explanation about why Anthony and MacMorran are friends, how they met, or why they are working together. There’s no background catchup at the start of this book that you so often see in detective series. But I expect that information is provided in the first book. I will read that one, and report back.

If you want to geek out over these books or just find out more about Brian Flynn, the blog In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel is a wonderful resource. I stumbled upon it when I was looking for more information on the author, and what do you know? It is run by none other than crime fiction historian, Steve Barge, the person who wrote the introductions for the new Dean Street Press editions. He has got some great sounding suggestions for books to read next in the series and lots of reviews and information on other mystery writers. I have to thank him for clarifying that the title Men For Pieces comes from a piece of poetry by Omar Khayyam. I suspected it was a phrase from a quotation, but if it wasn’t for his review I could very well still be trying to solve that mystery! And if I haven’t convinced you to pick up one of Brian Flynn’s books, well Steve Barge wrote a fantastic article for the Dean Street Press blog that will leave you desperate to get started on your journey with this author.

Thank you to Dean Street Press Ltd. for kindly sending me a copy of Men For Pieces for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

If you got something out of this post, please consider subscribing to my blog. You can find the email sign up on the right hand side at the top of this page (on desktop version only), or click on the link here. You will receive a confirmation email in your inbox (or possibly your junk folder). Once you click to confirm your email address you will receive an email notification whenever a new blog post goes up. And, of course, you can unsubscribe at any time. Whether you subscribe or not, I’m so thankful you are here.

*All page numbers are from the ebook and are not likely to correspond to the paperback edition.

This blog post contains affiliate links for Blackwell’s. As a Blackwell’s Affiliate, I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you decide to make a purchase through one of the links on my website. I recommend Blackwell’s because I use them myself. This helps support me in sharing—what I hope is—valuable content. Thank you for your support!