James Hilton (British, 1900-1954), most famous for GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS, LOST HORIZON, and RANDOM HARVEST, also published one fair-play mystery--WAS IT MURDER? (U.S. 1931), aka MURDER AT SCHOOL (U.K. 1931)--that allows readers to match wits with the story's three detectives and its author.
Despite the fact that two young boys die violently at a small private boarding school, the tone of this book is generally light and frequently quite humorous, largely at the expense of Colin Revell, the young amateur detective who is the story's central character. Revell, who is snobbish about his superior intellect, has long been writing a rambling, egotistical, satirical "epic" poem that deliberately resembles Lord Byron's DON JUAN. (Several examples of his recently composed stanzas appear at intervals throughout this mystery.)
Revell is flattered when the headmaster of the school that prepared him for Oxford invites him to come and look into the unusual "accidental death" of one of the young students. Largely because the scene of the "accident" has been cleaned up, his investigation is inconclusive, but a few months later, when the brother of that first student also dies an unusual death, he returns to look into this as well. This time Revell settles on a likely suspect but has difficulties finding evidence that might lead to a conviction in a court of law.
Suddenly a Detective Guthrie from Scotland Yard appears at the boarding school, having determined that the ruling of "accidental death" in the matter of the second brother was obviously faulty--because the elderly school doctor who examined the corpse failed to notice a bullet inside the boy's brain.
After Detective Guthrie questions one of the school's teachers, that man is found dead of an overdose of a sleeping medication, and the question arises whether this third death is an accident or suicide ... or murder. Complicating things, a young woman comes forward and tells Guthrie and Revell about a conversation she had with the dead teacher the previous night.
Readers who are paying attention should be able to "solve" most of what has occurred and who is behind most of it. I did so within a few pages of the guilty person's first appearance, but I still found this book engagingly written and quite entertaining. Hilton, besides mocking the fictional convention of the "gifted amateur detective," who easily succeeds where Scotland Yard fails, even has his characters specifically allude to Sherlock Holmes several times and discuss "detective fiction" in general.
Two brief passages I considered offensive were (1) a character's casual use of the N-word as if that were a proper way to talk and (2) a Scotland Yard detective's blatantly sexist remarks about women in the final pages of the book. Weighing these and other factors, if I were giving this book a letter grade, in my judgment it deserves a solid "B" for its plotting, its very plausible psychology, and its enjoyable satirical comments.
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Reviews with images
Hilton channels Christie
From the Dover edition: "Was It Murder?" like "Goodbye Mr. Chips," takes place in that most traditional and confounding of English settings, the public school. Colin Revell, impudent Oxonian and sometime sleuth, returns to his alma mater Oakington to puzzle over a schoolboy's "accidental" death. The accidents multiply in frequency and horror as Colin idly pokes about the Gothic quads, and the tightly modulated suspense ripens with a generous foretaste of Hilton's later acclaimed talent: finely perceived, individual characters, overwhelming atmosphere, and full complement of adventure and romance.From reviewer: I must admit it has been many years since I read this, picking it up because "Random Harvest" and "Lost Horizon" are favorites, and I enjoy mysteries. So, my rating is based mostly on not having a bad feeling about it, but not having a great one, either.P.S. This book was originally released in 1931 under the title "Murder At School" under a pen name of Glen Trevor.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2005
From the Dover edition: "Was It Murder?" like "Goodbye Mr. Chips," takes place in that most traditional and confounding of English settings, the public school. Colin Revell, impudent Oxonian and sometime sleuth, returns to his alma mater Oakington to puzzle over a schoolboy's "accidental" death. The accidents multiply in frequency and horror as Colin idly pokes about the Gothic quads, and the tightly modulated suspense ripens with a generous foretaste of Hilton's later acclaimed talent: finely perceived, individual characters, overwhelming atmosphere, and full complement of adventure and romance.
From reviewer: I must admit it has been many years since I read this, picking it up because "Random Harvest" and "Lost Horizon" are favorites, and I enjoy mysteries. So, my rating is based mostly on not having a bad feeling about it, but not having a great one, either.
P.S. This book was originally released in 1931 under the title "Murder At School" under a pen name of Glen Trevor.
From reviewer: I must admit it has been many years since I read this, picking it up because "Random Harvest" and "Lost Horizon" are favorites, and I enjoy mysteries. So, my rating is based mostly on not having a bad feeling about it, but not having a great one, either.
P.S. This book was originally released in 1931 under the title "Murder At School" under a pen name of Glen Trevor.
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Mr. A.J. PENDLEBURY
1931 yet in many ways so much more modern.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2020