"Sudden Vengeance"

On the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, you'll find a review of Edmund Crispin's marvelous novel, "Sudden Vengeance." First published in 1950, it's a satirical look at the English film industry (as it existed in mid-20th-century America") combined with a murder mystery, all cobbled together neatly around a couplet from the 18th century English poet Alexander Pope's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady":

On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,

And frequent hearses shall besiege thy gates.

Crispin's central character, Oxford University Professor Gervase Fen, has been hired as an adviser by a movie studio that is trying to make a movie about Pope, centered on that elegy. But when a bit actress in the film commits suicide - and police discover that all traces of her past have been carefully wiped out - both Fen and the police feel helpless as members of the film crew are murdered. It appears that someone is taking the elegy to heart, killing those whom the murderer holds responsible for the girl's death.

Crispin was the pen name of Bruce Montgomery, a composer of British film music, and he uses his inside knowledge of the film industry to provide some marvelous satire. But the story itself is, ultimately, a deadly tragedy. Crispin juggles the two threads with his usual expert deftness, and the book is excellent. You can listen to a full review on the podcast. "Sudden Vengeance" is in print from the Felony and Mayhem Press; your book dealer may also find copies under the title "Frequent Hearses."