George Bellairs is one of those mostly forgotten authors whose works have been reprinted by the British Library with beautiful covers and a short and helpful introduction. This book, Death of a Busybody, was originally published in 1942 and one of its features is the frequent mention of wartime precautions and activities as very much part of everyday life with no need for them to be remarked on as unusual in any way.
The “busybody” of the title is Miss Ethel Tither, an inhabitant of Hilary Magna, a typical English village. When her body is found in the cesspit of the vicar whilst it is being cleaned the local police call in Scotland Yard in the person of Inspector Littlejohn.
Miss Tither had been the very active and vocal guardian of the morality of the inhabitants of the area, regularly dispensing unwanted tracts and unwelcome comments and advice. The suspects are, therefore, many and various and people have reason to fear or hate her for lots of different reasons.
This is the first in a series of books featuring Littlejohn who carries out a thorough investigation. In the course of this he meets and interviews a variety of eccentric characters who the author brings vividly to life and describes with a certain amount of humour. The author, however, has no time for hypocrisy and greed, and ensures that the perpetrator suffers the ultimate penalty while conceding that madness may have played a part. The writing is clear and the plotting fairly straightforward. The murderer is not too difficult to spot and one alibi uses a well-known trick of classic crime writers.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I found it entertaining and easy to read and although the author obviously exaggerates for effect the portrait of an English village in the 1940s is beautifully done.
Anne Is Reading 