J. R. L. Anderson (1911–1981)

I bought this a few years ago, when Otto Penzler was selling his collection through his bookshop, Mysterious Books. It's a review copy of an author I'd never heard of, but the short catalog blurb made it sound interesting: mysterious death on a train, unknown works by Gainsborough, Turner and Constable found with the body, along with a sprig of - you guessed it - sea lavender.

This is a mid-century mystery, and it suffered from the usual quirks of that age: instant, yet chaste, romance, and show more a complete disregard of the fair-play rules of mystery plotting. As such, the reader, by the end, is presented with a fait accompli in both the romance and the mystery's resolution, without having any idea whatsoever how the main character got there, although he does explain it all at the very end.

By today's standards, it's all a bit thin, naive and 2 dimensional, but I had fun with it nevertheless. It wasn't trying to be anything other than an entertaining mystery and, while I've read others that are greater successes, it generally achieved its goal. show less

Tillman was an accomplished explorer and a great character. He served with distinction in both world wars and achieved the first ascent of Nanda Devi. In later life, he adapted his Himalayan mountaineering to polar exploration, climbing and sailing to some of the world's most desolate places.

His writings are classics of travel even if his stoicism downplayed his most astonishing adventures. In his books, he's something of a psychological cipher and even in this biography his motivations are show more obscure. Perhaps this taciternity adds to his mystique. show less

A Sprig of Sea Lavender is a nice little mystery tale that begins with a young girl dead on a train with what may be hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of paintings. Chief Inspector Piet Deventer, himself an artist as well as a policeman, investigates the murder.
Piet Deventer is an excellent character, very three dimensional and dynamic. No other character in the book comes close to being as well described as he, up to and including both his love interest and the villain. I would be show more interested in reading more about him, except for the rather bland love interest, with whom, it seems, he intends to spend the rest of his days. I have a problem with this relationship mostly because they have known each other for less than four days by the end of the book and most of that time they are not even together. She does seem clever, but it seems unlikely they'd be talking marriage at the end of that time. I'd buy, "Hey, we should continue to see each other now that no one's trying to kill us and see how that goes," but not "Here, have my grandmother's ring. Oh, look it fits you perfectly." Seriously, for a mystery so intricately well-built and detailed, it's unfortunate for the reader to feel they've been gagged by the sickening sweetness of this subplot romance.
I should say, though, that the murder mystery really is very nicely written with enough twists and red-herrings to keep even a jaded mystery reader feeling the suspense of I-have-to-know-whodunit before I can sleep!!! show less

Used - Good Condition. Nameplate inside book cover.