Antidote to Venom [1938] – ★★★★
“…of the Good in you I can communicate, however not of the Evil. For what’s Evil however not Good tortured by its personal starvation and thirst? When Good is hungry, it seeks meals, even in darkish caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of lifeless waters” (The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran).
There are few murder-mysteries on the market which have actually distinctive settings, and since this Golden Age detective thriller is ready in a zoo, it actually appeals simply on the idea of its intriguing set-up. Irish writer Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957)’s story is about Birmington Zoo Director George Surridge, whose life begins to slowly unravel proper beneath his nostril: he and his spouse develop more and more detached in the direction of one another, he has just lately compelled to fireplace certainly one of his zoo guards for misconduct, and now he has to cope with probably the most astonishing thriller: the disappearance of a toxic snake from his zoo. That’s not all: following the snake’s disappearance, a person is discovered lifeless – presumably, from that snake’s chew. However, nothing is because it appears. Inspector Joseph French begins investigating and comes up with probably the most ingenious resolution that may clarify a complete sequence of wierd occasions in George Surridge’s life. Antidote to Venom is one thrilling thriller learn from some of the esteemed Golden Age crime authors.
At its coronary heart, Antidote to Venom is a couple of full-scale dive into a personality, a personality that seems peculiar at first look, however whose actions turn out to be something however. That character is George Surridge and we step into his sneakers. Surridge needs nicely for his spouse Clarissa, however he additionally meets one other lady he falls in love with, and desires to construct his future along with her. Clarissa has no place. Surridge likes his wealthy, aged aunt, however he additionally desires to put his arms on his inheritance from her as quickly as attainable. Thus, his aunt Lucy apparently has no place (in Surridge’s good world). Surridge is a dutiful zoo director that genuinely cares for his staff and animals, however he additionally has a playing behavior to maintain – all comprehensible – to an extent? George Surridge is a person pressured, a person in despair pressed in opposition to the wall. It’s right here that Freeman Wills Crofts shines, displaying how simply the unthinkable can flip into one thing very a lot “thinkable” and doable. To not give any spoilers away, it’s only secure to say that the writer in his one character (who is just not a detective)-centred strategy seems forward of his time, means predating Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho – (although not within the first-person narration, after all).
There are surprising turns on this e-book, with the narrative seemingly main the reader into one course, just for them to finish up in one other, and, for as soon as, we have now a really intelligent assassin and an ingenious crime resolution. That resolution would have appeared too-far-fetched, however Freeman Wills Crofts’s fluid writing engages us in each sentence and paragraph, serving to us to droop our disbelief. The identical helps us to miss among the plot’s melodrama and acquainted crime motives. “Two folks can hold a secret if certainly one of them is lifeless”, the saying goes, and we actually get that too on this plot. In Freeman Wills Crofts’s story, the evil has by no means felt so near house because the writer additionally makes a degree that you have to by no means underestimate a very determined man.
🐍 Antidote to Venom is just not a lot a whodunit as howdunit story, however it’s nonetheless a detective story that holds its personal within the style. It’s one with a too good a criminal offense that has sufficient intrigues, pink herrings and a bunch of toxic snakes to fulfill any curious thriller lover who will undoubtedly admire its extremely observant detective – Inspector French.
🩸 See additionally my critiques of different British Library Crime Classics: The Poisoned Goodies Case, Miraculous Mysteries and Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries.