The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye (Brian Flynn)

By Brian Flynn
First published: UK, 1928. Available from Dean Street Press

This may well be the most popular detective fiction release of the week. The Puzzle Doctor has prescribed a course of Brian Flynn, now available from Dean Street Press; half the criminous blogosphere has read it; and the verdict has been unanimously in favour. The ‘eyes’, to to speak, have it.

We have monarchs blackmailed with incriminating documents on the eve of their wedding; a jewel stolen from an Indian temple; and a dead girl in a dentist’s chair.

The middle of the book seems a typical, workmanlike English Realist detective story. There are a few clever twists at the start of the book, as the police establish the victim’s identity, but then (alas! …?) routine apparently takes over. Amateur sleuth (one Bathurst) and his police ally (Chief Inspector Bannister) question hotel staff and bank managers, search bungalows, and trace bank notes, just as in Freeman Wills Crofts or John Rhode.

Persevere, though! Note that ‘seems’ and ‘apparently’. This is cleverer stuff than it appears. All the while, Flynn is planting smacking great clues under our noses, and we’re closer to the murderer than we suspect.

The final stretch gathers speed, as Bathurst asks seemingly meaningless questions – the sort that tell him much, but the obtuse reader little – and hints at dark deeds. The murderer’s identity should surprise most people; I’d read Scott Sutherland’s Blood in Their Ink, so I was forewarned, but not forearmed. (I’m neither a quadruped nor a Hindu god.) I suspected the name whispered in a certain ear. The clueing is fine, subtle stuff (we’re almost in Carr territory), and the false assumption right at the start is delicious.

Thank you, Steve! I’ve just bought the first two in the series.

Contemporary reviews

Montrose Standard (28 September 1928): This is a “Sundial Mystery Library” issue, and those who know that series, will settle down assured of an evening’s capital entertainment. Mr. Flynn’s story is rather involved, and the plot cannot be detailed here. A girl has a tooth extracted. The dentist leaves the room for a few minutes and on his return the girl is dead – foully murdered. She is identified as Daphne Carruthers, but that lady turns up shortly after alive and well. The mystery deepens, and blackmail and robbery and all kinds of crime figure in the story, and when the secret is revealed the reader will get the surprise of his life. A capital yarn, told with great spirit and ingenuity. and the “Peacock’s eye” plays an important part. Anthony Bathhurst [sic] is a great detective, resembling in some ways the immortal Sherlock, and the story all over carries many thrills and much excitement.

Sheffield Independent (19 November 1928): There is a notable addition to the Sundial Mystery Library, introducing again; Mr. Anthony Bathurst and The Billiard Room Mystery and The Case of the Black Twenty-Two.

A mysterious Mr. X., the Peacock’s Eye and blackmailing letters sent to a Crown Prince are some of the elements that go to make up this exciting story. Suave, debonair and unruffled, Anthony is the same as in the previous enthralling stories.

The Bystander (Ralph Straus, 2 January 1929): Borrowing Mr. [Stanley] Baldwin’s words again, “I still think one of the best detective stories ever written” was Brian Flynn’s The Billiard-Room Mystery, though I cannot say whether my opinion is widely shared. That story satisfied every one of my requirements, including the crash of real surprise at the end. His new book, The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye, is not quite so good, though the surprise is duly forth coming on page 303, and I confess that I never had an inkling of the real villain until Mr. Flynn chose to tell me his name. Also, I must acquit him of any form of cheating: he plays absolutely fair. Perhaps it is that he has included too many complications. More probably, however, I am still thinking of The Billiard-Room Mystery, and judging the new book by too stern a standard. It certainly makes very good reading.

The Boston Globe (4 October 1930): Sheila Delany and Daphne Carruthers went to the Hunt Ball at Westhampton. Unfortunately, while there, they met the mysterious “Mr X.” Secret love letters follow. Blackmail letters figure in the plot. A rejected lover becomes angry. One of the girls is murdered. Threatening letters are sent to the Crown Prince of Clorania. Anthony Bathurst and Police-Inspector Bannister are called to solve these mysteries. They are confronted with the problem of discovering how many mysterious strangers were at the Hunt Ball. The author is an Englishman, an accountant by profession, an amateur actor of note, and the author of four mystery novels.

The Cincinnati Observer (25 October 1930): Here is a new mystery by the author of the Anthony Bathurst stories. At the Hunt Ball at Westhampton two charming girls, Cheila Delaney and Daphne Carruthers, meet a mysterious “Mr. X.”

From this innocent beginning spring secret love affairs, blackmailing letters, bitterness on the part of a rejected suitor and the murder of one of the girls. Which girl was murdered? Why? Who sent the threatening letters to the Crown Prince of Clorania? What startling information did the bank manager bring? What was the Peacock’s Eye? How many mysterious strangers were at the Hunt Ball?

Such are the questions that are presented to Anthony Bathurst and Police Inspector Bannister. But it is Bathurst who, suave and unrufled, as always, stages the scene in which the culprit is at last betrayed.

It will be remembered by detective story “fans” that Anthony Bathurst makes his first appearance in The Case of the Black 22. Someone has called this a “six-cylinder detective yarn,” and it was all of that and then some. In the Billiard Room Mystery Bathurst solves the ghastly murder of Gerry Prescott. Some story!

Mr. Flynn’s third offering is not only well filled with action, but follows in interesting detail the unravelling of a most baffling double murder. The author of these fascinating tales is an Englishman born at Leyton, Essex, some 40 years ago. By profession Mr. Flynn is an accountant in the Government service, as well as a lecturer in elocution and English speech. He is an athlete and is one of the most famous amateur actors in London, and has appeared in over 150 dramatic productions, many of which he has himself produced.