MartinEdwards' BlackstoneFell (2022),alternatively published as ThePuzzle of Blackstone Lodge,is the third title in the Rachel Savernake series that can best bedescribed as historical, pulp-style retro-thrillers withelaborately-webbed, tangled puzzle plots hidden underneath –comparable only to ChristopherFowler's Peculiar Crimes Unit series. A technique known aswebwork plotting ("...theart of creating a single story out of random multiple narrativethreads")and Edwards cleverly exploited to write one series that satisfies twodifferent groups of readers. Those who enjoy a dark, eventfulthriller with characters and those who want their crime fictionsupported by a good, solid plot.
Ibelong to the latter and definitely appreciated the first twoSavernake retro-pulp novels, GallowsCourt(2018) and MortmainHall(2022), which combined the best of the detective story and thriller.Edwards ended both with a "Cluefinder" referring back to thepages and lines where the clues and hints to the solution were hiddenin plain sight. Something I can always appreciate, but particularlylooked forward to getting to BlackstoneFellas it contains not one, but two, impossible disappearances!
Backin 2022, Edwards wroteon his blog that he had been rewatching "thecomplete run of episodes of David Renwick'sJonathanCreek,"as well as “workingon JohnDickson Carrtitles for the British Library,"while BlackstoneFellwas still in its conceptional phase – deciding "itwould be fun to have a genuine locked room mystery in the book."Edwards has written short impossible crime stories before, "Waitingfor Godstow"(2000) and "TheHouse of the Red Candle" (2004), but BlackstoneFellis his first novel-length locked room mystery. Just like it's twopredecessors, BlackstoneFellhas a plot resembling a deep, densely-webbed structure with maze-likeproperties. And like the previous novel, this third title in theseries has a body count PaulDohertywould approve of.
BlackstoneFellis set in October, 1930, beginning with the arrival of theinvestigative journalist Nell fa*gan in the small, remote Yorkshirevillage of Blackstone Fell "masqueradingas a photographer named Grace"– trying to worm information from the locals about the localsanatorium. Vernon Murray contacted Nell to ask her help to bringwhoever murdered his mother to justice, Ursula Murray. A widow whor*married a young, virtually unknown playwright, Thomas Baker ("no,none of the theatre critics have heard of him, either"),who packed her off to Blackstone Sanatorium to recover from a"nervouscollapse."There she died from supposedly natural causes, but Vernon refuses toaccept that verdict. And, out of desperation, turned to the crimereporter.
Nelltook the tenancy of the historical, long vacant Blackstone Lodge asCornelia Grace and tried poking around, but the close-knit communityis not very keen on nosy outsiders and simply refuse to open up("certainlynot to an ungainly Londoner who reeked of tobacco and gin...").However, Nell's prying disturbed someone as she's almost killed coming downthe Fell by a boulder. Realizing she needs help, Nell reaches out toRachel Savernake through Jacob Flint, because Nell is a persona nongrata in Gaunt House. So she has to bait the hook with an offer forJacob and an enticing mystery for Rachel. A historical locked roommystery centering on the gatehouse known as Blackstone Lodge!
BlackstoneLodge is a damp, drafty gatehouse dating back to the 17th centurystanding on the grounds of the now crumbling, overgrown BlackstoneTower estate of Harold Lejeune – whose family built and lived inthe Tower for centuries. The tower gatehouse stood vacant for nearlyas long on account of its dark history of inexplicabledisappearances. In 1606, Edmund Mellor was the first guest to bewelcomed at the recently completed Blackstone Tower and, one day, wasseen by the rector entering the gatehouse, locking the door behindand "nota living soul ever clapped eyes on him again."Mellor had not only vanished into thin air from a locked gatehouse,but a locked gatehouse under observation as "therector was adamant that he never budged from the spot." Three centuries later, it happened again 1914 when Alfred Lejeune,older brother of Harold, disappeared under similar circ*mstances fromthe gatehouse. Never to be seen again and declared dead in 1921. Socoupled with the possibility that a killer is on the loose in thevillage, "perhapsmore than one,"makes for a pretty mystery to offer to Rachel as a peace offering,but she also had to give Jacob something.
Jacobeditor is on a crusade against spiritualism, mediums and othersupposedly supernatural mumbo-jumbo, which include "London'smost renowned medium,"but Ottilie Curle is not easily exposed as she conducted hersessions one-on-one – only to the credulous or the converted.Skeptics and the press are kept at a distance. Nell can arrange aplace for Jacob at Curle's séance table under false pretenses, whichis too good to turn down and the third main plot-thread of BlackstoneFell.This is only the beginning as people begin to die, left and right,before Rachel can begin her investigation in earnest. Aninvestigation that brings even more deaths from the past to light.
Similarto GallowsCourtand MortmainHall,you can't really discuss the unfolding events past the setup asthings tend to become complicated really fast. Just like the firsttwo books, the complicated web of characters, maze-like plot andpotential motives are expertly handled. And beautifully tiedtogether.
Firstof all, I knew Edwards intended the historical locked room puzzle ofBlackstone Lodge to "asub-ploy rather than the mainspring of the story,"but couldn't help being a little disappointed my initial idea provedto be correct. I hoped Edwards' first novel-length locked roommystery would give me something towrite about, even only as a minor subplot. The other twoplot-threads are better handled with the deaths linked to thesanatorium being retro-pulp at its best ("...nfvtacbfg cbvagvat cebfcrpgvir zheqreref gb Oynpxfgbar Sryy"),while OttilieCurle's storyline diverges from the usual involving spiritual mediumsand dodgy séances. Edwards saved the best for last and concludeswith a masterstroke (ROT13)erirnyvatgur guerr, vagrepbaarpgrq pnfrf ner n onpxqebc sbe n sbhegu, zbfgylsnve TNQ-fglyr jubqhavg uvqvat va cynva fvtug.Bravo! It's exactly what I hope to find in a modern mystery styledafter the classics of yesteryear.
Justone little nitpick. I was completely satisfied with the ending andimmediately turned over to the "Cluefinder," which "enjoyeda vogue during 'the Golden Age of murder' between the world wars" and Edwards decided to resurrect it for this series. It workedwonders for the previous two novels, but not in this case as itshowed the clues ("aselection of pointers to the solution of the various mysteries")are not as strong as my impression was from the concluding chapters.Aside from that nagging, fanboyish bit of nitpicking, BlackstoneFellis another page-turner with a captivating, complicated plot and animmersive story that never stop moving. It's a worthy and excellentaddition to both this series and the Golden Age revival. I just hopewe'll get a genuine novel-length, JohnDickson Carr-style locked room mystery from Edwards in thefuture. Until then, I have SepulchreStreet(2023) awaiting on the big pile.
