Gerald Verner - The Grim Joker - Kindle Edition
Robert Budd Mystery Number 1
Gerald Verner was one of a number of pen-names used by John Robert Stuart Pringle (31 Jan 1897-16 Sep 1980). Other names used by the multipseudonymous Mr Pringle include Derwent Steele, Donald Stuart and Nigel Vane.
First published in 1936, this is the first of quite a lengthy series of books featuring central character Supt Robert Budd.
I would say it is intelligently plotted, written in an engaging style and is likely to satisfy all but the most demanding of afficionados of detective fiction of that era.
Budd is an interesting and, mostly, engaging character. Known as `Rosebud` by his subordinates due to his interest in gardening, he is obese and cultivates a sleepy demeanour which hides an incisive mind.
His tendency to be abrasively rude to any Officer who he perceives as negligent, even when this does not seem to actually be the case, will not sit well with the modern reader and I am not sure why it is there.
It does occur to me that Mr Verner may have been influenced by Frank Froests` The Rogues` Syndicate, which first appeared in 1930 and also featured a detective, Weir Menzies, whose hobby is gardening and who can be forceful in his criticisms of slipshod officers. Menzies, however, is portrayed as a kindly, though forceful, man who does this as an alternative to disciplinary action and in the hope the erring officers will remember and improve. Robert Budd does not appear to have a comparable motivation at all.
I worked out part of the plot before I reached the end, but not all of it by any means.
Would recommend this book to others with a taste for this sort of thing and it`s my intention sometime soon to move on to the second of the Robert Budd mysteries, which I believe is called The Jockey.
