A review of Two and Two make Twenty-Two by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning

This is another fascinating murder mystery, originally published in 1932, that has been rescued from obscurity by Dean Street Press. The story is unashamedly American but exhibits many of the features that readers expect from a good old-fashioned British Golden Age detective yarn.

The first is the amateur sleuth, Daisy Dillingham, another in the line of eccentric female characters who disarm their suspects into revealing more than they should. Like Mitchell’s Mrs Bradley, who first appeared in 1932, she calls those younger than her “child” – an irritating trait but, perhaps, it was a common idiosyncrasy in those days – and instead of wielding knitting needles, bangs a cane. Indeed, canes play a vital role in the drama.

The setting is a variation on the cosy country house where guests are trapped by bad weather and one of their number is murdered. Here the setting is a luxurious Island getaway off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, called, appropriately enough Paradise Island, where the well-heeled are feted in luxurious surroundings, whiling their time away relaxing, playing sports, and gambling. The proprietor, who is about to sell the place, is the mysterious Brett Allison, who is suspected of being involved in a drug running operation run from the island. Several of the characters are involved in the narcotics investigations and are anticipating making an arrest that evening.

A terrific storm hits the island and those guests who had not left before it broke are trapped there. One of the investigators, Linton Barclay, is found stabbed to death in his house and one of the guests, Eva Shale, is the last person known to have seem him alive and, just before his death, Barclay is heard mentioning her name. As communications with the mainland are down, Brett Allison is authorised to conduct initial investigations which he does with some assistance from Daisy.

Things look black for Eva but Daisy and her grandson, Andrew Dillingham, who has fallen for Eva’s charms, are not convinced and Allison is, curiously, reluctant to arrest her despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Instead, he organises for each of the guests and members of the staff to disclose their whereabouts and alibis, a process that reveals that there are others who have motive enough to see the back of Barclay. An element of drama is added when the two ruffian members of Barclay’s boat crew interrupt proceedings.

Ultimately, as its title suggests, it is a story dressed up, you might say, to reveal that not everything is as it seems. There is quite a ferocious twist in the tale at the end. For the armchair sleuth, Bristow and Manning do not play quite as fairly as some writers of the genre and there is not enough direct evidence sprinkled within the text for the reader to be certain of the identity of the culprit or, indeed, their motivation. There are hints but it probably requires the deductive power of a Sherlock Holmes to get there before the big reveal.

Rather like Mrs Bradley, Daisy Dillingham has her own, slightly warped, sense of justice and engineers a resolution which may satisfy those with a sentimental heart but does not follow the letter of the law.

Where this book differed radically from Gladys Mitchell was in its style. It is written in a very straightforward manner, with enough in the way of characterisation to make the protagonists come to life, a dash of humour and with no pretensions to be anything other than a light piece of entertainment. In that respect, two and two really does make four.