A review of The Grim Maiden by Brian Flynn – 231104

Always expect the unexpected with Brian Flynn, a writer who is not content to follow a tried and tested formula but who is willing to experiment with form and structure. Generally the experiment pays off and certainly the reader is never quite sure what they are in for when they read the first page of the first chapter. To my mind that is part of his attraction.

The Grim Maiden, the thirtieth in Flynn’s long running Anthony Bathurst series, was originally published in 1943 and has been reissued by Dean Street Press. It is more of a thriller than a traditional whodunit as there is no attempt to hide the identities of the culprits. The challenge for Bathurst, ably assisted by his long-standing ally at the Yard, Andrew MacMorran, is to work out what is going on, prevent further crimes being committed, and obtain enough evidence to ensure that justice is done.

Bathurst has two visits which set the tale up. One is from Richard Arbuthnot who is convinced that simply because a fellow commuter has had the same unopened library book, the Seamark Omnibus, on his lap for months that a crime is going to be committed and the other from a woman who is concerned that her brother, Regan, is missing. Bathurst’s suspicions are alerted when he discovers that the library did not have a copy of the book and Regan’s body is found on the road, supposedly the victim of a hit and run accident although there is evidence to suggest that this conclusion was arrived at too hastily.

Regan had given his sister seven sketches of women that he had drawn which Bathurst deduces provides a clue in the form of a cipher and pokes around in the garden of the house in which he lived, finding, amongst other things, a diary, which contains a number of initially disparate and confusing clues. That he is on to something is confirmed when Regan’s sister suffers the same fate as her brother.

It becomes a tale of organised crime, currency counterfeiting, and money laundering and one in which Bathurst gets actively involved, inveigling himself into the gang, albeit he is sent on an amusing wild goose chase as the Mr Bigs are not as naïve as he supposed them to be. The story takes on an altogether more grimmer and macabre aspect as the gang turn to extortion and child kidnap. Bathurst and MacMorran are too late to prevent the first abduction ending in tragedy but are able to prevent a second, amassing enough evidence along the way to be absolutely certain who the mastermind is. After all, child kidnapping is not a very British crime.

Helen Repton, from the female side of the Yard – who knew? – makes a cameo appearance and it is through her diligence that valuable clues that lead to the case’s resolution are obtained. Her reward, a few patronising and sexist pats on the back. As the case reaches its denouement, Bathurst once more throws himself into the lion’s den. He obtains some incriminating documentation, although why the gang allow him to keep them when he falls into their hands is a mystery.

It is almost at the end of the book that our hero meets the eponymous Grim Maiden, aka an Iron Maiden, an instrument of torture that crushes and spikes its victim to death. This is the fate that the Regans had suffered for knowing too much and from which Bathurst escapes in the nick of time by the deus ex machina-like appearance of Andrew MacMorran.    

As the duo review the case, some loose ends are wrapped up. The book, which started the whole caper off, was hollowed out and was the means by which the counterfeit money was conveyed while the Maiden explains the references to Nuremburg. Flynn manages to knit the disparate strands of the story into a whole, but it rather strains credulity and relies a little too heavily on coincidence to be considered a triumph. It also has too many characters who flit in and out of the story to be anything other than the Bathurst show. As entertainment goes, it was fine but we know Flynn was capable of better.