Bleeding Hooks by Harriet Rutland - #1940 club

So, it's the week of the 1940 Club this week, which is being hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and  Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings.

Sadly, I've been a bit busy this week so reading more than one book has not been possible. I didn't even intend to read this one, I'd chosen something else, but The Dean Street Press people put a list of 1940 books on their twitter feed and Bleeding Hooks by Harriet Rutland sounded intriguing and is only 99p, so I grabbed it for my Kindle. 

 

The book is set in Wales in an inn beside a lake where fishing is very popular. But it's October and the end of the season, so catches are irratic and uncertain: in the summer this is a fisherman's paradise. A motley group of people have gathered, all addicted to fishing, apart from several women who are sisters or sweethearts of the men. One other woman, middle-aged Mrs. Mumsby, is something else entirely. She claims to be an ardent fishing fan too but the others suspect she's not and that the only thing she wants to catch is a new man. They make her a figure of fun, she's despised by all to be honest, and doesn't help matters by flirting with all the men and making them feel uncomfortable.

Thus, it's no surprise when she dies by the side of the lake. It's an odd death... she's found with a salmon fly embedded in her hand and at first it's thought she died of the shock. But a few people are not happy. Among them an engaged couple 'Pussy' Partridge and 'Piggy' Gunn. Both suspect foul play but it's not until they come across another of the group, Mr. Winkley, examining the crime scene at night, that they realise they're not alone in their suspicions. Winkley works at Scotland Yard and is ideally placed to help them investigate. Everyone thinks Mrs. Mumsby's death is an accident but why would she have been messing around with a salmon fly when the salmon season is over?

Harriet Rutland was the pen name of Olive Shimwell. She wrote three books, Knock, Murderer, Knock!, Bleeding Hooks and Blue Murder. The first two have Mr. Winkley as the detective, but possibly not the third. From reading a couple of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads it appears Bleeding Hooks is the least poular of the three. I can see why. Partly, it's because I don't fish so a lot of the terminolgy was lost on me. But also there were a lot of characters and I struggled a bit to remember who was who and what they had done to make them suspects. It was also, in my opinion only, quite easy to guess the culprit.

A book published in 1940 is going to be 'of its time' of course. Piggy seemed to have no problem with calling herself 'stupid' or with the boyfriend doing the same. The other thing was that they weren't a particularly charming lot. I realise Mrs. Mumsby did not help herself but equally they were horrible to her. And not much better to each other really. A very odd and unpleasant lot and I kept hoping someone would knock off a few more of them... Mr. Winkley, who was investigating, could've been quite interesting I felt. He was not an actual detective with Scotland Yard, more an ideas man in an office that people went to for solutions to problems, but not a lot was made of that, which I thought was a shame.  

What was very good was the sense of place. Welsh lakes are exactly as the author described them and I loved the descriptions of the scenery and the unpredictable weather. The inn sounded gorgeous too, I would happily stay there. I wondered if it was based on Bala Lake which is a gorgeous spot in Gwynedd, Wales. There are plenty of other possibilities though as Wales is full of lakes and reservoirs.

Anyway, for me Bleeding Hooks was a solid vintage detective story, made interesting by the Welsh setting and by not being a police procedural with a traditional detective. And the fishing background was something a bit different too. For the princely sun of 99p I was quite happy.