Another (amongst one of the latest) in the British Library Crime Classics series, which I am enjoying and will continue to collect and read.

An unusual structure utilised. Laura Dousland, the young wife of a much older and odd husband, is from page 1 literally on trial for the murder by poisoning of that husband, Fordish Dousland. There is contradictory evidence from the house's butler as to whether the chianti flask (of the book's title) and which is accepted by all as the likely source of that poison, was placed by the butler on the tray on which the butler habitually delivered Fordish's usual evening meal on the evening before Fordish is found dead by Laura. Alas the flask itself cannot be found anywhere, meaning its evidence cannot be inspected.

Laura, who has willingly stepped into the witness box, states she believes that the butler honestly, but mistakenly is of that view, but instead has confused himself with a previous occasion on which Fordish had hidden the equivalent flask, believing that he butler has improperly imbibed from the house's wine sources. An obvious alternative explanation was that Fordish committed suicide.

Much is made of the fact that Laura had not thrown the butler under the bus but even more is made of the uncontroverted facts that:

- Fordish, had some five years before, having been rebuffed by Laura on three occasions as to Fordish's marriage proposals, had threatened to a mutual friend, to kill himself if Laura continued to decline his entreaties;
- Fordish's own grandfather had committed suicide, when an elderly widower having suffered a love disappointment;
- Laura's marriage to Fordish was not one of much if any joy;
- having made enquiries as to solutions as to an infestation of rodents, Fordish had displayed much interest in the comments of Dr Mark Scrutton as to the fact that the particular poison being suggested inflicted no apparent pain to the vermin in question and in response to a question from Fordish, confirmed that such would also be the case in the case of people ingesting the poison, save that in the case of both vermin and people, death would ensue.

By by page 37, Laura is pronounced by the jury and the Court as being innocent.

The balance of the 251 pages focuses on, as Martin Edwards in his interesting Introduction says is usual for this author, the "whydunit" rather than the "whodunit".

Notwithstanding that, I do not think that there is any real doubt as to "whodunit", but there is very real doubt as to the so called chianti flask mystery i.e. what happened to it if indeed it was involved as well as, if indeed any of Fordish, Laura or the butler were responsible for Fordish's death, how it was undertaken.

The exposition of that over the next 200+pages is a little over-wrought and involves an unexpected growing romantic occurrence involving Laura, but it is not outlandish.

I cannot say much more without providing spoilers so will leave it there, save to comment as to the cover art for this edition.

The British Library Crime Classics series has beautiful covers, but this one like a few others I have commented on already, are somewhat misleading if they are to depict the text itself. In this particular case, the cover certainly depicts the feel of the relevant time and era, so in that case it is perfectly fine, if not good. But it does not depict any actual scene depicted in the text. Does that matter at the end of the day? probably not, given it does not provide a red herring.

Big Ship

22 May 2022 ( )