Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay: A Review

Miss Euphemia Pongleton was strangled with a dog leash on the stairs at the Belsize Park underground station. Miss Pongleton was a resident of the Frampton private hotel which was a boarding house for "suitable" residents; those who had been approved by its owner Mrs. Bliss. The residents called themselves the Frumps. The question did arise among the Frumps as to why anybody would wish to murder Miss Pongleton. Suspicion immediately fell on Bob Thurlow who was seeing Nellie, an employee of the hotel. Bob had been involved in a robbery, and Miss Pongleton had evidence of his involvement which she was going to take to the police, however it was found that Bob had an alibi for the time of the murder.

It was believed that Miss Pongleton had money. She certainly had evidenced little inclination to spend any of it. She was given to changing her will frequently, but her principal heirs were Basil Pongleton, her nephew,  and Beryl Saunders, her niece. It was agreed between them that, irregardless of how Miss Pongleton changed her will, that Basil would get the money because he was a poor, struggling writer and Beryl had money of her own.

Basil had undergone the misfortune of seeing Miss Pongleton's body on the underground steps before it was discovered by anyone else, but fearing that he would be implicated in her death, he did not report the body to the police but instead set about establishing an alibi for himself. Some of the best parts of this book are Basil's attempts to provide this alibi because Basil is not the brightest or most organized person. He is assisted by his girl friend, Betty Watson, who lives at the Frampton.

There is a police inspector in this book, Inspector Caird, but his investigation amount to very little except asking a lot of questions, and suspecting the wrong person. Most of the important investigations are carried out by Miss Pongleton's family members and a couple of the residents of the Frampton hotel. Their combined investigations lead to finding the murderer of Miss Pongleton.

I found this to be an excellent read. It has some very humorous moments and characters. The character of Basil Pongleton will appeal to fans of P. G. Wodehouse. Do not think that it is only a humorous mystery because the crime elements are quite serious, and the solution is neatly tied up.

Mavis Doriel Hays is an overlooked writer of the Golden Age. She wrote only three mystery novels. Prior to this, she had taken a great interest in rural crafts, and published several books on this topic. She married in 1929. When she wrote this book, she and her husband Archibald were living in Belsize Lane which is a few hundred yards from where the fictional murder took place. This book was published in 1934, and she would go on to write two others. Possibly World War II put an end to her mystery writing though she did publish more on rural crafts.

This book has been published by the British Library in their series of British Library Crime Classics reprints. It is available in both paper and ebook formats.

I read this book for the 2014 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge in the category of a book set in England.