"Front page murder" by Peter Bartram

 The third (and last?) in the 'Crampton of the Chronicle' series, which started with Headline Murder and continued with Stop Press Murder.

It's coming close to Christmas 1963 and Colin Crampton, crime correspondent of the Brighton Evening Chronicle, is investigating the soundness of the conviction of Archie Flowerdew for the murder of a fellow seaside postcard artist. But Archie is due to be hanged on Christmas Eve, which imposes a deadline more serious than those of the newsroom. 

There is the usual selection of delightfully barmy characters, the usual sprinkling of witty observations , and the usual mixture of conundrums and thrills; this is a most enjoyable and page-turning murder mystery. 

Selected quotes

• "Barry was one of life’s worriers. Give him a million quid and he’d fret about what to spend it on." (C 1)
• "Her feet were shod in a pair of shoes that were so sensible they could’ve taken part in the Brains Trust." (C 6)
• "When it comes to an opportunity to trash a rival newspaper, dog not only eats dog, but it also licks its lips hoping for a second bite." (C 10)
• "Her voice was confident but her gaze slid off to the left as she spoke. It’s the sign that gives away the inexperienced liar." (C 11)
• "She had a look on her face like she’d been locked in the lavatory for a couple of hours – and didn’t even want to go." (C 14)
• "When it came to hell fires, Burke could stoke for Satan." (C 14)
• "the fish-and-chip end of Fleet Street." (C 21)
• "great minds think differently. It’s dim minds that think alike." (C 24)

October 2021

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Stop Press Murder" by Peter Bartram

The second in the 'Crampton of the Chronicle' series which started with Headline Murder and is continued with Front Page Murder. 

Set in 1963, Colin Crampton, crime correspondent for the Brighton Chronicle,investigates the connections between the murder of the nightwatchman on the Palace Pier and the theft of a pornographic film from a What the Butler Saw machine, also on the pier. He discovers a film actress from the silent era (when nearby Shoreham-by-Sea had a heyday as an alternative to Hollywood) and her twin sister who married into the local aristocracy. As always, a host of wonderful characters enliven the proceedings including the staff of the Cuttings Library, a priceless butler, a chinless wonder and his equestrian daughter, and a port-filled Professor with trained poodles. All this is further lightened with a good helping of wisecracks and a not-too-challenging puzzle. Good fun.

 Selected quotes:

• "One of the few ’tecs I trusted in the town. The rest of them spent more time looking for the main chance than for clues. Put it this way: if they were drinking in the same pub you wouldn’t leave your loose change on the bar." (C 1)
• "It was a pub which punters looking for a friendly pint and a tasty snack had learnt to avoid." (C 7)
• "I needed some cooking fat so asked Mr Hodges, quite politely, ‘Do you keep dripping?’” (C 13)
• "Where is that stiff upper lip?” Fanny managed a thin smile. “Above the quivering lower one,” she said." (C 16)
• "Pinker was the kind of man who would have more skeletons than the Bear Road cemetery." (C 19)
• “The fellow was a bit weak up top. Couple of candles in the chandelier had burnt out years ago, from what I’ve heard.” (C 25)
• “That’s the trouble with good deeds ... Cads and bounders get the benefit.” (C 25)

October 2021

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Headline Murder" by Peter Bartram

 August 1962. Brighton. Colin Crampton, crime correspondent of the Chronicle gets a tip-off about the owner of the seaside crazy golf course who has disappeared. To track him down, and get a scoop, Colin has to mix with the shadiest of Brighton's underworld.

This is a classic murder mystery with a wise-cracking hero; there is a lot of humour in it. The characters are nicely drawn and often lampooned and the period is nearly perfect (although the test card girl didn't appear until 1967).

It's great fun and a good, page-turning read. I think it bears comparison with the Charles Paris murder mysteries by Simon Brett such as The Cinderella Killer and A Decent Interval.

Selected quotes:

• "He’d been spreading his cement on both sides of the wall.” (C 2)
• "Shirley looked like a model and spoke like a trucker." (C 2)
• "Last night’s chip wrappings rustled along the gutters. Waves crashed and roared over the shingle. The air smelt like a fishmonger’s slab." (C 3)
• "The words on Darke’s business card said “property developer”. It was as though Hitler had handed out cards describing himself as a “painter and decorator". (C 3)
• "The Golden Kiss nightclub was exclusive in much the same way as Lewes Prison. Not many people got in there and those who did were mostly crooks." (C 5)
• "I couldn’t tell whether they were dancing the foxtrot or the rumba. He looked as though he was pushing a wheelbarrow to music." (C 5)
• "There was the kind of desperate light in his eyes that I associated with street-corner preachers and people trying to borrow money." (C 7)

A well-written light-hearted whodunnit. September 2021

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

The next two in the series are:

• Stop Press Murder
• Front Page Murder

"Folk devils and moral panics" by Stanley Cohen

This brilliant sociology text describes what happens after a few young people were arrested in Clacton on a bank holiday, how the myth of the Mods and Rockers was created, and how society massively overreacted. There are times when it reads like a thriller.

There are shocking moments. The criminal offences committed by the young people seem trivial compared to the wickedness of authority. Two lads, for example, were arrested and charged with threatening behaviour for flicking elastic bands at people. One lad who put a piece of driftwood on a pile of litter as he was leaving Brighton beach was told by a policemen to pick it up and immediately arrested for possessing an offensive weapon. Kids were taken off the streets, herded into cells and illegally denied bail to teach them a lesson. "A young journalist, who was trying to get into the Margate courtroom, was shown to the cells instead of the Press bench because he had fairly long hair and was wearing jeans." (p 157)Those were the ones that got there. Teenage campers were banned from campsites. Lads with long hair were put on trains and returned to London. And, in a tragic aside, "A boy accidentally fell to his death over the cliffs at Saltdean (Brighton) during the night. When his friends woke up and missed him, one went across to the houses on the other side of the road to phone the police. 'But,' he told a reporter' 'they wouldn't open their doors at first. They thought we were out for trouble; you know what it is.'" (p 158)

I think it is the pathetic acceptance of his roles as a despoised outsider that makes 'you know what it is' so sad.

And the papers went to town. After all, "The media have long operated as agents of moral indignation in their own right." (p 16)

• "irresponsibility, immaturity, arrogance, lack of respect for authority ... moral depravity and sexual perversity" (p 55)
• "odious ... grubby ... louts and sluts ... cunning ... bovine ... ape-like" (p 55)
• "timid and shifty, backwards, apathetic, ungregarious and notably inarticulate" (p 55)
• "neurotic ... exhibitionist ... violent ... cowardly ... aimless ... half-baked ... precocious ... unwashed ... slickly dressed ... slow-witted ... cynical, inarticulate" (p 56)
• "chronic restlessness ... greed, hedonism and ungratefulness ... laziness, selfishness and lust" (p 64)
• Many thought that they were a sort of disease.

These were kids, mostly working class, ill educated, poor. The boy who offered to pay a £75 fine with a check did so from sheer bravado: he didn't even have a bank account. Most of those charged were unskilled. "We're bored at home, so it's a change to come down here and be bored at Brighton." (p 151) "The specific desires for change and freedom over the holidays, to get away from home, the romance of roughing it on the beaches or sleeping four to a bed in a grotty seafront boarding-house, finding a bird, getting some pills." (p 183) Many slept on the beaches. That was all they could afford.

There are some classic concepts in this brilliant book:

• "The Mods and Rockers ... appear as disembodied objects, Rorschach blots on to which reactions are projected." (p 25)
• "As the Mods and Rockers drama ran its course, the whole script changed and the reaction of each successive audience altered the nature of the stage." (p 27)
• "The gullibility effect is less significant than a general susceptibility to all sorts of rumours" (p 45)
• "The recognised weekend kit, purple hearts and contraceptives." (p 56)
• Elements in a "successful status degradation ceremony" include comparison between sinner and an idealised saint (p 61)
• "Females were more intolerant than males" (p 73)
• Sensitization: "Any item of news thrust into an individual's consciousness has the effect of increasing the awareness of items of a similar nature which he might otherwise have ignored." (p 77)
• "Ambiguity, which gives rise to anxiety, is eliminated by structuring the situation to make it more predictable." (p 77) so if you blame someone you feel better (p 78)
• "presumably hunchbacks were not always unwilling to perform the jester role." (p 140)
• "No matador wants to be laughed at." (p 168)
• "How many people do feel that their jobs are worth while and dignified?" (p 181)
• "What starts as revolt finishes as style." (quoting George Melly) (p 201)

Superb. January 2017