“A Case of Spirits” by Peter Lovesey

This is my first encounter with this English author’s work – today at the English Speaking Club (hosted in a library in Saratov) I picked two books by him, and started with this particular one. The book, as Wikipedia tells me, was written in 1975, but the events take place approximately 90 years earlier. It must be hard to write with such confidence about the past, I daresay – involves a lot of historical research to get the background right.

The way people of the upper class used to treat people ranking lower in the social hierarchy in 1885 is how how it would be today, or even in the middle of the 20th century: I’ve read enough English books written in nearly every decade of the past 120 years to know the difference, even if I have never been to that wonderful country in my physical body. Peter Lovesey seems to amuse himself by describing Dr Probert’s snobbish attitude towards not just the working class, but also towards Sergeant Cribb of Scotland Yard, the great mind of the series. It’s neither here nor there though, as the Sergeant doesn’t seem to mind; after all, he himself treats his subordinate, Constable Thackeray, with no more consideration. The main point is, Sergeant Cribb indeed possesses a great mind, and the way he unravels the mystery of the murder of a medium during a seance is admirable. He has a great technical knowledge too – I’ve studied the basics of electricity at school, as well as more in depth in college, but I must admit I still haven’t grasped all the technical details of the setup. Of course, the complicacy of it in itself gave me a clue as to who the murderer must have been – a few paragraphs before Sergeant Cribb explained how his own sophisticated thinking allowed him to arrive at the same conclusion – but I’m not going into it. The book is well worth reading, and I don’t want to spoil it for my readers.

The characters are quite well drawn – though most of them are quite grotesque, and the author seems to amuse himself even further by highlighting their vices, a Cockney cabman being just as repulsive as a highly positioned doctor, his family and carefully chosen guests. I couldn’t name anyone in this book – apart from Cribb and Thackeray – deserving as much as sympathy, let alone admiration, but the author’s mild humour and great eye for detail makes them all look rather funny and the whole show quite agreeable. I’ve laughed more than once on my way towards the last scene – the explanation (the part of any detective story that I love best!) It was clever of Cribb to solve the mystery like this, and to recognise the significance of every apparently unimportant fact involved in the case.

Peter Lovesey definitely has his own, unmistakable style – not only in terms of the language, but also in the way he sets up the mystery and the investigation. I’m looking forward to reading his other book. His cynicism has a refreshing effect on me.