Superintendent William “Big Bill” Stevens of Scotland Yard, is asked as a favor by a high ranking official to get a line on an American businessman who was scheduled to arrive in England but never showed up. Stevens tracks the man’s movements to France.
Arriving in Paris, Stevens is met by his old friend, Inspector Pierre Allain of the Sûreté Nationale. The robust French detective says he will help his stoic British counterpart look for the American and assures him they will find the man in no time. But first, they must dine together. Pierre Allain is fond of fine food. He also claims to be the best detective as well as the greatest lover in all of France.
Author Bruce Graeme takes a bit of pleasure in poking fun at the volatile French inspector. He also shows Allain is an excellent detective.
Before Stevens and Allain can get started on the manhunt, two things happen. An older woman is murdered and her servants, her beautiful adult daughter, and the daughter’s mysterious friend are all suspects. Equally troubling for Allain, someone steals his favorite hat. Men’s hats are being stolen all around Paris and Pierre Allain is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Into this crazy mix of storylines come two more detectives. There is Floquet, Pierre Allain’s arch rival from the Préfecture of Police. It seems the national Sûreté and the Paris based Préfecture have overlapping jurisdiction. The fourth is B.Y. Heck, from Pinkerton’s in the United States, who was hired by the American’s wife to find her husband.
Much of the fun of The Mystery of the Stolen Hats is watching the four detectives deal with each other while trying to find the murderer, search for the missing American and locate Pierre Allain’s hat.
Graeme wrote a leisurely yet well-paced story which judging by the ancient library copy that was located and shipped to my public branch must have been very popular in its day. Almost every page was dog-eared, many of them bent two and three times, some folded so often that librarians of the past had to apply clear tape to hold the corners together. One page had tape over a cigaret burn that made a small hole and a brown spot on the following three pages.
The Mystery of the Stolen Hats was mentioned recently by John Norris on his blog Pretty Sinister Books and that spurred me to find the book. Now, I look forward to tracking down some of the other seven or eight Stevens-Allain novels Graeme wrote between 1931 and about 1940. I suspect the seriousness of World War 2 made writing more lighthearted books impossible.
Bruce Graeme was one of the pen names of the English writer, Graham Montague Jeffries (1900-1982), who turned out more than 60 novels. The figure might be closer to 80. Information on-line about Graeme is sketchy, brief and hard to find.
His books are also hard to find. Hopefully, a publisher will look into reprinting the entire Stevens-Allain series, and I hope the others are as much fun to read as The Mystery of the Stolen Hats.
(For more forgotten books, please visit Patti Abbott's blog.)
Thanks for the mention! I'm glad I managed to inspire you to track down Graeme and that once again a Lost in Limbo writer's work was worth the hunt.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to write up his other series character Theodore Terhune, a bookseller and amateur sleuth. I have about ten of Graeme's books and I've read only two. Need to rectify that.
Thank you for bringing Graeme to my attention, John. I plan to find more of his books.
DeleteThis does sound awfully good, and I second your hope that a publisher will reprint it - and hopefully a couple of other - of the author's books.
ReplyDeleteI found Graeme to be a really amusing writer, based on this one book. If I can find some of his other books, I will let you know if they are just as good.
DeleteThis does sound like a good, lighthearted and entertaining mystery, Elgin. I have never read one with four detectives and I was particularly amused by the detective from Pinkerton's, having read so much about the agency in Western novels.
ReplyDeleteThis was quite a different and unexpected story, Prashant. And the arrival of the Pinkerton man was a funny surprise.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed it, but it's probably not one I'll try and track down myself.
ReplyDeleteCol – This was an unusual choice for me. But when John said it was humorous, I figured I’d give it a try. While I usually go for the dark gritty crime novels, I do enjoy the lighter ones, too, like Carl Hiaasen’s books. Shane Maloney has a good sense of humor. Have you read any of his novels?
DeleteI read one of Maloney's years ago but can't recall too much about it. I probably still have it. When I ever get around to reading the tubs, I'll revisit his books!
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