The Life Sentence (1946)

1946 Doubleday Doran blurb:

The Life Sentence is a top-notch Reggie Fortune story of suspense, mystery, and detection.

Dr. Isabel Cope, who had been a student of Reggie’s, renews an old friendship when she comes to ask his assistance in the case of Rosalind Bruce. Rosalind is the adopted child of the widowed Mrs. Bruce and lives with her mother in an isolated coastal cottage. Dr. Cope feels that the girl is in a dangerous emotional state of mind and that her fits of languor and depressed spirits bear close watching.

Reggie goes down to the coast and arrives in time to save Rosalind from an attack on her life. While the girl is recovering in a hospital Reggie is called away to investigate the apparently unrelated murder of an octogenarian gentleman in Manningham. The police suspect the old man’s daughter-in-law, who had recently been paroled from a life sentence for the murder of her husband. Reggie disagrees, and deploying all of his adroitness, knowledge of people, and his capacity for following a hunch in a scientific manner, he finds a link between the two mysteries, tracks down the murderer, and resolves Rosalind’s mental disturbances.

In the opinion of the Crime Club editors this is H.C. Bailey at his best, in the tradition of The Bishop’s Crime and Black Land, White Land.

My review:

Although written in sentences and without professional crime, although the usual horrible 'dialogue' between lovers is present), there is very little interest to be found in what is essentially a greatly expanded short story, padded to the gills with analysis of the events from all angles. Rosalind Bruce's split personality and fear of fog are as uninteresting as the murder of her grandfather in Massingham, the slow but steady detection (Reggie does not shine), and the solution to the case (despite a twist which partially redeems a lifeless tale).

To the Bibliography.

To the Bailey Page.

To the Grandest Game in the World.

E-mail.