Catt Out Of The Bag

I’d never heard of Clifford Witting before getting this whodunnit for

review so I looked him up on the invaluable gadetection site. Apart

from a few basic facts (1907-68, Lloyds bank clerk in early life), the

entry asks ‘Why is Witting so obscure?’

Good question. On the basis of Catt Out of the Bag I’d say he

ought to be a lot better known.

Set in the Sussex village of Paulsfield during Christmas the

year before the outbreak of WW2, this is a classic, relaxed,

pleasantly teasing story of a disappearance. Village worthy Mrs de

Frayne organises a group of carol singers to go round collecting for

charity. Comically overbearing, she insists they stick to a clockwork

schedule. Times and routes will play a big part in the story. There’s

even a map of Paulsfield at the front. Very Golden Age.

When one of the charity collectors, Mr Vavasour, goes missing

halfway round the circuit, the reaction is at first annoyance, then

bafflement. Maybe he’s run off with the collection box? The longer

he’s absent, the greater the mystery. Vavasour is a commercial

traveller but his wife has no idea who he works for, what he sells or

where he goes.

Witting produces a pair of amateur investigators. One of them,

John Rutherford, a bookshop owner but basically a gentleman of

leisure, is the narrator. There are also a couple of policemen,

including the shrewd Inspector Harry Charlton who is Rutherford’s

uncle. No rivalry between amateurs and pros but cooperation and

chatter as they criss-cross most of southern England in search of the

missing traveller.

Eventually Vavasour is unearthed closer to home and the case

turns much more serious. Clifford Witting plays fair with the reader,

planting clues from the first chapter, laying out time-lines and often

pausing to summarise the action. The gadetection site says he’s ‘witty

if occasionally facetious’, which is about right. Characters like the

hen-pecked husband or the languid amateur or the suspicious landlady

may be out of the stock cupboard, but there’s a bit of depth to some

of them too.

Catt Out of the Bag is a welcome revival and I’d be happy to

read more Witting.