The Case of the Michaelmas Goose
Written by Clifford Witting
Review written by Philip Gooden
His historical novels include the Nick Revill series, set in Elizabethan London, a Victorian sequence, and a series of Chaucer mysteries, now in in e-books.
Galileo Publishing
RRP: £10.99
Released: October 26, 2023
Pbk
For several years Galileo Publishers have been reissuing Golden Age titles which have been unjustly forgotten or underrated, and their latest is The Case of the Michaelmas Goose by Clifford Witting, featuring his regular sleuth Inspector Harry Charlton and first published in 1938.
A man’s body is discovered at the foot of Etchworth Tower in Downshire (a dead ringer for Sussex). Accident, suicide or murder? Hmm, let’s think.
The tower is an imitation of Wren’s monument to the Great Fire and the corpse too seems to be imitating something or someone else since it’s wearing a fake beard. Even so he’s soon identified as Courtenay Harbord, a ‘shirk-work’ who’s been sponging off generous aunt Ruth and his sibling cousins, Peter and Judy.
Charlton falls for Judy, which is unfortunate as Peter emerges as the prime suspect for Courtenay’s murder even if this does give the dogged Inspector an extra incentive for finding out who really did it. Most of Michaelmas Goose is given over to a stolid procedural, with witnesses being interviewed, motives considered and time-lines established. Golden Age fans - and I’m one - will be delighted by what must the longest chart of people and times in the genre, running to almost four pages.
Towards the end, the book flips as we scroll back and see exactly whodunnit and how and why, before the police are given the nod by a convenient grass. Even so, there’s a twist on the last couple of pages which is both fair, or fairish, and completely unexpected.
The book has nothing to do with Christmas, but refers to the custom of eating goose at Michaelmas (the end of September) as a way of ensuring prosperity for the coming year. This welcome reissue from Galileo reminds us of these old habits, if we ever knew about them in the first place, and also takes us back to a time when buses had conductors and drivers, a small town might have five bank branches and a policeman could bop someone on the jaw not because he’s guilty but because he’s an oily cad.
An enjoyably nostalgic read.
