Captive Witness

"Wax on, wax off"

"The Karate Kid"

The problem with listening to audio dramas before sleeping is that I always fall asleep halfway through.

The murder on Josiah Perceval, assistant at a photograph studio, was quickly solved when Miriam Cromer, wife of the society photographer Howard Cromer, confessed fully to the crime. The woman was being blackmailed over some indecent photographs taken from her past, and eventually, she thought it would wiser to poison the decanter of wine with potassium cyanide than to keep on paying. Miriam is now on death row, with just a few weeks until her execution, when a photograph is sent to the Home Office, which cast doubt upon Miriam's story: the new facts revealed by this photograph suggest that Miriam couldn't have obtained the potassium cyanide to commit the murder. Sergeant Cribb of London's Criminal Investigation Department and his assistant Constable Thackery are ordered to figure out what the real deal is behind Miriam's confession in the radio drama Waxwork (1987), based on the same-titled 1978 novel.

A few months ago, I reviewed Peter Lovesey's A Case of Spirits, a novel in the Sergeant Cribb series. While I hadn't given the Victorian mystery series much attention or thought until then, it's been quite well received in general: the novel series has been adapted as a television series (Cribb), and six of the eight novels have also adapted for the radio by the BBC. I decided to try out the radio drama adaptation of Waxwork, because I really like audio dramas, and I had heard good things about this particular story. The original novel is at the moment the last of the Sergeant Cribb novels by the way, but no prior knowledge is necessary to enjoy this story.

I think that Waxwork is a good example of a good story, that manages to be quite entertaining general even if the core mystery plot is rather limited in range and originality. If you look solely at the mystery parts of Waxwork, you'll have to look really closely before you come across truly original elements, as so many bits and pieces of the story feel so familiar. The method by which the true murderer managed to snatch the potassium cyanide as explained by Cribb for example is an extremely common concept, and it's not like it's been repackaged into something more surprising. The true goal of Miriam's confession ultimately builds on a trope that is often seen in mystery fiction. So looking purely at the mystery plot, I'm afraid that Waxwork has little originality to offer. With a rather limited cast of characters and a fairly small problem (the poisoning), Waxwork is not a mystery story to really delve into for a mental challenge.

That said though, Waxwork works as a yarn. As in A Case of Spirits, the Victorian background is always nothing but the background: unlike some stories that like to remind you you're reading a Victorian story every single sentence, Lovesey is far better at letting his background speak for itself. Concepts like society photographs, class society, Newgate Prison and the hangman do date the story and mix well with the mystery plot, but it's not like you're reading a Wikipedia entry about Victorian Britain which some historical novels sometimes tend to turn into. The result is a pleasant experience, that combined with the light comedy that especially derives from Constable Thackery's scenes is fun to listen to.

I have not read the original Waxwork by the way, so I can't comment on how faithful (or not) this radio adaptation is. I'm just going to guess/assume that the story here is mostly the same as the novel, and not that we have a completely different culprit or type of murderer.

Waxwork is on the whole an okay mystery story, with the emphasis on story. As a mystery, there's just too little that is truly original, and much of the core plot will feel familiar one way or another. Combined with the Victorian setting and the story though, Waxwork is enjoyable enough. I enjoyed A Case of Spirits much better as a mystery story, but I think I'll keep on trying this series in the future too, be it in novel, audio or television drama form.

High Spirits

Damnant quod non intelligunt

If someone says they're too cynical to participate in a seance, does that mean they are actually leaving the door ajar for the supernatural because they recognize their cynicism might be getting in the way of results?

Table-turning, speaking with the dead and other spiritualist trends took hold of the wealthy in fin de siècle London, but even in spheres so enlightened as these, crime occurs. Sergeant Cribb of London's Criminal Investigation Department is asked to investigate a series of odd thefts among wealthy citizens. The link between the robberies is the owners were all absent from their homes during the theft as they were attending a seance by a certain spiritualist whom experts think might be the genuine thing. Cribb however is of course not as enlightened as his social superiors, and suspects that this spiritualist might actually be behind the thefts. The spiritualist, eager to prove his powers to the world, agrees to undergo an experiment. The spiritualist is to summon the spirits from the dead in a closed-off section of a room, divided from the group by a curtain. A special contraption has been rigged in order to ensure the spiritualist won't cheat while out of sight. He is seated in a chair, with special handles. As long as his both hands are on the handles, a weak electric current runs through the chair, which can be checked by a galvanometer by the other people. The seance session however ends in a death, as the spiritualist is electrocuted to death. As nobody could've messed with the transformator or the chair, it appears only a ghost could've killed the man. Cribb however suspects a human hand behind all this, and with the help of his constable Thackery, he intends to find out whose hand it is in Peter Lovesey's A Case of Spirits (1975).

I have read awfully little by Peter Lovesey (only Bloodhounds I think), but I did like what I read of him, and as I had heard A Case of Spirits mentioned as an impossible crime once, I decided to pick it up. A Case of Spirits is a book in the Sergeant Cribb series by Lovesey, set in Victorian London and focusing on a policeman rather than a certain consulting detective. I had no problems starting with A Case of Spirits by the way, even though it's the sixth entry in the series. The series was also dramatized in the late 70s/early 80s (A Case of Spirits was also dramatized), so I assume that this series is actually well-known by people better informed than I, giving the exposure it got.

What I enjoyed most of this book was probably its setting. Victorian London is not a place unknown to mystery fans. Most people have some affinity with Sherlock Holmes, even if one's not too familiar with early detective fiction and there are even (fantastic!) Japanese stories set in the London of Jack the Ripper. And yet A Case of Spirits managed to entertain me in a way I had not foreseen. Partly because of the main topic: spiritualism. It's well known that spiritualism became a real hype in those times, with people trying to contact the Other World, and even Holmes' author Conan Doyle has been known to dabble quite a lot with spiritualism. The seance is not an unknown sight in mystery fiction, of course. I always think of Christie's Peril at End House and The Sittaford Mystery, though in those stories, no crimes happen during the seance, which is also the case in episodes 603-605 of Detective Conan. A good example of an impossible crime during seance would be one of the early cases from Tantei Gakuen Q, but A Case of Spirits has an interesting one too, as every suspect is in another section of the room than the victim, and it appears nobody could've tampered with the seat-contraption. It is a kind of impossible crime, though I thought the final solution somewhat lacking in power. I have to admit I had trouble visualizing what had happened exactly, and that usually doesn't help with the enjoyment of a plot. While there is some good clewing going on, other (essential) aspects are left rather vague in the story, making it hard for the reader to 1) come up with the complete solution themselves before it is revealed, and 2) still somewhat hard to really visualize after it's been revealed. Or maybe it's just me. One object for example is supposed to be used in a certain way, but I don't think the prior description of that object would've allowed for that until it is described as such in the solution. But other elements of the plot, for example the way Sergeant Cribb determines who's the culprit, are worked out much better, in an almost Queenian way of elimination. So some very good elements, some less so. The plot also involves some more minor mysteries, like the thefts, that do tie in with the main mystery eventually, but those are fairly light elements in comparison.

But I did really like the whole seance setting, as well as the grander Victorian setting. What I liked especially of the Victorian London in A Case of Spirits is actually that it's not emphasized at all! Yes, the story is set in Victorian London, explaining the spiritualism hype, but you don't get constant references to the historical setting, and in fact, you could easily forget one's reading a historical novel at times because of the lack of elements truly dating the story. It helped make the story feel more genuine and focused on the plot, rather than being dressed gaudily in Victorian dress. I already mentioned the game Dai Gyakuten Saiban already in passing, and there the Victorian setting is emphasized, but that is okay, as the mystery plots there are intricitly connected to objects and customs from those times. But not every single story set in Victorian London needs to be like that, so I think A Case of Spirits works great in respect as it is clearly set there, but does not overemphasizes its setting, with historical references cluttering the pages. You'll occasionally come across something that seems dated to the reader, but that is all, and it never screams in your face it's a historical novel.

The novel also has a light comedic tone to it by the way, which also helps make this a pleasant read. It's funny though, in terms of 'feeling', I tend to think that mystery fiction set in Victorian London (written contemporarily) has a tendecy to be 'dark and serious', but when I start to think of examples of titles I've actually read/seen/played, all I remember is fiction that's mildly comedic in tone at the very least.

Anyway, A Case of Spirits is a fairly short book, and I am afraid I have also very little to comment on it. It's a decent mystery novel with some elements that are truly great and some elements that could've been polished a bit better, but an entertaining story nonetheless. I for one definitely intend to read more of this series in the future.