Phillip Maxwell enjoys hosting house parties at his relations home. But this one turns deadly as one person is killed and another injured. But who could possibly want them dead and why.
Another enjoyable read in this series ( )

Peter King is invited to a house party at Maxwell Chimneys, the country home of the elderly Alexander Maxwell, his sister Miranda, and their young nephew, Philip, who is their heir. On the train, Peter is delighted to encounter Irene Gardiner, another guest. Irene is reading a detective story; and the two discuss the circumstances under which an ordinary person might commit murder. At the house, Philip meets the other guests: Tom and Edith Whiting, and Edith's younger sister, Mildred Leslie, with whom Philip is in love. Gilbert Crane, a neighbour, joins the party; while the Maxwells are expecting the Earl of Clarendon, a friend from England. The house party goes well, but there is tension: although Mildred has repeatedly refused him, Philip is determined to win her, and is furious when she flirts with the Earl. Irene surprises Peter by insisting that it is actually Gilbert Crane that Mildred cares for, citing the fact that he is the one man with whom she does not flirt.

But something is troubling Philip other than his romantic difficulties: Miss Miranda confides to Peter that for the past few weeks, the young man has shown every sign of having something serious preying on his mind. However, the Maxwells go ahead with their planned dance, to which many of their friends and neighbours are invited. During the evening, the tensions between the various individuals surface again. After Irene startles him by angrily condemning Mildred for her treatment of Philip, Peter passes by the library, where Philip is warning the girl that he is growing desperate, and will not be trifled with. However, encountering a worried Alexander Maxwell, Peter tries to cheer him up by assuring him that Philip and Mildred are close to coming to an understanding - only then to realise that Gilbert Crane has overheard him. Peter returns to the music-room, and some time later is dancing with Edith Whiting when a white-faced Gilbert bursts into the room with the terrible news that Philip and Mildred have both been shot. There is a doctor present, who rushes upstairs to the library, where he finds Philip dead and Mildred injured, a gun clasped in her hand...

The Maxwell Mystery, the fourth in Carolyn Wells' Fleming Stone series, finds the author constructing one of her favourite geographical mysteries - which is to say, it is a story that rests upon the structure of a house, the question of who was where when, and who could have seen or overheard what. On this level the novel is a success, requiring the reader to pay strict attention to detail, particularly when various parties start changing their stories. However, what I might call its "overlay" weakens this work significantly. Various subplots just peter out, and when Mildred Leslie is able to describe her ordeal, she describes an extremely improbable sequence of events (particularly her own part in them). We consequently spend most of the book waiting for this story to be exposed as a silly lie concocted to protect someone, only finally to be assured that it was the truth - an assurance that leaves a very hollow feeling behind. While the killer's identity and motive, and the means and the timing of the murder, are all satisfactorily explained, overall this novel doesn't really work.

However, balancing the story's deficiences is the fact that, as usual, Wells provides us with a fascinating and disturbing glimpse into the workings of her society (circa 1913), both from a legal and a social point of view. From Mildred Leslie, we learn a great deal about the situation of young women at the time. While she is indeed an irritating little flirt, the kind who thinks pouting and foot-stamping is charming, it's hard not to see her eventually as a victim of sorts. Although she has repeatedly refused Philip Maxwell's proposals, and tried to make clear that she does not want him, everyone takes it for granted that they will eventually marry, because he wants it so much. Furthermore, the fact that he does makes Mildred off-limits to any other man; so that when Gilbert Crane (who she does want) continues to show that he is interested in her, it is regarded as nothing short of "treachery" to Philip, a sign of Gilbert's lack of character, which is in turn taken to mean he might be capable of murder. Similarly, we can only shake our heads in mystification over the fact that when Peter overhears an angry Philip trying, literally, to bully Mildred into accepting him, he blithely interprets the scene as the two of them "coming to an understanding". By this point, we wouldn't blame Mildred all that much if she did shoot Philip - apparently nothing short of that could make him understand that no means no.

But it is what passes for the criminal investigation in this novel that holds the reader's horrified attention. Interestingly, within the text the point is made that Britain is well ahead of America in terms of policing generally, but particularly in the investigation of serious crime; Lord Clarendon more than once speaks wistfully of Scotland Yard, and we can hardly blame him. Given that Philip has been shot dead, and that the wounded Mildred has a gun in her hand, you might think that there would be some urgency about determining whether the fatal bullet was fired from that weapon - but you'd be wrong: no-one gives fingerprints so much as a passing thought, let alone ballistics. And in fact, fingerprinting was still not widely used as an investigative method at this time outside of New York, and while the matching of bullets with guns was understood, it was only very occasionally done, with different courts allowing it as evidence or not. On this basis, we are also forced to accept this novel's contention that even when a murder was committed, calling in the police was optional. Since the Maxwells decide they'd rather not, the investigation, such as it is, is left to one Mr Hunt, a guest at the dance, who is described as "a sort of society detective", and Peter King, who like all of Wells' narrators fancies himself as a bloodhound. It is evidence gathered by the amateur that builds a circumstantial case against Gilbert Crane, who respnds by sending for Fleming Stone. Less than twenty-four hours, a series of interviews, and a single search later, the case has been turned upside-down...