The Red Thumb Mark (1907) by R. Austin Freeman
"....threading my way amongst the litter of small tables and miscellaneous furniture by which ladies nowadays convert their special domain into the semblance of a broker’s shop...."
Readers unfamiliar with The Red Thumb Mark may wish read my note only after reading the novel.
Novels like The Red Thumb Mark, The Eye of Osiris, and The Mystery of Angelina Frood overflow with droll and concentrated harmonies. New friends become friendlier, and by the final curtain young women and men are united in love and the prospect of contented marriages.
In The Red Thumb Mark, young Dr. Jervis is reunited with his old teacher, the flawlessly handsome and accomplished Dr. Thorndyke. Jervis has been making his way as a temp for more accomplished and settled doctors who hunger for vacations.
Thorndyke takes him on as a detective dogsbody to assist in defending Reuben Hornby from a charge of theft.
[....] “Gentlemen of the jury, the prisoner at the bar stands indicted by the name of Reuben Hornby, for that he, on the ninth or tenth of March, feloniously did steal, take, and carry away a parcel of diamonds of the goods of John Hornby. To this indictment he has pleaded that he is not guilty, and your charge is to inquire whether he be guilty or not and to hearken to the evidence.”
[....] “Now, on the evening of the ninth of March there was delivered to Mr. Hornby a parcel of rough diamonds of which one of his clients asked him to take charge pending their transfer to the brokers. I need not burden you with irrelevant details concerning this transaction. It will suffice to say that the diamonds, which were of the aggregate value of about thirty thousand pounds, were delivered to him, and the unopened package deposited by him in his safe, together with a slip of paper on which he had written in pencil a memorandum of the circumstances. This was on the evening of the ninth of March, as I have said. Having deposited the parcel, Mr. Hornby locked the safe, and shortly afterward left the premises and went home, taking the keys with him.
“On the following morning, when he unlocked the safe, he perceived with astonishment and dismay that the parcel of diamonds had vanished. The slip of paper, however, lay at the bottom of the safe, and on picking it up, Mr. Hornby perceived that it bore a smear of blood, and in addition, the distinct impression of a human thumb. On this he closed and locked the safe and sent a note to the police station, in response to which a very intelligent officer—Inspector Sanderson—came and made a preliminary examination. I need not follow the case further, since the details will appear in the evidence, but I may tell you that, in effect, it has been made clear, beyond all doubt, that the thumb-print on that paper was the thumb-print of the prisoner, Reuben Hornby.”
* * *
As part of his detective errand-running for Thorndyke, Jervis falls in love with Juliet Gibson, adopted by the ersatz Hornby clan.
Meanwhile, once his role in Reuben Hornby's defense becomes known, Thorndyke becomes the target of an assassin. This leads to several chapters where he evades ingenious murder methods and gets to show his expertise in (theoretical) death-dealing.
The Red Thumb Mark, like the other Thorndyke novels I've been reading (mentioned above), surpasses novel-length works of Agatha Christie and fellow Golden Agers. Because of the way Thorndyke approaches cases, there is none of the plodding, getting-to-know-you wanderings and checklists through suspects: banal gatherings, dispersals, and regroupements.
The climax and resolution of The Red Thumb Mark is a breathtaking example of authorial confidence. No closet melodrama, no unnecessary revisiting of old material made superfluous by verdict.
Jay
17 December 2024
