Book Review//Someone From the Past: A London Mystery by Margot Bennett

Someone From the Past was originally published in 1958 and won the Crime Writer’s Association award for best crime novel of the year. Margot Bennett never wrote another crime novel. I wish she had because I enjoyed this quite a lot.

Nancy and Sarah have been friends for years and their loves and relationships have become very intertwined. When Sarah receives threatening letters she asks Nancy to help her discover who is behind them. The letter says,

‘I haven’t forgotten what you did to me in the past. You don’t deserve to live, what’s a life worth to you? I’ve watched the road you’ve taken. Up to a point, any road will do as well as another, for you and for me, too. The trouble is, after this point there’s no turning back, we’ve both passed the fork, there’s only one way now. I’m coming for you, one night soon, and until I come you’ll never know which of your lovers is going to murder you.’

Before Nancy can do much more than read the letter Donald arrives. Nancy loves him now and Sarah used to love him. Donald has just come from Sarah’s flat where he discovered her dead body. Of course, Nancy immediately races to the flat to try to obliterate all traces of Donald, and of course things don’t go to plan and Nancy becomes a primary suspect in Sarah’s murder.

The actual mystery is reasonably predictable. However, I enjoyed the way the story jumped back and forth in time showing how the different relationships developed. I also enjoyed Bennett’s writing style. It is quick and direct with very clever little sentences and paragraphs. Here is Nancy’s description of her writing habits.

I’ve left Diagonal. I do a bit of free-lancing for them. I go to Italy or Spain occasionally for one of the Sunday’s. They don’t pay well. And I’m trying to write a novel. I type three pages every night and tear two of them up in the morning. If I’m home early enough in the evening, I tear the third page up too.

I also liked this little paragraph about Nancy and Sarah’s friendship.

We were very romantic. It takes a solid foundation of romanticism to build a good cynic.

And finally, this paragraph when Nancy is with the man she believes she loves.

He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me to him. He didn’t have to say anything in words. I’d had enough of words, too. All my words were wrong. They’d been wrong all day, and all yesterday,too. When I was close to him everything was right again.

It is a pity Bennett didn’t write more crime novels but the British Library has republished two of her other works. They are The Widow of Bath and The Man Who Didn’t Fly.

My thanks to the British Library for the review copy of this book.

My daughter has taken the photos for my last few book reviews since I am still recovering from foot surgery. She jokingly said I should credit her. I think she deserves the credit. So, Celia, thank you very much. You are my favorite daughter. (Also, my only daughter but let’s not concentrate on that.)