Unexpected Allies in Classic Crime Fiction
Published on: 19th November 2024
What do an ape, some children, a ghost, a thief and Tarzan have in common? In one way or another they have all been unexpected allies to either a professional or amateur sleuth in classic crime fiction. They are unexpected because they are often seen as unlikely candidates for offering support. For example, why would someone who works against law suddenly decide to start helping it? We may also doubt how much a child could assist an adult detective. And as to Tarzan? You’ll just have to keep reading to find out what sort of mystery includes him as a character…
The Young Assistant
As in real life, people can get thrown together by circumstance, which is the case in Elizabeth Fenwick’s A Friend of Mary Rose (1961). Eighty-three-year-old Mr Nicholas encounters Mary Rose late one night, when he sneaks back into his old house (concerned his daughter-in-law has not taken all his belongings to their new home). Mary Rose is a young girl, who reveals little more than her name and the fact that there is a dangerous man after her. She refuses to share further details, even once they have been locked in the attic and still holds out after Mr Nicholas has faced this unidentified foe in direct combat. Whilst you might assume it is Mr Nicholas’ role to be the only rescuer in this situation, this is not true, as Mr Nicholas is blind. He is not helpless, but in such an extraordinary set of circumstances, he needs Mary Rose’s help too.
Given the setup, it would be forgivable to expect cooperation from Mary Rose, but age and class make it hard for Mr Nicholas to find common ground with her. Her fear and mistrust of the police shapes her decisions, and it limits the help she is willing to offer Mr Nicholas when he is injured. Mary Rose is also an unexpected ally in the sense that her actions are hard to predict, since they do not run along the tracks of common sense and Mr Nicholas has to negotiate with a child who is volatile and afraid. It certainly becomes a night when anything could happen!
John Hamilton, the protagonist of The Man in the Net (1956) by Patrick Quentin, must also handle his juvenile allies with care. He is on the run, wanted for murder of his wife, and he cannot seek support from adults, as they would take him to the police. He is forced to rely on some local children who have a secret den. One of these children could be regarded as being trustworthy and practical, but from the outset, another child ironically named Angel is decidedly unreliable, due to her toxic sense of self-importance. She demands to be cossetted and the centre of attention. What she may or may not do adds a palpable increase in tension to the reading experience, as well as a great deal of unpredictably, as John can never be sure if Angel will reveal his hiding place out of spite. He must keep her onside, an ally, despite her difficult behaviour.
The Spiritual Assistant
In both of these examples the juvenile support is flawed, and it is these imperfections which add an unexpected quality to their support. However, children are not the only ones whose capabilities are questioned when it comes to providing assistance. Age is just one factor. Class and social position are two others, and these are exemplified in The Devil and Ben Franklin (1961) by Theodore Mathieson, which, like Patrick Quentin’s novel, focuses on a man on the run. John Norris[1], who blogs at Pretty Sinister Books, writes that at one point during the story Ben Franklin must ‘flee […] town’ in a hurry and eventually he discovers ‘refuge in the abandoned Kraft family farmhouse. Or so he thinks. The farmhouse is now home to Franz, a German hermit who is a follower of the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart.’ Franz is an unexpected ally in several ways. Firstly, his existence is unknown until this point. Furthermore, Ben Franklin may be reasonably unsure as to how well a hermit can support him in his complex mission to prove that no supernatural agency is involved in the horrifying series of murders which has afflicted his local community in Philadelphia and caused the inhabitants to look for someone to blame or sacrifice.
The Animal Assistant
Unexpected allies in classic crime fiction also come in animal form. If asked which animals are most likely to be allies to human sleuths, I do not think apes would be at the top of the list. Nevertheless, in 1901, a new 18-part Sexton Blake series was published called Griff the Man-Tracker. Griff was an ape-like creature (his species never precisely defined) and he assists Sexton Blake in his cases. He is invariably well wrapped up in gentleman’s apparel, including a bowler hat and scarf, no doubt because the British climate does not suit Griff, who also uses a respirator to breathe. Mark Hodder[2] suggests that Griff operates on instinct, managing to save the day even when he lacks full understanding of the situation. His strength and agility are his strongest assets.
Cats, I would argue, also make for unexpected allies, due to their perceived greater independence, making their behaviour less predictable. In The Cat Wears a Noose (1944) by D. B. Olsen (a.k.a. Dolores Hitchens), the appearance of Rachel Murdock’s cat, Samantha, is an unplanned and unexpected blessing in disguise, making her an ally just when Rachel needed one the most. Samantha had followed her owner’s journey home, and it is her presence which dissuades the killer from ending Rachel’s career as an amateur sleuth prematurely. The murderer is afraid of cats, so they won’t cross the threshold into the house and decide to beat a hasty retreat instead. Animal allies can also be regarded as unexpected because their actions are not always purposefully done to support the nearby humans, as instead, at times, they are simply the unexpected outcome of a completely different plan the animal had devised. For example, at the denouement of Edmund Crispin’s The Long Divorce (1951), a cat named Lavender manages to seriously reduce a man’s injuries, when she leaps at an invisible foe, knocking a vase over in the process, which results in the killer being distracted and shooting less accurately.
The Shady Assistant
In history thieves who have become informants or officers of the law are not unheard of. For example, the French criminal Eugène-François Vidocq (1775-1857), who helped to set-up the first police force and detective agency in France. Moreover, Oleg Yegorov (2017)[3] describes the 18th century life of one Vanka Cain, a serf who became a thief and gang leader, then worked as a police spy (operating as a detective), and finally rose to Moscow high society. Vanka Cain did not relinquish his criminal practices though, instead preferring to use his new role as a cover for it.
In classic crime fiction such individuals remain ones that other characters and the reader never fully trust, giving them an element of the unexpected. You are left wondering what their true endgame is. Was their decision to join forces with the police an act of altruism or was it one made for personal gain? A good example of this quandary can be found in ‘The Red Silk’ (1913) by Maurice le Blanc. The story begins with Chief Inspector Ganimard being tricked into entering a building so Arsène Lupin can hold a private meeting with him. He tells Ganimard that during the previous night a boatman has dragged an object out of the water. Part of the haul contained one half of a red scarf and through various deductions Arsène connects it to a murder which has recently occurred. Lupin exhorts Ganimard to find the killer using the evidence he has brought him and that in three weeks’ time they should meet once more, with Ganimard bringing the other half of the scarf. Does lupin genuinely want to see justice done for a murder victim? Or does he have his eye on a more profitable prize, which Ganimard’s actions could bring into his hands?
‘The Return Match’ (1898) by E. W. Hornung also sees a career thief, namely Raffles, seemingly aiding the police in the form of Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard. Mackenzie is on the trail of Crawshay, a wanted man, who has escaped from prison. Raffles offers him the key to his room to search for the missing man, a bold strategy given the bind Crawshay has Raffles in. It remains to be seen (or in this case read) as to whether Raffles’ unexpected support of Inspector Mackenzie has any ulterior motives.
The Spectral Assistant
There are some earlier works of fiction which straddle more than one genre, combining mysteries and crimes with supernatural elements, in particular ghosts, and there are several examples of stories which depict spectres getting involved in the unravelling of mysteries or in the enacting of revenge. For example, in an anonymously published short story in 1893 entitled ‘Haunted Ashchurch’, a ghost directs someone’s attention to hitherto undiscovered evidence which proves who murdered them. Whilst in ‘A Dead Man’s Face’ (1884), by Hugh Conway[4], a horrifying male apparition torments Claud Morton every time he is near his fiancée. So troublesome is this ghost that Claud is unable to go through with the wedding. Yet far from being Claud’s enemy, this spectre’s presence in fact brings to light the devastating and dark secret held by the woman he thought he knew and loved. In this case the ghost is also an unexpected ally, not only in the results his actions produce, but also in the way he is connected to Claud.
Partners in Crime
Not all of the unlikely alliances made in classic crime fiction are forged with good intentions, to protect or avenge, as there can also be some unexpected criminal partnerships. We can often expect that people who are working together towards a common goal also like and trust each other. So, when we encounter characters who are at strongly odds with one another, it is all too easy to discount them as suspects who may be in cahoots. Yet dismiss these characters at your peril, particularly if they are in an Agatha Christie novel, as Christie used this type of red herrings successfully in several of her mysteries.
However, on occasion some criminal alliances are not made through design and are formed almost retrospectively. An example can be found in The Spider-Orchid (1977) by Celia Fremlin, when the mutual loathing of a woman sees her lover, Adrian Summers, becoming her husband’s unexpected ally, when the latter decides to murder her. Adrian’s silence makes him an accessory after the fact, when he does not inform the police about the discrepancies he noticed about the apparent accident of the woman.
The Jungle Assistant
Finally, we come to Tarzan, who appeared alongside Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1974) by Philip Jose Farmer. This is not a fusion of characters I ever expected to see, probably making Tarzan the most unexpected ally in this piece!
Bev Hankins who writes at My Reader's Block sums up the plot like this:
‘It is 1916 and Holmes and Watson are called upon once again to save Britain. This time they must track down Von Bork before he can unleash a dreaded plague upon the world--bacteria that can devour a good Englishman's favorite food, boiled beef and potatoes. Forced to fly for the very first time (and they both hate it), they track the evil villain to darkest Africa where they form an uneasy alliance with the Lord of [the] Jungle. Will they escape the African tribe bent on making them sacrifices? Will they escape the venomous cobra? Will they discover where Von Bork has hidden the secret formula? Will Watson get married for a fourth time?’[5]
With Tarzan’s greater knowledge of jungle life and the skills that go with surviving, it is understandable that he would make for a useful ally for Holmes and Watson, despite their differing worldviews and approaches to life and problems. However, before you dash off to buy this book, Bev does describe it ‘as one of [the] most incredibly awful parodies of Holmes and Watson and Tarzan possible’ and the reviewer for Science Fiction Review #12 (February 1975) wrote that this depiction of Tarzan is one ‘you may not wish to acknowledge.’[6] Perhaps there are some unexpected partnerships which don’t need to be made? Yet Farmer did not stop there, as when looking online for further information about this novel, I discovered that in 1984 it was rewritten and published under the new title of The Adventure of the Three Madmen, with a key plot change being the replacement of Tarzan with Mowgli from The Jungle Book.
[1] Norris, John. (2018). FFB: The Devil & Ben Franklin - Theodore Mathieson. [Online]. Pretty Sinister Books. Last Updated: 13 July 2018. Available at: https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2018/07/ffb-devil-ben-franklin-theodore.html [Accessed 9 November 2024].
[2] Hodder, Mark. (2018). SEXTON BLAKE AND ... WHO?. [Online]. Mark Hodder Blakiana. Available at: http://mark-hodder.com/blakiana/who.html [Accessed 9 November 2024].
[3] Yegorov, Oleg. (2017). Imperial Russia’s Most Wanted: The notorious thief and crime boss, Vanka Cain. [Online]. Russia Beyond. Last Updated: 31 October 2017. Available at: https://www.rbth.com/history/326573-crime-boss-vanka-cain [Accessed 8 November 2024].
[4] Hugh Conway a.k.a. Frederick John Fargus (1847-1885) also wrote crime novels such as Called Back (1883), which sold 350,000 copies in its first year and Dark Days (1884).
[5] Hankins, Bev. (2021). The Adventure of the Peerless Peer. [Online]. My Reader's Block. Last Updated: 28 February 2021. Available at: https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-adventure-of-peerless-peer.html [Accessed 9 November 2024].
[6] I found this review on The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page: https://www.pjfarmer.com/WRITTEN-ABOUT-reviews.html#peer [Accessed 9 November 2024]
Kate Jackson blogs at www.crossexaminingcrime.com and she is a member of the Crime Writer’s Association. Her latest publication with the British Library is How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel (2023). This work was shortlisted for the H. R. F. Keating award for Best 2023 Biographical or critical book related to crime fiction. Kate compiled the puzzles in The Pocket Detective (2018) and The Pocket Detective 2 (2019) and she also contributed to the publication: The 100 Greatest Literary Detectives (2018), ed. by Eric Sandberg, writing on Juanita Sheridan’s Lily Wu.
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