Tenant for Death

Cyril Hare describes Daylesford Gardens, S.W., located where South Kensington borders on Chelsea, as a refuge for retired colonels, County Court judges, ex-civil servants, and half-pay naval officers. Somewhat incongruously, Lionel Ballantine, a spectacularly successful business man, missing for several days, is found murdered in an unpretentious, leased house in Daylesford Gardens.

To supplement his somewhat limited salary in the years immediately prior to WWII, Judge Gordon Clark, under the pseudonym Cyril Hare, tried his hand at mysteries. His first story, Tenant for Death (1937), was called "an engaging debut" by the respected critic, Jacques Barzun, and received praise from the Spectator for the "extreme skill of the writer".

Tenant for Death is well-crafted, offers interesting characterizations, and provides a credible surprise ending. This is a good story, and yet Cyril Hare's later mysteries like Suicide Excepted (1939), When the Wind Blows (1949), An English Murder (1951), and Untimely Death (1958) are perhaps even better. For readers familiar with Inspector Mallett, this competent Scotland Yard investigator first appears in Tenant for Death.

Cyril Hare's mysteries have been occasionally reissued, and with some persistence can be found in used book stores and library book sales, or purchased online. My copy of Tenant for Death is a slightly yellowed, 1982 Harper & Row Perennial paperback (ISBN 0060805706). In 1991 HarperCollins released a reprint paperback edition under the same ISBN. In 2001 House of Stratus reprinted Tenant for Death in a larger, soft cover format (ISBN 1842326538). Good luck in locating Cyril Hare's first Inspector Mallett mystery.