The Man Who Didn't Fly

Starred review from November 16, 2020
First published in 1955, this outstanding mystery from Bennett (1912–1980) poses a genuinely original puzzle. A private plane that was scheduled to transport four men from England to Ireland crashes into the Irish Channel, presumably killing the pilot and the three men seen to board the plane. But in the absence of the passengers’ corpses, which of them perished—and who is the title character, the fourth man who for an unknown reason missed the flight? Identifying him falls to an entertaining pair of policemen, Inspector Lewis and Sergeant Young, who work diligently to reconstruct what happened in the face of witnesses whose recollections of what the men on the plane looked like are frustratingly murky. Bennett maintains suspense despite not relying on a familiar whodunit structure. Superior prose (a landlord sits “on a low stool, his great, yellow, rectangular face hanging over the bar like a disfigured moon; occasionally pouring a drink”) enhances the crackerjack plot. This superior reissue exemplifies the mission of the British Library Crime Classics series.

December 15, 2020
One of the British Library Crime Classics' most obscure discoveries is this 1955 tale about a chartered airplane that crashes en route from England to Ireland, killing all four men aboard--a number that was supposed be five. After publishing seven variously successful crime novels, Bennett (1912-1980) shifted to writing for television. It would be hard to top the premise of her sixth novel for sheer ingenuity. Businessman Joseph Ferguson, unable to book a commercial flight, charters a plane that goes down in the Irish Sea. The pilot is dead, and so are three of his four planned passengers: Ferguson, shady broker Maurice Reid, unemployed hypochondriac Morgan Price, and childlike poet Harry Walters. Which of the men failed to board the flight? Why? Did he arrange the crash? Where is he now? The inquiries of Inspector Lewis and DS Young focus on Tower House, the home of Maurice's friend Charles Wade, where all three of the others had put in an appearance in the days before most of them died. Wade has obviously been marked by Maurice as lamb to be shorn; his daughter Hester is charmed and beguiled by Harry, whom everyone else heartily dislikes, an antipathy shared by Ferguson's wife (or maybe widow), Moira. A series of extended flashbacks to those last few days calmly skewers the pretensions of all the characters while allowing each of the four designated passengers to audition for the role of sole survivor. An acridly amusing 1945 short story, "No Bath for the Browns," provides a brief addendum that's worth every word. For fans who like their nostalgia served with a side of wicked cleverness.

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