The House of the Arrow

Rating:
Summary: Classic Detective from a Golden (or silver) age
Review: A.E. W. Mason wrote a good many books, of which his romantic adventure "The Four Feathers" may be the best known today. In his own time, however, he was famous as a successor to Conan Doyle, and his detective, the great Hanaud, was much appreciated by readers in early 20th century Britain. Mason chose a different track than some: where other writers made their detectives less eccentric than Sherlock Holmes, Mason went in the opposite direction: Hanaud is French, an egomaniac, a part of the official machinery rather than an aristocratic amateur, and accompanied by as many as two Watsons! In all of this he may have inspired Agatha Christie to make her detective a foreign policeman, Poirot. Making a foreigner the hero was risky in the xenophobic days of Empire, but Mason succeeded.

A number of the Hanaud books are currently available, at least used. The most famous of them, and the best by far, was this book "The House of the Arrow". In its time it was the most celebrated detective story in English. It still rewards reading by fans of the golden age. I realize that it is out of print. But I leave this little review as a signpost for potential readers. If you like this sort of thing, and you come across it online, in a library, or in a used book shop, by all means pick it up. It was recommended to me when I was 10, and I didn't find a copy until I was 16, but I am glad I did. Not great literature, of course, and definitely of a later period than the Victorian Holmes, but well done of its type.

Good Hunting!