Subject-Murder (1945) is a detective novel by Clifford Witting based on
his personal experience as a bombardier in an anti-aircraft
detachment.
Peter Bradfield, the detective constable colleague of series character
Inspector Charlton, is the narrator. We follow him from basic training
in Wales to his various transfers to other posts eventually landing him
in an anti-aircraft detachment between the villages of Etchworth and
Sheep, and coincidentally just outside of Lulverton where he and
Charlton are based as policemen.
The arch villain of the story, Battery Sgt. Major Yule -- "Cruel Yule"
to the bombardiers he oversees -- is sadistic, manipulative and
narcissistic. Throughout the novel he proves to be one of the most
odious villains in the entire genre. When we first meet him through the
eyes of Johnny Fieldhouse, Yule is seated at a desk in his office
taunting a mouse he has trapped under a drinking glass. This brief
encounter will put Fieldhouse on Yule's list of marked men for the
remainder of the book, and a gruesome murder follows before long.
Clues and red herrings are abundant as in any of the best examples of
the fair play detective novel. Charlton is allowed to team up with his
old colleague Bradfield and together they uncover such intriguing
evidence as unusual knots in the rope and dog leash used to tie up the
murder victim, a book on torture practices of the Spanish inquisition
that has certain passages bracketed, and the double life of a mysterious
soldier named Alexander Templeton.
Witting once again proves he has the stuff of a high ranking officer of
detective novel plotting.
