The Clue of the Scarlet Petal by Daniel Clancy

Title: The Clue of the Scarlet Petal 

Author: Daniel Clancy

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #12)

Daniel Clancy, a writer of detective stories, is a passenger on the midday flight from Paris to London when one of the other passengers is murdered, possibly with a blowpipe. Clancy falls under suspicion because he not only knows about blowpipes, but actually owns one. He tells Inspector Japp that he bought his blowpipe in London, and featured one in his book The Clue of the Scarlet Petal. And we know no more than that about the book.

He carries a notebook which contains what seems to be a part-written book called Murder on Vesuvius. He is researching continental railway journeys to create a complicated alibi for his murderer. It may include the 19:55 from (or possibly to) Tsaribrod, which is in Serbia.

Clancy’s detective is a private investigator named Wilbraham Rice. He bites his nails and eats a lot of bananas. Clancy rather regrets inventing the nail biting because it’s a disgusting habit, but apparently his readers enjoy all the business with the bananas.

Having been on the plane, and not quite witnessed a murder, Clancy is now planning a book to be called The Air Mail Mystery. The murderer will stow away on a plane from Le Bourget, release a poison gas into the cabin (while wearing a gas mask), commit the murder with a blowpipe (while wearing a gas mask?) and a dart poisoned with venom milked from her favourite Python (she is a snake charmer), and then escape by jumping from the plane and hoping to land in northern France (she’s a parachutist too). And if you think that sounds implausible…

Also mentioned in Death in the Clouds are a play called Down Under (not the Australian play from 1975), and Do it Now, where Lord Horbury first sees and is smitten by his unsuitable wife, although that might be a Review rather than a play. 

One of the characters, an ENT specialist, carries a copy of a book called Les Maux de l’Oreille, which sounds real, but I’m not sure if it is. 

And I read on a blog that there’s also a banned book called Bootless Cup. I read Death in the Clouds very recently and this completely passed me by. Mind you, characters in 1930s novels often own banned books, usually imported from France, so maybe my eyes just glazed over. If you spotted this book do let me know.

Photographs by me