Murder as a Fine Art by Carol Carnac – Review
By Sarah Morgan
If, like me, you’re a bit arty-farty and love a good mystery too, then Murder as a Fine Art is the perfect entertainment.
It was written in 1953, just five years before the death of its author, Edith Caroline Rivett, here writing under the pseudonym Carol Carnac; she also used the names ECR Lorac and Mary Le Bourne during a career that last 27 prolific years.
As Carnac, Rivett wrote three different series, most of which featured the character of Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard; he pops up here, making his ninth of 14 appearances in his creator’s works.
Rivers and his team of investigators are called in after the body of pompous Edwin Pompfret is found crushed beneath the weight of a sculpture nobody who worked with him at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts admired.
“Delightfully light tone”
Nobody seems to have liked Pompfret that much either; nevertheless, unmasking his killer proves difficult, and involves a long and arduous search through the Ministry’s seemingly cavernous headquarters before the crucial evidence is discovered, allowing Rivers to paint a portrait of what happened on the night of the murder.
Although that brief synopsis makes the tale sound rather like any other whodunit ever written, Carnac elevates her story by poking fun at the in-fighting between departments and the bureaucracy that blights such organisations.
The art world itself doesn’t escape her barbed comments either. There’s a long-running commentary on the mysteries of modern painting, and its virtues – or otherwise – when compared with more traditional works; it seems that the men in charge of the Ministry aren’t too sure where their heart lies, while others accuse Pompfret, who was the department’s permanent under secretary, of knowing little about anything, despite passing himself off as an expert – anyone who has worked in a large organisation will no doubt have come across such a figure at some point.
Despite being set in a political world and dealing with murder, Carnac adopts a delightfully light tone throughout. Having read many of her works, several of which have already been reprinted by the British Library’s Crime Classics series, I suggest that this is one of her finest tales – her masterpiece, you might say.
‘Murder as a Fine Art’ by Carol Carnac is published by the British Library
Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.
