Paula Messina Reviews: Case with No Conclusion: A Sgt. Beef Mystery by Leo Bruce

  

Please welcome back Paula Messina to the blog today…

 

 

Case with No Conclusion

 

By Paula Messina

 

 

Leo Bruce loves to make fun of mystery writers. Case with No Conclusion is no exception. It begins with Sgt. Beef complaining that his chronicler, Mr. Townsend, is doing him a disservice. “You don’t seem to make much of my cases. Not what some of them do for their detectives….Not like Miss Christie, or Mr. Freeman Wills Croft. They do get taken notice of.”

In turn, Townsend gripes about Beef, and because Townsend is telling the story, he gets to gripe ad infinitum. It’s true Beef previously managed to solve two cases, Townsend tells us, but that was dumb luck. Beef drinks too much beer. He’s easily distracted and barely seems to work. Beef doesn’t speak the King’s English, and he’s a few darts short of a game.

By the end of the novel, Townsend blames Beef for destroying both their careers. “It’s not only yourself you’ve ruined by failing in this case….Here I’ve been working to build up a reputation for you, and the whole things smashed. If you ever get another case there’s not a publisher in London would use the story of it.”

This is not a mutual admiration society akin to the relationship between Sherlock Homes and John Watson. Townsend is never dazzled by Beef.

In No Conclusions, Beef has retired from the police force and set himself up as a private investigator. Much to Townsend’s great surprise. Beef gets his first client when Peter Ferrers hires Beef to investigate the Sydenham Murder and exonerate Peter’s brother Stewart, who is awaiting trial for the murder of Dr. Benson.

Beef admits that things look grim for Stewart. Benson was killed at The Cypresses, Stewart’s home. Stewart’s fingerprints are the only ones on the murder weapon. The house was locked tight, so no one else could have entered and killed the doctor. It’s widely known the doctor’s wife and Stewart have been carrying on an affair, and a heated argument between Stewart and Benson is well documented.

Despite the deck being stacked again Stewart, Beef sets about investigating the murder. Investigating seems like too highfalutin a word. Townsend has a point. Beef’s methods are unusual. Make that odd. At times he barely seems to be doing anything except to insist he knows what he’s doing. Beef can be belligerent while interviewing. He follows leads down a rabbit’s hole, is easily distracted, and refuses to explain himself. Still, Beef is one hundred percent certain Stewart did not kill the doctor.

If only Beef could prove it.

He interviews Benson’s wife and learns that she was not having an affair with Stewart. Peter admits he’s the adulterous guilty party. Besides, Benson knew all about their romantic activities. Indeed, the Bensons planned to divorce.

Beef and Townsend follow Stewart’s chauffeur and one of his maids to Europe, a trip that appears to be a waste of time and Peter’s money. The butler commits suicide. Was that a confession of guilt? Was the butler blackmailing Stewart? Beef attempts to question a bum who might be a witness by plying him with beer. Chalk that up to another Beef failure.

The evidence he accumulates is rather thin. However, nothing can dissuade Beef from the certainty that Stewart did not murder Dr. Benson. Beef fails to prove Stewart’s innocence in time to stop the jury from convicting him of murder. The next step for Stewart is the gallows.

It comes down to the wire, and while Beef is still adamant he knows who the murderer is, he has no proof that would prevent Stewart’s encounter with a noose. It’s sayonara, Stewart.

This shouldn’t be surprising in a book called Case with No Conclusion. Bruce hammers home repeatedly that Beef has no evidence to exonerate Stewart. Bruce even warns his readers before they crack open the book that there will be no conclusions.

While hanging is no laughing matter, Case with No Conclusion is downright hysterically funny.

Stewart might be a lost cause, but it is not wise to underestimate the intellectually stunted Beef. He might swill a lot of beer, and his detecting skills might be underwhelming, to say the least. But he knows what he’s doing. The ending is both unexpected and immensely satisfying.

The back cover explains that this was the seventh Sgt. Beef mystery, but it was the third one Bruce wrote. That explains why Townsend repeatedly refers to two only previous successful cases. It’s a literary gift to know that Bruce didn’t stop writing at number three. There are nine novels in the Sgt. Beef mystery series.

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Paula Messina ©2025

Paula Messina lives within spitting distance of the Atlantic. She writes historical, contemporary, and humorous fiction.