Beneath the Stains of Time: A Gumshoe with Sea Legs: "Death at the Porthole" (1938) and "The Eye" (1945) by Baynard Kendrick

Beneath the Stains of Time: A Gumshoe with Sea Legs: "Death at the Porthole" (...: Baynard Kendrick is best known today for creating one of the most successful blind detectives in crime fiction, Captain Duncan Maclain, who...

Paula Messina Reviews: The Odor of Violets: A Duncan Maclain Mystery by Baynard Kendrick

 

Please welcome back Paula Messina to the blog today…

  

 

The Odor of Violets

by Paula Messina

 

 

I’d never heard of Baynard Kendrick (1894–1977) and his main character, Duncan Maclain, until I picked up The Odor of Violets (1941). Otto Penzler tells us in his introduction to Violets that Maclain was “[o]ne of the most beloved characters from the Golden Age of Detective fiction and beyond.” Penzler describes Kendrick as “one of the giants” from that period. I asked three well-read mystery writers what they know of Kendrick. Two drew a blank. One had read a few of Kendrick’s short stories.

            How fleeting fame.

Baynard Kendrick was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, and articles. One of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America, he served as its first president. He was also the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army during World War I. It was his experience during that war that led him to an encounter with “a blind British soldier who had the remarkable ability to tell Kendrick things about himself that exceeded what a sighted person might have known.” Kendrick never learned the soldier’s name and never saw him again.

That encounter is described in Kendrick’s foreword. I don’t want to spoil anything but describing it. I’ll let you discover it. I’ll only say that the blind soldier’s accomplishment rivaled—no, make that exceeded—any of Sherlock Holmes’ flights of genius.

As you might have guessed, Duncan Maclain is blind. In his foreword to Violets, Kendrick, who had a life-long interest in blindness and who worked with the blind, tells of a letter he received from Anne Mansfield Sullivan. Well known for her work with Helen Keller, Sullivan said, “You’re a mystery writer…so why not draw on the knowledge that you’ve accumulated and create a blind detective of your own…who would never perform any feat in his detection or deduction that couldn’t be duplicated by someone totally blind—presuming they had the necessary brains and willpower to train themselves to try.”

Kendrick accepted the challenge. Duncan Maclain was born.

Getting back to Violets, Norma Tredwill’s concern about her strained relationship with her step-daughter intensifies when she learns that Babs is dating Paul Gerente, who just happens to be Norma’s ex-husband. She sets off to confront Gerente.

Meanwhile, Gerente visits Duncan Maclain concerning information that must not fall into enemy hands.

Norma arrives at Gerente’s apartment building in time to see Babs fleeing. Norma finds Gerente’s body. Babs goes missing. Did she kill Gerente? Or did the neighbor who confesses to the crime do it? Or was it someone else?

What begins as a straight-forward mystery turns into a story of international intrigue. Maclain suspects the enemy is behind the murder, and he’s worried that information that would devastate the war effort is about to land in the wrong hands. It’s the recurring scent of violets that leads to the murderer.

There are many reasons to read a mystery. If you want a great plot, there’s Agatha Christie. Looking for witty dialogue, try Rex Stout. For humor, Donald E. Westlake never fails. If you’re more interested in something literary, try P.D. James.

Violets doesn’t have a sensational plot. There is little humor, and Kendrick is far from an elegant writer. Ultimately, it’s a mystery writer’s detective that sways readers to pick up a book, and here Baynard Kendrick shines. Think Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Harry Hole, Jack Reacher. Duncan Maclain is a great detective. It’s easy to understand why he was and should continue to be a much beloved character. There’s nothing special about him. He’s not eccentric. It’s obvious he’s bright and talented, but he’s an ordinary guy who happens to be blind. Everything Maclain does fits Sullivan’s bill. There are no stunts. They could be duplicated by someone who is blind. The real intrigue is inhabiting Maclain’s world, “seeing” it through his “eyes.” It’s those eyes that makes for a memorable read.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3J6P9n9

 

 

Paula Messina ©2025

Paula Messina lives within spitting distance of the Atlantic. When she isn’t reading about Archie Goodwin’s adventures, she’s writing fiction, make that historical, contemporary, and humorous fiction.

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Aluminum Turtle (1960) by Baynard Kendrick

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Aluminum Turtle (1960) by Baynard Kendrick: Baynard Kendrick 's The Aluminum Turtle (1960), alternatively titled The Spear Gun Murders , is the eleventh, and penultimate, novel in...

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Whistling Hangman (1937) by Baynard Kendrick

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Whistling Hangman (1937) by Baynard Kendrick: This year, Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics is reprinting one of my two favorite Baynard Kendrick detective novels, Blind Man&...

Barry Ergang's FFB Review: DEATH KNELL (1945) by Baynard Kendrick

 

From the magnificently massive archive…

 

Successful novelist and gun collector Larmar Jordan lives in a lavish fourteenth floor Arday Apartments suite with his wife Lucia, his live-in secretary Paul Hirst, a cocker spaniel named Winnie, and domestic servants. In attendance at a cocktail party in the suite are Larmar’s literary agent Sarah Hanley, newspaper reporter Bob Morse, and Sybella Ford, accompanied by her fiancée Captain Duncan Maclain.

 

Having attained his rank twenty years earlier during World War I while an intelligence officer, and blinded during that conflict, Maclain overcame his handicap—and benefited from it by heightening his other senses—to take on the unlikely profession, along with partner Spud Savage, of private investigator.

 

When Troy Singleton, a woman with whom Jordan has been intimately involved, is shot to death in the author’s study with one of the firearms from his esoteric collection, Jordan is the immediate and arrested suspect. Although New York Homicide detectives Inspector Davis and Sergeant Archer, with whom Maclain has contended before, consider it an open-and-shut case, not least because of a neighboring witness, Mrs. Oliver, Maclain agrees to undertake Lucia’s investigation of her husband’s predicament. What he unearths reveals a great deal more than the police have suspected.

 

In addition to some of the aforementioned people, Maclain has to deal with as sources of information and/or as suspects Ellis Brown Mitchell, firearms expert who is cataloguing Jordan’s collection; Jess Ferguson, Jordan’s attorney; a menacing and motivated individual named Martin Gallagher; and very successful aircraft manufacturer Daniel Pine.

 

A generally well-written detective story with a good sense of character, Death Knell has occasional arguable stylistic lapses wherein descriptions of Maclain’s abilities are reminiscent of descriptions of pulp “super” heroes like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and others of that ilk. The novel combines the qualities of the traditional whodunit with some of the action and suspense of the hardboiled school.

 

Those old enough to remember the short-lived TV series Longstreet might recall its blind insurance investigator portrayed by James Franciscus. Mike Longstreet wasn’t Duncan Maclain, but the program—and thus his character—was credited to Kendrick as creator. In 1938 and the early1940s, there were several movies starring the miscast Edward Arnold (miscast physically, that is, based upon descriptions in the books) as Maclain, among them “Eyes in the Night” which, as of this writing, is available at YouTube.

 

Although my teenage reading about mystery series informed me of the Duncan Maclain novels, it wasn’t until paperback editions were reissued following the advent of the Longstreet program in 1971 that I actually got to read several of them. It is a worthwhile series of detective novels which merits resurrection for 21st Century readers. 

 

 

Barry Ergang ©2018, 2023 

Among his other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s locked-room novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, can be found in eBook formats at Smashwords.com and Amazon.com

Beneath the Stains of Time: Blind Man's Bluff (1943) by Baynard Kendrick

Beneath the Stains of Time: Blind Man's Bluff (1943) by Baynard Kendrick: Baynard Kendrick was an American mystery novelist and the spiritual father of the most influential of all blind detectives, Captain Duncan ...

Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Knell (1945) by Baynard Kendrick

Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Knell (1945) by Baynard Kendrick: Baynard Kendrick was a detective novelist and one of the founding members of the Mystery Writers of America, even serving as their first...

FFB Review: DEATH KNELL (1945) by Baynard Kendrick (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

It has been awhile, but Barry Ergang is back today with another all new FFB review. For the rest of the list make sure you check out Patti Abbott’s blog.

DEATH KNELL (1945) by Baynard Kendrick

Successful novelist and gun collector Larmar Jordan lives in a lavish fourteenth floor Arday Apartments suite with his wife Lucia, his live-in secretary Paul Hirst, a cocker spaniel named Winnie, and domestic servants. In attendance at a cocktail party in the suite are Larmar’s literary agent Sarah Hanley, newspaper reporter Bob Morse, and Sybella Ford, accompanied by her fiancée Captain Duncan Maclain.

Having attained his rank twenty years earlier during World War I while an intelligence officer, and blinded during that conflict, Maclain overcame his handicap—and benefited from it by heightening his other senses—to take on the unlikely profession, along with partner Spud Savage, of private investigator.

When Troy Singleton, a woman with whom Jordan has been intimately involved, is shot to death in the author’s study with one of the firearms from his esoteric collection, Jordan is the immediate and arrested suspect. Although New York Homicide detectives Inspector Davis and Sergeant Archer, with whom Maclain has contended before, consider it an open-and-shut case, not least because of a neighboring witness, Mrs. Oliver, Maclain agrees to undertake Lucia’s investigation of her husband’s predicament. What he unearths reveals a great deal more than the police have suspected. 

In addition to some of the aforementioned people, Maclain has to deal with as sources of information and/or as suspects Ellis Brown Mitchell, firearms expert who is cataloguing Jordan’s collection; Jess Ferguson, Jordan’s attorney; a menacing and motivated individual named Martin Gallagher; and very successful aircraft manufacturer Daniel Pine.

A generally well-written detective story with a good sense of character, Death Knell has occasional arguable stylistic lapses wherein descriptions of Maclain’s abilities are reminiscent of descriptions of pulp “super” heroes like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and others of that ilk. The novel combines the qualities of the traditional whodunit with some of the action and suspense of the hardboiled school.

Those old enough to remember the short-lived TV series Longstreet might recall its blind insurance investigator portrayed by James Franciscus. Mike Longstreet wasn’t Duncan Maclain, but the program—and thus his character—was credited to Kendrick as creator. In 1938 and the early1940s, there were several movies starring the miscast Edward Arnold (miscast physically, that is, based upon descriptions in the books) as Maclain, among them “Eyes in the Night” which, as of this writing, is available at YouTube.

Although my teenage reading about mystery series informed me of the Duncan Maclain novels, it wasn’t until paperback editions were reissued following the advent of the Longstreet program in 1971 that I actually got to read several of them. It is a worthwhile series of detective novels which merits resurrection for 21st Century readers.

© 2018 Barry Ergang

While his website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/  some of Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s work is available at Amazon and Smashwords.com