I, for one, wish it had. But I understand why it didn’t.

“LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”

INTRODUCTION

Though short-lived, published bi-weekly only from December 1922 to May 1925, The Detective Magazine is notable as being Britain’s first magazine to focus solely on crime fiction. Edited by George Dilnot, himself a regular contributor and “crime aficianado,” the magazine was unusual in publishing both fiction and non-fiction. It often included articles by former police officers, Superintendents and even Chief Inspectors, all writing about their most memorable cases. Edgar Wallace contributed a four-part serial, “The Flat”, and Stanley Rubenstein wrote “Sheer Luck Again” featuring “Sheerluck Combs”, an obvious parody on the famous Sherlock Holmes stories that had been so successfully published in The Strand Magazine. Georgette Heyer’s first-known detective story, “Linckes’ Great Case”, appeared in March 1923.

Ironically, there is a mystery about this mystery story. Significantly longer than any of Heyer’s other contemporary short stories, her first foray into detective fiction is an aberration. Not only because it was her sole attempt at writing a short story in the detective genre, but also because “Linckes’ Great Case” is not very well-written. Instead of Heyer’s usual deftly-drawn characters, Roger Linckes and his colleagues are two-dimensional and not very interesting. The plot is basic and unfortunately transparent and the timeline is ludicrous. The story unfolds over several months and the poor “hero” looks increasingly inept as the “appalling mystery” of who is selling government secrets to the Russians continues to prove insoluble.

Of course, Linckes gets there in the end but only long after the reader has figured out the answer to this rather dull tale. Though typical of hundreds of similar magazine stories of the 1920s, “Linckes’ Great Case” is not typical of Heyer. Where is the sparkling dialogue? The humour? The interesting plot? Where are the characters who – even in Heyer’s most lightweight stories – live for the reader? Only in the few romantic moments between Linckes and Autonia – “Tony” – does the story come alive. It is as though Heyer as creator is missing from her own story, which begs the question, was this detective story solely hers?

Heyer’s father, George Heyer, was also a writer and was said to have written detective fiction under a pseudonym. Father and daughter often read and edited each other’s work and made suggestions for improvements or change. Later in her life Heyer collaborated with her husband, Ronald Rougier, in writing her detective novels. Of those twelve novels, only Death in the Stocks and Penhallow were written without Ronald’s input, and Death in the Stocks is considered by many people to be her best detective story. Though her husband was only responsible for the “how” of those novels, Heyer was happy to collaborate with him when writing her mysteries. Is it therefore possible that George Heyer was behind his daughter’s sole foray into short detective fiction? Did he offer advice, or even write some or most of the story himself? It is a tempting solution to the mystery of how Georgette Heyer, already such an inventive and entertaining author, came to write anything as ordinary as “Linckes’ Great Case.”