Sara Woods, Bloody Instructions

Sara Woods, Bloody Instructions
Avon (1986 reprint of 1962 original)
© Sara Woods 1962

Having read 10 books in 3 series by Sara Woods (under 3 pseudonyms) last year, I decided to look back on her lenghty series of books featuring an English barrister (Antony Maitland), his uncle (Nicholas Harding, also a barrister), his wife (Jenny), and some other continuing characters.

Antony Maitland made his debut in 1962, in this book, in which we find most of the characteristics of the series already in place.  Maitland, a barrister, is a member of his uncle Nicholas Harding’s chambers.  He is married to Jenny, who is a stay-at-home wife; they are childless.  And they live in separate quarters in Harding’s house.  Harding, at this stage, is unmarried (apparently never married); his household is run by Gibbs (whose first name, I think, we never learn),, an aged butler who disdains Maitland.

As the book opens, Maitland is off to a solicitor’s office to pick up some documents that his uncle needs.  While he is there, the very dead body of Joseph Winter, the senior partner in the firm, is found in his office, a dagger in his neck.  (One thing that does not get mentioned, and which seems to me to be noteworthy, is that for the death to have been as quick as it seems to have been, a major blood vessel must have been involved.  And yet there is no mention of a lot of blood.)  There is, at any event, a narrow window for the murder, from about 4:12 PM (when the head of the clerical staff spoke with Winter) and 4:30, when the body was found.

Winter had a fairly active afternoon, with a steady stream of clients (and one non-client) calling on him.  It’s also noteworthy that his office has access to a second, private and generally unused exit.  For reasons that appear obvious to the police, but not to Maitland, police attention rapidly focuses on the noted actor Joseph Dowling.  Dowling is one of those who called on Winter than afternoon, and is not a client; in fact, his wife, who is a client, is suing for divorce, and Dowling had no good reason to be calling on her lawyer.  (And, just to complicate matters, Dowling’s son Dennis, is completing his apprenticeship as a solicitor in Winter’s offices).

Maitland is a witness for the prosecution in the case, and Harding accepts the challenge of defending Dowling.  This seems problematic to me, but I’m not an expert on what might be deemed a conflict of interest in English courts.  It would, almost certainly, open Maitland to being treated by the prosecution (in the U.S.) as a hostile witness.  Maitland, in addition, visits with the other people who saw Winter that afternoon, as well as other people involved with them, or with Winter. 

The investigation and its complications take up most of the book, with the trial scenes beginning on p. 159 and ending—with Maitland having been instrumental in identifying the murderer—on p. 186.  The whole thing is rather convoluted, and turns on one small bit of documentation which we, as readers, are almost certain to miss.  As a series debut, this is a very strong offering, well-plotted, with interesting characters and settings.  Well worth seeking out, if you like lawyer-focused, character-driven, and generally non-violent mysteries.  Oh, and all the titles are, as I recall, drawn from Shakespeare:

But in these cases
We will have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor,  This even-handed justice
Commends th’ ingredience of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips.
MACBHETH, Act I, Scene vii