Murder’s a Swine

Gordon Neil Stewart (1912–1999) and Pamela Hansford Johnson (1912–1981) make good use of their experiences as WWII air raid wardens in this light whodunit written under the Lombard pseudonym, first published in 1943. To escape the rain, Clem Poplett, an unprepossessing London junior warden with “the face of an adored pet rabbit,” pops into a shelter, where he and Agnes Kinghof, a resident of the building above the shelter, notice a stench emanating from a sandbag. It proves to contain a body “with a long dead face, phosphorescent, greenish-brown in the torch light, hideously blotched.” The corpse is eventually identified as Reg Coppenstall, the brother of another building resident, Adelaide Sibley, who’d not seen Reg in 30 years. Agnes and her husband, a Royal Artillery captain, investigate. The puzzle deepens after Adelaide is frightened by a blue pig’s head that appears outside her window, and she receives an ominous note: “Greasy fellow aren’t I? The Pig-Sticker.” The Kinghofs’ banter and humor will remind many of Nick and Nora Charles. This exemplifies the raison d’être of the British Library Crime Classics series. (Dec.)