SECRET FEAR BY REGINALD UNDERWOOD: A QUEER TALE FROM FORTUNE PRESS IN 1943

A  BOOK REVIEW  FROM  WILLIAM CROSS

                                             OF "SECRET  FEAR"

BY REGINALD UNDERWOOD (1943)

A RARE TITLE FROM FORTUNE PRESS 

   

                                                            THE  BOOK COVER 

 

This crime curio  offers, as the publisher’s own  publicity  declares, a queer plot that is  a far cry from others stories of the same genre at the time of its writing ( i.e. 1943). The  comparable titles are “ a little jaded by the ever-sinister Nazi"  or of the image of the  conventional  cloak and dagger detective, murderer or thief.

Secret Fear is  a  very hard to get  war time novel by  the prolific Reginald Underwood from the notorious FORTUNE PRESS.

Announced by the Press  in their “ Summer and Autumn Titles” for 1943,   as a striking “thriller”   the author  is better  known for his other Fortune Press delights including the frolicsome  relationship teaser,   “Flame of Freedom”, the  racy gay classic “Bachelor’s Hall “ and the torrid story of illigitimacy   “An Old Maid’s Child”. Yes, Secret Fear  is a  whole new departure in the literary career  of dear old Reggie Underwood.

The  book’s “Contents of  Chapters” gives ample warning of the nature of the storyline to come, with  stark headlines  including “ An  Inexplicable Burglary”;  “ Murder?”; “ Terror Finds The Doctor”;  A Strange Death”;  “An Appalling Ordeal” ; and “Escape”.

The action kicks off in Bruges in Belgium, in order to introduce the central character, 40-year-old  Roderick Farne, MA, a shy,  English  ex-schoolmaster, freed from having to seek  employment  in a profession he detests, after having gained a modest inheritance and, with it,  a taste for  travel and exploring the world at large.

Farne is drawn into this  mystery-suspense- vendetta, with the origin of the apparent “Secret Fear”,  set around concerns for the well being of  some old acquaintances of  his back in England. 

Quite whether Farne’s  informant in Bruges, Tom Smeathers a creepy ex- Butler to a rich family in Farne’s past life is an honest broker is part of the mystery, mayhem and murder that unfolds.  Mr Smeathers appears to have plenty of  secrets, and a odd ball and strange wife who keeps the dangerous company of men in the shadows.

Farne’s friends in England  are apparently in mortal danger  from the  evil intent  of a mother and child killer, a  heavy drinking aristocrat,  Clive Lowick.   This wretch is  believed  to be quite mad and, “cruel as hell”, he has  spent several  years in Dartmoor  prison and  upon his release from there was ordered abroad, to Canada.  It seems that Lowick was done out of his inheritance and  the family pile was left by his wealthy father to an old doctor and not to him, so on this count he is seething with anger and bitter as a lemon.

Trouble is the villainous  Lowick is  now back in England looking for revenge, and the line up of his would targets for revenge starts with the old butler in Burges,  and hot favourites by a mysterious  stranger ( possibly cavorting with the ex-Butler’s wife)  against  the old family doctor and his beautiful  daughter,  these being the close friends of Farne.  In fact Farne has  quite a notion for the doctor’s alluring  daughter, although no talk of romance has been exchanged between them.

The damsel in distress is  one Adele Burfield,  who was once promised in marriage to an older, effete,  English  Lord,  named Ploughdon, but for some reason or other she  remains single.  Adele is living with her father in a  quaint little cottage, having sold the Lowick family pile ( that was previously inherited)   and oddly it seems the doctor  is no longer  a rich man and has been the subject of a recent burglary that  has dumb founded and unsettled them all.   

Farne takes on the role of detective to investigate a  growing spiral of  conflicting  threads in  the relationships  and  he is soon deeply embroiled in  endeavouring to solve  a  trail of crime,  robbery, deception, lies, false Wills  and  multiple murders in search of the  truth.  What a jolly  good chap he is, and he seems to enjoy this quest.

Add to the mix a element of the supernatural, of controlling, fiendish females and there you have it to try to keep up and  unscramble.

A quite different,  honest and refreshing  storyline from the usually salacious,  middlebrow, gay-themed fictional flirts  from Reginald Underwood, who keeps up the  pace of Farne’s scrutiny of events,   and lays on the reader exhilaration fairly well, albeit  there is some muddling and the narrative  is  a bit short on the detail on character development. But we get hooked  as Farne tramples across the Midlands and back in Bruges looking for testimonies and answers to the riddles.

And, in the end  cleverly, and unexpectedly Underwood pulls it all off  in exposing the “Secret Fear” or fears of  almost all the key players  and with this some further gasps.

Farne is no Sherlock Holmes or Poirot, but  he is still a steady handed sleuth albeit  in the making. 

Is there a resolution and happy ending,  I won’t spoil it! That said : the only copy of the book is on my  book shelves albeit looking for a new, loving home. 

William Cross, FSA Scot

Enquiries   email :

williecross@aol.com

 

A  BOOK REVIEW  FROM  WILLIAM CROSS

                                             OF "SECRET  FEAR"

BY REGINALD UNDERWOOD (1943)

A RARE TITLE FROM FORTUNE PRESS