First published in 1942; published digitally by Open Road Media on April 26, 2016
Pursuit of a Parcel is an old-school British mystery with an espionage theme, the kind of story where spies say “I say, old chap” and take a break from spying to have a spot of tea and never miss breakfast. It’s all very civilized, as a reader might expect from Patricia Wentworth. Although billed as an Ernest Lamb mystery, there were (I think) only three books in that series, and Lamb plays a limited role in Pursuit of a Parcel, the last of the three.
A Nazi who is receiving intelligence from Cornelis Roos in 1940 suspects he might be a double agent. A British colonel who is receiving intelligence from Cornelius Rossiter wonders whether he might be a double agent.
Cornelius was adopted but Antony Rossiter still thinks of him as a brother. The colonel sends Antony to track down Cornelius/Cornelis and find out what’s what. Antony learns that Cornelius has sent him a parcel, although the contents are unknown. The parcel ends up in the hands of Antony’s lady friend Delia, with whom Antony has a chaste and civilized relationship that mostly involves drinking tea. But soon many people want to get the parcel from Delia.
Of course, Antony is dashing and sophisticated and all the women in the novel want to kiss him. Antony wouldn’t mind kissing them but he won’t because he’s engaged to Delia. Patricia Wentworth gives all of her characters a good dose of personality, but she excels at portraying the life of a small village. Gossip and an obsession with manners, as well as gossip about people with bad manners, abound.
The novel has some action (nothing too graphic, of course) and the story proceeds at a good pace, but with enough leisure that readers can always take a break for tea before moving on to the next chapter. It’s the kind of novel that a cozy mystery fan can breeze through in a day or two.
There isn’t much mystery to the mystery but there’s a bit of identity confusion that keeps characters guessing about who is doing what. It’s all fairly obvious to the reader, which makes this a lesser example of a mid-century British mystery, but Wentworth’s prose is lively and her characters are convincing.
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