Murder Isn't Easy

A slow build up, but a great ending!

I would compare this book to coming home and smelling something delicious cooking in the kitchen. Unfortunately, you know it is not dinner time for a good few hours, but the smells keep getting better and better! Finally, you get to eat and it is amazing!
That is what this book was for me, I really enjoyed it a lot!

I enjoyed reading this book. It started off rather slowly but builds up faster. This story had an ending that I just did not expect. Some characters were very likable and others I disliked immensely. I would read more by this author.

"Murder Isn't Easy"
Nicholas Latimer was an unhappy, frustrated and angry man. A partner in a small advertising agency, Latimer was convinced that his two business partners weren't doing their fair share of the work involved in making their agency successful. As far as Latimer was concerned, neither Paul Spencer, who was supposed to go out and recruit new clients for the agency, nor Sandy Barraclough, who was supposed to be in charge of the business side of the business, so to speak, made any contribution to equal, or even approach, the work that he, Latimer, did as the creative genius behind the agency. He particularly loathed Spencer:

There is a limit to the extent to which the folly of any man can be allowed to ruin a business, and beyond that limit Paul Spencer has certainly gone.

Having tried, as Latimer said, to get rid of his partners in general and Spencer in particular by all legal means, he decided that the only rational solution would be to murder Spencer. Unfortunately for Latimer, he seemed to forget that Murder Isn't Easy, which is the title of a bitterly funny Golden Age (1936) mystery by Richard Hull. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here. Murder Isn't Easy has just been re-published by Ipso Books, and the publisher provided me with an electronic copy of the book for this review.

When we meet Nicholas Latimer, we find a remarkably vain, self-centered individual, a man, moreover, who feels that he and he alone is carrying the entire weight of the small advertising agency called "NeOaD," on his back. It is worth noting that Latimer is very proud of that oddly-spelled name (he says it stands for their slogan, NeO-aD NeVeR NoDs), and you are free to judge from that for yourself just how useful other of Latimer's great ideas may prove to be. I should also add that Latimer is indeed as delusional as all that – and his partners, who are getting increasingly fed up with Latimer’s attitude, certainly reflect their own contempt of what they see as Latimer’s laziness and lack of useful creativity.

It's not exactly one big happy family, and the book is written with some lovely backbiting and sniping back and forth among the three men. We get to watch Latimer’s plans to get rid of the irritating Spencer (and perhaps Barraclough as well) as those murderous plans begin to take shape. But, of course, the course of murder rarely runs quite as smoothly as Latimer seems to think. As the book's title and many of the characters remind us with some regularity, murder isn't easy. And if Latimer is an egotistical and vain individual, his partners do seem capable of finding their own solutions to the agency’s problems...

Murder Isn't Easy, by Richard Hull, is a savagely funny book. I think you'd enjoy it.

The NeO-aD advertising agency was the brainchild of Nicholas Latimer – unfortunately for him, to make the business work, he had to recruit two partners. And as the days pass, and his business plans continue to be undermined by Paul Spencer, Latimer becomes convinced that the firm would be much more successful – and his work so much easier – if Paul Spencer simply wasn’t part of the company. But as Spencer isn’t going to leave of his own accord any time soon, Latimer soon decides that he will need to take matters into his own hands.
But is murder really the answer? Latimer certainly thinks so. But the best laid plans often go astray. After all, despite what Dame Agatha might think… well, read the title.
Richard Hull was the author of fifteen works of crime fiction from 1934 to 1953, and is probably best known (if known at all) for his debut work The Murder Of My Aunt, recently re-issued by the British Library Crime Classics range – review coming soon, hopefully, along with Excellent Intentions. Ipso Books have also re-issued a Hull title, namely this one, and I thought I’d take a look at this one first – and it’s rather impressive.
It’s not a traditional murder mystery but… you know, this is a spoiler-free blog, so I can’t go into any of the specific reasons why I loved this one. It’s clever, unpredictable and entertaining. This is probably going to be one of my shortest reviews ever – just go and read it. Highly Recommended.

I am a big fan of Hull's work so I was excited to find this new reprint.

In the main Hull’s style of mystery writing lies within the inverted form and his stories invariably have a big sting in their tail for one or other of the characters. Today’s read is no different, though I think Hull certainly takes the inverted form and the trope of unreliable narrator to whole new and highly enjoyable levels.

Given the inverted format of the book I’ll try to be sparing with my details concerning the plot. So in a nutshell the story begins with Nicholas Latimer, one of three directors at an Advertising Agency called NeO-aD. He is increasingly feeling infuriated towards one of the other directors, believing him to be a burden on the company and the likely source of it failing. Of course Latimer initially tries more orthodox routes for ousting him, but what will he do when he realises they won’t work? Well you’ll have to read it and find out…

With this sort of plot, it is natural for the reader to try and predict how things will turn out and what direction events will ultimately take. In fact I would suggest that Hull heavily encourages us in this, as of course he so beautifully leads us up the garden path with our own predictions. Having read a number of inverted mysteries I had some ideas as to how things might turn out, yet I was happily proven wrong in a number of respects, as I think Hull is good at unleashing unexpected twists and surprises on the reader; another reason why I was careful that my synopsis wouldn’t even hint at them. The success of this book rests a lot on its structure and narrative voice, as both these elements, combined with the story’s characterisation, skilfully influence the reader’s viewpoint on events. I think I am safe in saying that this is a novel in which the author very cleverly plays around with our sympathies, making us wonder which character(s) we should be siding with and who we can trust to be telling the truth. The advertising agency setting was a successful choice for Dorothy L Sayers in Murder Must Advertise (1933) and C. S. Forester’s Plain Murder (1930) and I can say the same is the case for Hull, though I found his depiction of such a work place quite different to the other two. As with other mysteries by Hull you can rely on him for the unexpected in his endings and this one doesn’t disappoint. It definitely got a big thumbs up from me. A sneaky look at my final rating will reveal that this is a thumbs up all around for the book and is one that I unsurprisingly strongly recommend.