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the complete review - fiction

Murder at The Flea Club

by
Matthew Head

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : fine but unexceptional

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Once again Mr. Head demonstrates precisely how to combine the formal detective story with a wittily literate novel of character perception." - Anthony Boucher, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "(H)as some very funny moments." - Pat Wallace, Sunday Times

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Murder at The Flea Club is the fourth in a series of novels narrated by Hooper Taliaferro ("pronounced Tolliver, I always have to add"), in which he recounts the investigations of a friend of his, "a medical missionary named Dr. Mary Finney, who has acquired a certain secondary reputation as an amateur detective". The first three novels were set in Africa, in the then-still Belgian Congo; this one is set in Paris, as Hoop has moved on from Africa and now runs an art gallery in the French capital; among the things he does well with there are the African tribal masks and fetishes that Dr. Finney supplies him with. But, as he notes early on: "this isn't the story of an art gallery, it's the story of a murder, which occurred at a place called The Flea Club".
       Conveniently, Dr. Finney is coming to Paris -- not least as a guest of the Sûreté, the French national police, who have invited her to give an address at a grand dinner they're having ("because she had incidentally in the course of her activities solved a couple of murders on her own strictly amateur and personal basis and they had turned out to be fairly well known in the case books"). She has no idea what to give a talk on -- but companion Emily 'Emmy' Collins, who travels with her, suggests: "Solve a murder for them" -- and, soon enough, there is indeed a murder for Dr. Finney to show her chops on -- and, with the dinner approaching soon, there's also a bit of urgency to get to the bottom of things quickly.
       At the same time, a cousin from back home has asked Hoop to look up someone visiting in Paris, Audrey Bellen and her eighteen-year-old daughter (actually, step-daughter), Marie Louise. Conveniently, both the Bellens and Dr.Finney and Emmy are all staying at the same hotel.
       Upon meeting Hoop, Audrey immediately tries to set up Marie Louise with Hoop, but it's clear that there is no spark here. Still, mother and daughter prove hard to escape and avoid.
       Unsurprisingly, too, much revolves around The Flea Club -- with Hoop assuring the reader that it: "was no scrimey little dive". He was something of a regular -- "I went to The Flea Club two or three times a week, even if only for a short nightcap, and occasionally had to take a guest" -- at this: "semi-public night-club with a private section for members".
       Much of the story is presented in a rather roundabout way, Hoop chronicling what happened -- at least to the extent that he's aware of it -- to Dr.Finney. There's some back and forth at times, Dr.Finney pressing him on one thing or another, but mostly, at least for the first half of the book, he just tells what happened -- but not as though he were in actual conversation with Dr.Finney. It makes for an odd, at times disconnected feel, and is a very peculiar way of presenting the tale (especially since it's not entirely presented like this -- just large chunks of it).
       At least there is a large cast of colorful characters -- the list of those involved, in one way or another, quite impressive:

Half the people on it ready to cut the throats of the other half, and more bed and re-bed combinations than you could shake a copy of Krafft-Ebing at. A divine little crew.

- M.A.Orthofer, 31 July 2026

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Links:

• Felony & Mayhem Press publicity page

• See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
• See Index of Contemporary American fiction

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About the Author:

       American author Matthew Head (actually: John Canaday) lived 1907 to 1985.

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© 2026 the complete review

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