Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 28, 2001 at 10:51:59 from 195.93.33.168:
To me this is the "darkest" of the novels. Even the pictures seem gloomier. From the brick thrown back through the window, up to the denouement in Mr Farland's study, the odds are stacked against the Death and Glories. They don't have the certainties of the comfortable middle classes; one of the most unsettling moments is when their fathers do actually get into fights about their guilt or innocence. Their fathers's jobs may be at risk. This is the only story in which there is any suggestion of actual violence.
There is of course a subplot which takes place, so to speak, in bright sunshine - the saga of the Cachalot and the pike at the Roaring Donkey - but, as Charles Lamb pointed out about the porter scene in Macbeth, this serves to heighten the tension and gloom for the rest of the plot.
Now, the tale is of course a "classical" detective story of the great period, and the detective plot itself is on a par with Dorothy L Sayers or Agatha Christie, but I do wonder whether the date of publication, 1940, has anything to do with it.