A Scream in Soho: Book Review
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First published in 1940 and now reissued by the British Library under Crime Classics, A Scream in Soho by John G. Brandon is not a straightforward mystery but a mixture of a murder mystery and a wartime espionage thriller. The main character is Detective Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy, a very sure of himself policeman who is on first names terms with fellow policemen and villains alike. He moves easily in the seedy world of Soho, paying off snouts and keeping an eye on known crooks and garnering everyone's respect.
Probably the best thing about this book is the setting. The reader gets a very clear, very vivid picture of Soho during the Second World War - basically, it's full of foreigners, who may or may not be up to all sort of criminal activity. McCarthy feels very much at home in Soho, not unsurprising because it's where he lives. Much is made of this familiarity and with good reason; the whole setting feels very authentic.
However, the novel isn’t without its challenges. Many of the characters suffer from being stereotyped according to the prejudices of the day - for example, Italians are not to be trusted, too smooth, too oily, too unBritish. I felt that McCarthy as a character was over-confident, not only in his dealings with the criminals but also with his superiors, who bowed to his genius a little too much for my taste. That being said, he does make mistakes and acknowledges them, which was good to read.
But perhaps the most challenging aspect of the book for me was the Cockney dialogue. I appreciate Brandon's desire to give the reader authentic dialogue from the mouths of working class citizens, but writing this dialogue as it was meant to be spoken can make reading it pretty hard-going. I was focusing so hard on getting the dialogue right in my head that it took me out of the story. Less would have been more in this regard.
Despite this, A Scream in Soho was an okay read. The plot rattled along nicely and reached a satisfying conclusion.