Victor Canning's The House of the Seven Flies

Victor Canning (1911-1986) was a very popular English thriller writer who had a 50-year career. His thriller The House of the Seven Flies was published in 1952.

After leaving the army Furse had bought a boat. He earns his living from it. Mostly legally, but not always. A Dutchman mamed Sluiter offers him fifty pounds for a cruise along the English east coast but Sluiter changes his mind. He wants Furst to take him to the Netherlands. It’s an odd way to return to his own country but money is money so Furse is happy enough to oblige.

This short sea voyage has momentous consequences. The corpse is not likely to cause much trouble with the Dutch authorities. A death from natural causes - a small amount of paperwork. Of course it turns out not to be so simple. It was an ingenious murder.

The other consequence is that Furse now has a clue that could lead him to a quarter of a millions pounds’ worth of diamonds. Diamonds that were originally obtained by methods not strictly legal. In fact not even slightly legal.

The clue unfortunately is exasperating elusive. The Seven Flies - what on earth could this mean? There does not appear to be a single village, house, restaurant or anything else of that name in the entire country.

Furse has a couple of things to worry about. First, other people are interested in those diamonds. Rohner is very interested. Rohner isn’t a major crime lord but his criminal activities are extensive and varied. Secondly, there’s also a Dutch cop, Molenaar. He knows about the diamonds as well. He’s not a brilliant cop, but he’s competent and thorough. He’s an honest cop, although of course where a huge amount of money is at stake it’s unwise to assume that anyone is entirely honest.

The situation for Furse is complicated by Constanta. She’s not involved in anything criminal. She’s just a very pretty and charming young woman who happened to know Sluiter. She owns and runs a struggling tugboat operation. She’s a lovely girl, Furse has become very fond of her and she seems to have a definite romantic interest in him. Furse doesn’t want to become involved with her because he doesn’t want her dragged into anything illegal. But he is aware that he is falling in love with her.

There are other people mixed up in this business as well. There’s Rohner’s wife Elsa, who turns out to be his mistress rather than his wife. Elsa is attractive and seductive but she’s the sort of woman who double-cross her own mother. There’s Rohner’s henchman, Dekker, who might consider double-crossing his boss.There’s an old Dutch farmer and his wife, who may know more about the diamonds than they should. And there’s Furse’s pal Charlie, a very likeable crook.

Canning does a fine job of keeping us uncertain as to the exact parts these people are going to play in the game that is unfolding, and exactly which way they might jump.

Furse is an extremely interesting protagonist. He doesn’t think of himself as a criminal, but he’s a smuggler so the authorities would certainly consider him to be a crook. He has managed to rationalise his smuggling. When times are tough it isn’t really wrong to step outside the law, is it? And he has rationalised his plan to steal those diamonds. They were stolen during the war but they were insured and the insurance claim was paid. So if he finds and keeps the diamonds, it’s not really stealing is it? It’s not like anybody will be hurt. He thinks of himself as a decent law-abiding citizen who just happens to get drawn into crime by financial necessity. His rationalisations have been only partly successful. He isn’t entirely happy with himself.

In fact most of the characters in this story have the same kinds of flexible moral standards. They have all founds way to justify their actions. This is spite of the fact that the saga of the diamonds has already led to murder.

The cop Molenaar is interesting. His attitude towards the law is just slightly unconventional, in ways that would upset his superiors if they knew what he was actually up to.

This is old school British thriller fiction. No graphic violence, no sex, but excellent plotting and suspense and characters who are genuinely intriguing and a solid romance sub-plot. A fine intelligent thriller. Highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed Canning’s excellent 1948 thriller Panther’s Moon.