The Worm of Death

The poet Cecil Day-Lewis (1904 -72) gained popularity under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake for his sixteen mystery stories involving Nigel Strangeways, a poet with a penchant for solving murder mysteries. The Worm of Death (1961) was the twelfth in the series. Now living with the sculptress Clare Massinger in the small community of Greenwich along the Thames River, Strangeways is asked to investigate the disappearance of a neighbor, the prestigious doctor, Piers Loudron. Not long afterwards Dr. Loudron's body surfaces on the Thames and the case is declared a homicide. The Nigel Strangeways stories are noted as much for their witty dialogue, character development, and psychological complexity as for the puzzle itself. The characters are generally well-educated and literate, not unlike the author himself. The settings are typically genteel, reminiscent of stories by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. The vocabulary is more extensive than generally found in mystery stories, but not to the point of becoming pedantic. Blake's The Worm of Death is perhaps atypical as the plot is not unduly complex and, like me, many readers may identify the murderer through astute (or lucky) guesswork even before all the clues have been revealed. Many clues are more subjective in nature than hard facts. Some are revealed obliquely in conversation. Even nuances can be important. Cecil Day-Lewis was professor of poetry at Oxford in 1951-56, and a lecturer in the 1960s at several universities. He was Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. The actor Daniel Day-Lewis is his son.