''The Beast Must Die'' is a 1938

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

, written under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. It combines elements of the inverted

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

with a classic

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

-style investigation. It is the fourth in a series of novels featuring the private detective

Nigel Strangeways Nigel Strangeways is a fictional British private detective created by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. He was one of the prominent detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, appearing in sixteen novels betwee ...

. The title is inspired by a line in Four Serious Songs by

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

, itself a reference to

Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes (; hbo, קֹהֶלֶת, Qōheleṯ, grc, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ekklēsiastēs) is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly use ...

Adaptations

The novel was adapted as a film twice: a 1952 Argentine film ('' The Beast Must Die'', directed by

Román Viñoly Barreto Román Viñoly Barreto (8 August 1914 – 20 August 1970) was a Uruguayan-Argentine film director. Biography Viñoly Barreto directed 28 feature films between 1947 and 1966 including ''The Black Vampire'', '' Paper Boats'', the 1954 film '' ...

and starring

Laura Hidalgo Laura Hidalgo (1 May 1927 – 18 November 2005) was an Argentine Actor, actress. Born in Chisinau, Bessarabia as Pesea Faerman Postolow, her family moved in 1931 to Buenos Aires , where she grew up. Hidalgo appeared in sixteen films in Mexico ...

), and a 1969 film ('' This Man Must Die'', directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

and starring

Michel Duchaussoy Michel René Jacques Duchaussoy (29 November 1938 – 13 March 2012) was a French film actor, who appeared in more than 130 films between 1962 and 2012. At first a theatre actor, he worked for many years in the Comédie Française, where he ...

and Caroline Cellier).Goble p.43 In addition, it was the basis of a 2021 British television series ('' The Beast Must Die'').

Synopsis

After his young son is run down and killed by a speeding car in the

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

village where he lives, mystery novelist Frank Cairnes is angry when the police fail to trace the culprit. For some time, he has been planning to murder the man responsible as soon as he has the opportunity, whatever the consequences. Deciding to investigate on his own, he finds out by chance that the passenger in the car is a rising film actress, Lena Lawson. Pretending to be writing a new novel set in a

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

, he meets Lena in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

posing under his pen name Felix Lane. After a courtship, he manages to gain an invitation to stay with her at the house of her brother-in-law George Rattery in Gloucestershire. Now certain that Rattery, a wealthy and unpleasant bully, is the man who killed his son, Cairnes plots his revenge. After discovering that Rattery cannot swim, he goads him into coming

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

with him on a stormy day. Complications ensue and the plan goes awry, Rattery able to walk away in apparent triumph. Only a few hours later, however, he collapses after dinner and dies almost instantly of

poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

. Knowing that he will be the prime suspect, Cairnes calls in the private detective Nigel Strangeways to clear him of the murder.

References

Bibliography

* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. * Hopkins, Lisa. ''Shakespearean Allusion in Crime Fiction: DCI Shakespeare''. Springer, 2016. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. * Stanford, Peter. ''C Day-Lewis: A Life''. A&C Black, 2007. 1938 British novels Novels by Cecil Day-Lewis British crime novels British thriller novels British mystery novels Collins Crime Club books Novels set in Gloucestershire Novels set in London British detective novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into television shows {{1930s-crime-novel-stub