Hugh Pentecost

• Born: August 10, 1903
• Birthplace: Northfield, Massachusetts
• Died: March 7, 1989
• Place of death: Sharon, Connecticut

Type of Plot: Amateur sleuth

Principal Series: George Crowder, 1961-1990; Pierre Chambrun, 1962-1988; Peter Styles, 1964-1982; John Jericho, 1965-1970; Julian Quist, 1971-1987

Contribution

Hugh Pentecost created a world of characters who, to his wide readership, are as familiar in their personalities and relationships as old friends. His characters are generally affluent, physically striking, urbane, intelligent, and articulate. Most of his series are set in New York City, with the specific setting featured in one series likely to appear peripherally in another. When the action called for a rural environment, Pentecost chose the vicinity of Lakeview—located in a New England state sometimes, though not always, identified as Connecticut. The issues treated in Pentecost’s work are usually defined in terms of right and wrong (with occasional moralizing—against drugs, for example), and although nice people sometimes die, virtue triumphs in the end. The writing is clear, the characters are both believable and likable, the plots are deviously complex, and the solutions seem both inevitable and surprising. Pentecost published his first short story in 1923, and by 1936 he had begun the prolific output of novels that, though unlikely to become literary classics, clearly contribute to the mystery and detective genre.

Biography

Hugh Pentecost was born Judson Pentecost Philips in Northfield, Massachusetts, on August 10, 1903. His father, Arthur Philips, was an opera singer and his mother, Fredericko Pentecost, was an actress. A great-uncle, the original Hugh Pentecost, was a criminal lawyer in New York City at the start of the twentieth century. Educated in England and the United States, Pentecost received a bachelor of arts degree from Columbia University in 1925. He began his career as a writer while still in school, selling the first story he ever wrote, “Room 23,” to Flynn’s during his junior year in college. He was employed as a reporter by the New York Tribune in 1926 and simultaneously wrote stories for a variety of magazines, ranging from Black Mask to Collier’s and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

In addition to his constant productivity as a writer, Pentecost followed a variety of other careers. From 1949 to 1956 he served as co-owner and editor of the Harlem Valley Times (Amenia, New York). He also served as a political columnist and book reviewer on the Lakeville Journal (Lakeville, Connecticut). In 1951, he was married to the actress Norma Burton. Their son completed his family, which included one daughter and two sons from a previous marriage. Pentecost served as founder and director of the Sharon Playhouse (Sharon, Connecticut) from 1951 to 1972. He also worked as a radio talk-show host for WTOR in Torrington, Connecticut, from 1970 to 1976. All these experiences find their way into Pentecost’s mystery plots.

Widely respected by his peers, Pentecost served as president of the Mystery Writers of America. In 1973 (fifty years after his first published work), Pentecost received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. In 1982, he was again honored, as the recipient of the Nero Wolfe Award. In addition to his many novels and short stories, Pentecost wrote scripts for both radio and television. He died in March, 1989.

Analysis

Hugh Pentecost, whether writing under his given name or one of his pseudonyms, was one of the United States’ most prolific mystery writers. The sheer volume of his work gives evidence to a highly disciplined approach to writing. His diverse and imaginative plots are always precisely structured, are more than adequately believable, and conclude with a solution that is both reasonable and consistent with the characters developed in the novel.

When asked how he created plots for so many novels, Pentecost replied:

It has been said that there are only thirty-six dramatic situations, only about half of which are not too raunchy to use. . . . The only variation any writer has is the people he writes about. There are endless variations in people. . . . The name of the game is people, and they are endlessly rewarding, never uninteresting, and where everything begins and ends.

Indeed, Pentecost’s characters are what give his novels their appeal; his books escape being mere literary froth by the unique quality of the people they describe.

Quist, Chambrun, and Styles

Few readers could fail to be intrigued by the debonair style of Julian Quist, the knowledge and power of Pierre Chambrun, or the passion (with its hint of suffering) of Peter Styles. For those who return repeatedly to Pentecost’s mysteries, the comfortable familiarity of these and other main characters heighten the drama of the stories. Correctly assuming that readers of one series are likely to become readers of other series as well, Pentecost occasionally intermingles his series characters. Because many of his novels are set in New York City, the Hotel Beaumont is likely to appear in novels other than the Pierre Chambrun series. The same police officials investigate murders in many of the novels, assisted by first one and then another of the amateur sleuths.

Given Pentecost’s focus on high society, it is not surprising that the locale and characters occasionally overlap from series to series. Julian Quist, himself comfortably affluent and widely recognized by the press of New York, in his public relations work serves aristocrats and those in the glamorous entertainment industry, people who can afford the services of his firm. The Hotel Beaumont caters to the rich and to the international membership of the United Nations delegates. Only the wealthy can afford the paintings of John Jericho, and Peter Styles’s press credentials give him access to the world of economic and political power. George Crowder, though a resident of a smaller town, is recognized as one of its leaders and, while choosing to live alone in a cabin, moves with ease among the upper classes of Lakeview. Mystery novels, it has been said, are a source of escape from the realities of daily life; it seems appropriate that the escape Pentecost offers is among the wealthy, who, indeed, are not like the rest of us.

Murder in Luxury

Although Pentecost seldom exposes his readers to the underclass of society, he does open the door to the world of violence that lies just beyond the edges of civilized life. Although often the murderer is the nearest and dearest of the victim, just as often the violence is nonpersonal—terrorism, for example, which is all the more frightening because there is no rational explanation for the selection of its victims and, therefore, no way to protect against its violence. As Pentecost wrote in Murder in Luxury (1981), one

can’t eliminate greed, or jealousy, or a passion for revenge, or the impulse to treachery or betrayal in the individual man or woman. And so, as in every other place on earth, these ugly psychoses disrupt men’s efforts to live peaceful and orderly lives.

Pentecost’s mysteries are, above all, pleasant entertainment. There is violence, but the descriptions are seldom so gory as to upset the reader. There is always some hint of romance (especially among the principal series characters), but there is no explicit sex to distract from the mystery or offend the puritanical.

Because Pentecost wrote so many novels, his oeuvre is of uneven quality. He has been praised for his clean, hard prose and his ingenious story lines, which move at a brisk pace. His style, however, has been criticized as “stolid,” and his plots called “unconvincing.” His novels are somewhat dated, drawing, as they do, from current events. Furthermore, some of the characters are described in terms of their physical resemblance to popular film and television figures—a practice that also dates the novels. Yet it is the verdict of his readers that is most valid—and their support has sustained Pentecost through what must surely be one of the longest careers on record. He wrote for the enjoyment of his readers. With more conversation than description and more action than analysis, Pentecost’s works have attracted a loyal cadre of readers.

In short, Pentecost was an able storyteller. He provided the reader with interesting plots, attractive characters, and believable solutions, in which the guilty are duly caught and punished. There is suspense in the identification and pursuit of the guilty, but the reader soon realizes that all will end well in Pentecost’s well-structured world.

Principal Series Characters:

• George Crowder , a once-noted county attorney, left his home and career after discovering that he had prosecuted an innocent man. Ten years later he returned to his hometown and built a cabin on Lakeview Mountain. There he lives a rustic life with his dog, Timmy, and teaches the lore of the woods to his nephew, Joey. His skills (in and out of the woods), his wisdom, and his kindness make him a hero to Joey and a central figure in the Lakeview community.
• Sheriff Red Egan is part of the local law enforcement in Lakewood and is a friend to Crowder, who often helps him in seeking justice.
• Pierre Chambrun is the resident manager of New York City’s top luxury hotel, the Beaumont. A resistance fighter with the French in Paris during World War II and a noted gourmet, Chambrun presides over a diverse staff and clientele.
• Peter Styles , a writer for Newsview magazine, devotes his life to fighting injustice and the senseless violence of the modern world. Violence became a part of his life when his father burned to death and he himself lost a leg in a car crash deliberately caused by thrill-seeking youths—and, again, when his wife (whose first husband was murdered by fanatics) was killed by terrorists. His job takes him all over the world, crusading against the terror he has experienced.
• Frank Devery , Styles’s publisher and editor, is an old friend of Pierre Chambrun.
• John Jericho uses his skills as a painter to illustrate people’s inhumanity to others. Six feet, six inches tall and 240 pounds, Jericho sports a flaming red beard (matching his red Mercedes), making him a highly visible figure whether fighting in a special commando troop in Korea or traveling throughout the world. His moving paintings convey a message of concern to the world and illustrate his private crusade for lost causes. When not traveling, Jericho lives in a Greenwich Village studio.
• Julian Quist , the glamorous, handsome head of a public relations agency, moves among the gilded rich and is often present when murder strikes. His instinct for derring-do is shared by his associates.
• Mark Kreevick , lieutenant of the Manhattan Homicide Squad and Quist’s close friend, believes in preventing crime rather than simply apprehending criminals. He often works with Quist.

Bibliography

Axel-Lute, Melanie. Review of Past, Present, and Murder, by Hugh Pentecost. Library Journal 107, no. 21 (December 1, 1982): 2271. This Julian Quist series mystery looks at a case in which one of his PR firm’s partners disappears after the woman he is engaged to is raped and murdered. A traditional whodunit.

Bertens, Hans, and Theo D’haen. Contemporary American Crime Fiction. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Wide-ranging study of the contemporary scene in American crime fiction that provides perspective on Pentecost’s work.

Horsley, Lee. Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Comprehensive overview of the development of crime fiction in the twentieth century helps place the nature and importance of Pentecost’s distinctive contributions.

Pentecost, Hugh. Foreword to Cream of the Crime: The Fifteenth Mystery Writers of America Anthology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1962. Pentecost’s foreword to this anthology of detective fiction demonstrates the types of writing he values in others and gives clues to his own writing process.

Pentecost, Hugh. Interview in The Armchair Detective. 13 (1980): 425-430. This brief interview discusses Pentecost’s life and his mystery and detective works.

Pentecost, Hugh. Interview in Writer’s Digest. May, 1981, pp. 14-15. A brief interview that sheds light on Pentecost’s work, characters, and concerns.

Rawlinson, Nora, and Barbara Hoffert. Review of Pattern for Terror, by Hugh Pentecost. Library Journal 114, no. 16 (October 1, 1989): 1680. Reviewer find this George Crowder series book to have plenty of action and good settings.