Anna Clarke

• Born: April 28, 1919
• Birthplace: Cape Town, South Africa
• Died: November 7, 2004
• Place of death: Brighton, East Sussex, England

Types of Plot: Amateur sleuth; inverted; psychological

Principal Series: Paula Glenning, 1985-1996

Contribution

Anna Clarke’s novels are primarily psychological studies of what makes seemingly ordinary people commit crimes; as such her works have much in common with those of Ruth Rendell. Unlike Rendell, however, Clarke rarely finds the mystery as intriguing as the mind of the criminal—and the mind of the sleuth. Her plots are nevertheless tightly woven and sometimes surprising in that, for a while, the reader may believe the sleuth to be the potential criminal or the criminal the potential victim. Clarke reveals a world in which psychological horrors lurk behind the commonplace, a world in which the innocent are forced to confront their own darkness and that of others.

Many of Clarke’s plots make use of literary references or revolve about the world of literature: Characters may be authors or literary critics. Frequently, the police believe the crime to be an unfortunate accident. They are not, however, “perfect crimes,” for always an interested party recognizes the crime and the criminal. What makes Clarke’s work particularly interesting and realistic is that the sleuth is no master of detection; rather, one average person (or, more often, two or three people) will arrive at the truth. Her tight plotting and strong character development have earned her a place in the world of mystery fiction.

Biography

Anna Clarke was born on April 28, 1919, in Cape Town, South Africa, the daughter of Fred Clarke and Edith Annie Gillams Clarke. Her parents were both educators, and Clarke grew up with a love for reading. She attended schools in Cape Town and Montreal and attended universities in Toronto and Oxford. Planning a career in mathematics, she studied for and received an external degree in economics from London University in 1945. A severe illness, however, cut short her career plans, and she went to work as a publisher’s secretary in London. She was a private secretary for Victor Gollancz from 1947 to 1950, and in 1951 she took a similar job with Eyre and Spottiswoode, where she worked until 1953.

In 1956 Clarke became the administrative secretary for the British Association for American Studies, a post she retained until 1962. Plagued by the lingering effects of her illness, she quit full-time work and eventually returned to university studies, receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Open University in 1973 and a master of arts degree from the University of Sussex, Brighton, in 1975.

As an escape from office jobs, which she hated, Clarke turned to writing. Having no success with so-called straight novels, she began writing mysteries. Between 1968 and 1996, she produced twenty-seven novels of mystery and suspense. Clarke died on November 7, 2004, in Brighton, East Sussex.

Analysis

Anna Clarke’s mysteries are often not what the average reader of detective fiction expects; in fact, they are frequently not mysteries in any traditional sense but studies in the development of a murderer. A number of elements make Clarke’s novels strong and intriguing; the most interesting of these are her use of multiple sleuths, her focus on the psychology of crime, and the literary motif that runs through many of her works. These secure Clarke’s place among mystery writers.

Clarke’s use of multiple sleuths is the most unusual element of her writing. Although she introduced a series character, Paula Glenning, in Last Judgement (1985), in her earlier work she used different characters in each mystery. Her detectives are always amateurs because her interest lies in the human mind rather than in crime and detection. Indeed, unlike the traditional detective story, a Clarke story does not begin with a crime. Either the crime does not occur until the final chapters, or there is no awareness that a crime has occurred.

Perhaps surprisingly, Clarke’s approach to characterization does not lead to loose plotting. Indeed, her plots are tightly constructed. Because there is frequently no mystery for the reader to attempt to solve before the detective does, there is no need for red herrings and their attendant problems for a writer who must discreetly insert them. In Last Judgement, the plot moves inevitably from opening action to denouement. Although references to James’s obsessive desire to possess his grandfather’s papers suggest that he is capable of murdering the old man, the focus is always on Mary and her decline into madness. Also, the occasional breaks in action serve only to create suspense. Even in Plot Counter-Plot (1974), a complicated story of two authors at personal and professional odds with each other, there are no loose ends.

This care with plotting stems from Clarke’s literary interests, which in turn provide a motif for much of her work. In Last Judgement, characters include a renowned author, two professors of English literature, and a literary critic. The plot, as character James Goff points out on several occasions, resembles The Aspern Papers (1888) by Henry James. At the center of this plot is the struggle for possession of the notebooks, letters, and drafted novels of the great author. Again, in My Search for Ruth (1975) it is a literary form that dominates: A young woman writes a chronicle while searching for her true identity. According to the critic Larry E. Grimes, Ruth chooses “a compulsive, personal, primary encounter with the stuff of literature itself—image, character, plot.”

Clarke said of her writing, “As far as I have any conscious feeling about writing novels at all beyond the obsessional story-telling, I am interested in the workings of the human mind and their effects on character and action.” This is borne out by all aspects of her work. Her characterization, her nontraditional use of sleuths and of criminal acts, her tightly woven plots, and even the literary motif she adopts so frequently support her interest in the mind. She is the purest of mystery writers, for as Nancy Pick says in Desire to Kill (1982), “All human beings are the stuff of which murderers are made.” It is this premise that lies at the root of mystery and detective fiction.

Last Judgement

In Last Judgement, there are crimes against the heart or spirit, but there is no criminal act until the next-to-last chapter. The result is that the story, in part, is about how a number of individuals either come to understand that some violence will occur or remain oblivious to its possibility. For example, a male nurse, Hector Greenaway, sees Mary Morrison, the central character, as a trapped, weak animal that is likely to be dangerous; yet when he voices his concern to Dr. Joan Conway, the doctor sees only a young woman overworked and worried by her frail stepfather’s ill health. Hector does not understand how he knows what he does of Mary.

Similarly, Paula Glenning at one point comes to realize that Mary is laughing silently at her. Paula relives the scene:

She had had an overpowering sense of oppression in that horrible dark, dead room, and had seen Mary as trapped and crushed by it, unable to free herself.

But had Mary really felt like that? . . . It was Paula who had given way to her feelings. Was Mary such a helpless victim? Had she found her own way out?

Perhaps she had made up her mind to murder the old man. Perhaps she had already done so.

It is this sensitivity to atmosphere that marks Clarke’s amateur detectives.

Mary Morrison’s madness is precipitated by change. Her stepfather’s grandson has begun to spend time with her in the hope of gaining access through her to the private papers of his grandfather, England’s greatest novelist. As G. E. Goff’s secretary, Mary could perhaps smooth the way for James Goff, long estranged from his grandfather. Suspecting James’s motives, but hoping that his true motive is to see her, Mary for the first time believes that love is possible for her, that she has not been entombed by her mother’s dying wish that she care for her aged stepfather. Against this is the desire of another man, Richard Grieve, to have the papers, and G. E.’s suspicion that Mary is plotting against him, a suspicion that leads him to reveal brutally the truth to her about her natural father and her beloved mother. This revelation, combined with the pressure of deciding what to do about the papers, drives Mary to madness.

Since her mother’s death, Mary has been somewhat unstable and needs someone to talk to. For Mary, it is her dead mother with whom she discusses her problems. This is a natural human action; it is only the extreme to which she takes the action that marks it as madness.

Desire to Kill

Clarke’s use of sensitive amateur detectives is most noticeable in Desire to Kill. In this work, Nancy Pick and George Cunninghan, two residents of a retirement home, discuss the other residents over games of chess. They reach the conclusion, based only on observation, that one of their number, Amy Langford, is quite mad and has systematically set about killing other residents through a series of apparent accidents. At one point, in an attempt to understand what is happening, they voice their vague misgivings:

“Damn it, there’s so little to go on. Just this vague feeling that something is very wrong, some malevolent force at work. The more we talk, the stronger it gets. You, too?”

“Me, too. Look here, if we haven’t any facts, let’s tackle it from the psychological angle. Let’s look for examples of malevolence. Who is there connected with Digby Hall who is actually capable of scheming to make somebody else suffer?”

Here, encapsulated, is the process Clarke’s detectives follow.

A key term is “psychological angle.” In creating her characters, Clarke concentrates on the thoughts that lie behind actions. In Desire to Kill the reader sees the disintegration of Amy Langford, and, as is often the case in Clarke’s novels, disruption of a lifestyle causes that disintegration. With her husband’s death, Amy has lost the center of her life; her son, unwilling to cater to her, places her in a retirement home. Feeling abandoned and lost, Amy speaks to her reflection in a mirror: “Don’t worry, Amy. . . . You’ve not been completely deserted. I’m going to look after you.” This is a very human response, but it marks the beginning of her madness. She continues, “I’m going to make sure that you get your due and that those who won’t give it you will suffer for it.” This becomes a motif through the book; Amy turns to the comfort of her reflection, her alter ego, whenever she is confused or frightened, and each time she descends more deeply into madness. The last time she looks in the mirror, she sees an image that appears momentarily at peace but becomes frightened almost immediately.

“I can’t help you,” she cried aloud. “I don’t know what to do. I know you want me to kill Mr. Horder, because he disappointed you so badly. But I don’t want to kill him. I want to be his friend. I like him. And he likes me!”

So strong is Clarke’s writing that both Amy Langford and Mary Morrison are believable even in extreme madness.

Plot Counter-Plot

This need to talk without fear of being overheard takes another form in Plot Counter-Plot. Mystery novelist Helen Mitchell lets loose her fears and her madness in a novel she is writing, her last novel. She has no life of her own; rather, she knows that her “most successful character creation of all was that of Helen Mitchell.” Now her greatest fear is about to come true: “Ever since I began to write it has haunted me, this fear that my imagination could take over my real life and that I could behave like one of the characters in my novels, even to the point of committing murder.” Yet Helen, by her own admission, has no real life, and as a character she has no real confidants, so she pours her fears, her madness, and her last acts into a novel.

Clarke’s literary connections are most evident in Plot Counter-Plot, wherein an author, Helen Mitchell, has an affair with Brent Ashwood, a writer with only one book in him; he attempts to steal her work—a novel based on him—and present it as an autobiographical novel. As the two plot against each other, the literary tangle thickens. Even the overall structure of the book shows an attentiveness to literary form; a prologue and epilogue establish the “real” world of Helen Mitchell and explain her writing of the “novel,” which appears between prologue and epilogue. It is this fictional creation that details her life with Brent and carries the plot of the mystery. It is the real world of the epilogue that provides the climax and the final plot twist.

Clarke’s concern with literary qualities is reflected in her style. Sentence patterns flow and build to a climax. For example, she begins Plot Counter-Plot thus:

At last I am alone in the room and can take up my pen to start the novel that may be the last one I shall ever write. I must work quickly and lose no time, for I must write in secret and everything I have written must be hidden from human eye. Jane Austen, it is said, slipped her manuscript sheets under the blotter to conceal them from the inquisitive glances of visiting acquaintances. My reason for concealment is more sinister.

Here the long, winding sentences reflect her subject: hidden texts. The punch of the last sentence emphasizes the sinister events to follow.

Another of Clarke’s stylistic strengths lies in her descriptive passages. In Last Judgement, she details the beginnings of a deadly fire:

The avalanche on the floor was now well alight, and pieces of burning paper were flying around the room, settling on the curtains, the winged armchair, the upright chairs, and the tables. The desk was already in flames and the carpet smouldering. Nothing, nobody on earth could stop it now. She had fulfilled her destiny. The entire room was ablaze.

The images of the avalanche bring a new understanding of fire to the reader. Though deadly and inescapable, the fire is beautiful in a frightening way.

Principal Series Character:

• Paula Glenning is a lecturer in English literature at a London university. Small and fair, she is in her early thirties and divorced when she first appears. She is untidy, sensitive, and cares deeply about people whom she believes are hurt.

Bibliography

Adrian, Mike. “Obituary: Anna Clarke, Prolific Author of ’Cosies’ and ’Biblio-mysteries.’” The Independent, December 28, 2004, p. 33. Obituary of Clarke notes that the author was first published at the age of fifty and wrote prolifically thereafter. Notes her fondness for biblio-mysteries, mysteries involving literature.

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, ed. Great Women Mystery Writers: Classic to Contemporary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Contains an essay that discusses the life and writings of Clarke.

Library Journal. Review of Last Judgement, by Anna Clarke. 110, no. 2 (February 1, 1985): 115. Reviewer finds the work to be more an atmospheric story than a mystery. Criticizes the work for its melodrama and lack of believability.

Mabe, Chauncey. “A Child’s Loss Makes for Superior Thriller.” Review of My Search for Ruth, by Anna Clarke. Sun Sentinel, September 18, 1988, p. 8F. Discusses the work in which Ruth searches for her own identity as she lives with the headmistress of a boarding school, Miss Murray. Reviewer finds the novel psychologically satisfying and believable.

Rye, Marilyn. “Anna Clarke.” In Great Women Mystery Writers, edited by Kathleen Gregory Klein. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Bio-critical study of Clarke’s life and writing. Individual entries also include suggestions of writers with similar styles, as well as Internet resources for mystery and crime-fiction enthusiasts.

Vicarel, JoAnn. Review of The Mystery Lady, by Anna Clarke. Library Journal 111, no. 16 (October 1, 1986): 113. Review of a Paula Henning book in which Henning is to write a biography of romantic novelist Rosie O’Grady. Reviewer criticizes the work for containing too much talk between Henning and James Goff and finds it disappointing overall.