L. P. Davies

• Born: October 20, 1914
• Birthplace: Crewe, Cheshire, England
• Died: January 6, 1988
• Place of death: Tenerife, Spain

Types of Plot: Psychological; thriller

Contribution

L. P. Davies’ fascination with science (and pseudoscience), psychology, psychic phenomena, and the supernatural has resulted in a series of crime and mystery novels that he calls “psychic fiction.” The majority of these novels reflect this fascination and feature plots in which the principal character is experiencing some form of identity crisis or mental disorientation as a result of an operation, an accident, or the surreptitious administration of drugs. In developing these plots, Davies frequently introduces elements of science, pseudoscience, or the supernatural. As a result, his novels have sometimes been placed in the category of science fiction rather than crime and mystery. Davies’ novels belong in the latter category, however, because like their more traditional counterparts, their solutions depend on the use of the processes of logical deduction. It is this ability to flavor crime and mystery stories with elements of science fiction that constitutes Davies’ principal contribution to the literature.

Biography

Leslie Purnell Davies was born on October 20, 1914, in Crew, Cheshire, England, the son of Arthur Davies and Annie Sutton Davies. From 1930 to 1939, Davies worked as a dispensing pharmacist in Crewes. Educated at Manchester College of Science and Technology, University of Manchester, he qualified as an optometrist in 1939 (fellow, British Optical Society). On November 13, 1940, he married Winifred Tench.

During World War II, Davies was in the British army, serving with the Medical Corps in France and with the Eighth Army in North Africa and Italy. He achieved the rank of staff sergeant. Following the war, he spent two years as a freelance artist in Rome before returning to England. From 1946 to 1956, he was postmaster at West Heath, Birmingham. In 1956, he moved to Deganwy, North Wales, where he established a private practice in optometry and operated a gift shop. In 1975, he moved to the Canary Islands, Spain.

The author of more than 250 short stories published under at least ten pseudonyms, Davies used his own name when he published his first crime novel, The Paper Dolls (1964). It is a practice that he continued with each succeeding novel he published in the United States.

Analysis

L. P. Davies began his career as a writer in 1964 with the publication of The Paper Dolls, a novel rejected by four publishers because it did not fit into any of their categories. The Davies novels that followed The Paper Dolls and that Davies calls “psychic fiction” are just as difficult to categorize but could be described as crime and mystery thrillers with science-fiction overtones. These science-fiction overtones are a result of Davies’ fascination with science, psychic phenomena, the supernatural, and the workings of the human mind.

There are times when the overtones appear to be the dominant theme. Nevertheless, Davies’ novels can be categorized as crime and mystery thrillers because, like other works in the same category, they conclude with down-to-earth solutions that reveal that events that seemed to border on the supernatural have, after all, completely logical explanations. Davies’ characters, who often battle forces that appear to combine traditional black magic with twenty-first century technology, use their minds to resolve their problems, arriving at their conclusions by the familiar process of putting clues together and, through logical deduction, weaving them into solutions that are as rational and as satisfyingly plausible as any offered by Peter Wimsey, Father Brown, or Sherlock Holmes.

What Did I Do Tomorrow?

One of Davies’ strengths as a writer lies in his ability to bring about these conclusions. In What Did I Do Tomorrow? (1972), for example, a very confused young man continues to function rationally, assembling and analyzing clues as any professional sleuth might do, even though he is convinced that someone has transported him five years into the future. His problem is finally explained in terms of psychiatric practices that are relatively well established in fiction and television drama, if not in the real world. Similarly, in The White Room (1969), Davies uses an accepted tenet of folk psychology—that the dummy can take over the ventriloquist or the role the actor—to explain what has been happening to a man who believes that someone is manipulating his mind to force him to commit a murder.

The Artificial Man

Davies followed The Paper Dolls with a second novel, Man out of Nowhere (1965), but it was not until his third novel, The Artificial Man (1965), that he began to write stories involving individuals who are uncertain of their identities. In the novels that followed The Artificial Man, Davies returned repeatedly to plots in which the principal character has experienced some form of mental disorientation or depersonalization as the result of an accident, brain surgery, hypnotism, a cunningly devised deception, or the clandestine administration of drugs.

The Shadow Before

Davies’ preoccupation with characters who are experiencing a disorientation or identity crisis has been described as an obsession, but although it is true that he does work the theme for all it is worth, the careful reader will discover that Davies has something of importance to say about human freedom and moral responsibility. Davies hints at this conviction in words given to a Dr. Cowley, in The Shadow Before (1970).

Lester Dunn, the principal character, has had an operation to remove a small brain tumor. During surgery, he has a dream, which seems to be more than a dream. Deeply disturbed, he confronts one of the doctors who performed the surgery, asking questions about such things as “extrasensory perception and precognition.” The doctor responds by discussing dreams in general, then concludes his discussion:

Now it could well be that under the deeper sleep artificially induced by anaesthesia the subconscious selects items, . . . producing a dream that [is a] logical, understandable sequence of happenings. And I see no reason why that sequence shouldn’t be projected into the future. But obviously the future of what could be, not what is to be. And there is a world of difference between the two. It is as if the subconscious were saying to itself: “Because this is how things were yesterday and today, this is how I think they could work out tomorrow.” But that dream tomorrow is certainly not inevitable. We are all free agents, even though we are at the mercy of our natural inclinations.

In story after story, the principal characters find themselves in a world turned upside down, victims of some kind of mysterious psychic disturbance. Davies’ heroes do not accept this situation, nor do they seek excuses for what is happening or for what they are doing. Instead, they begin a mighty struggle to reorient themselves and to set the world rightside up again. Consistently, each one succeeds, in spite of drugs, deception, and all kinds of diabolical scientific machinations. This pattern suggests that the stories Davies claimed were written only to entertain have a deeper message, namely that each individual is a free agent who has the power to make moral choices and who is morally responsible for the choices made.

Stranger to Town

Even though he is described as being obsessively concerned with disoriented characters, Davies is not absolutely predictable. He is capable of adding an unexpected twist to the end of his stories or, as in the case of Stranger to Town (1969), of exploiting the notion that he is predictable. The charm of Stranger to Town, one of Davies’ best stories, could be attributed in part to his skill in creating in the mind of the reader an assumption that this story is simply a variation on a very familiar theme.

Stranger to Town opens with a characteristic Davies scene: A man discovers himself in a strangely familiar place and is at a loss to explain even to himself why he is there. There are people whose names he knows, and there are things he knows that even the local citizens do not know. A widow is confronted with bits of conversation only she and her dead husband could have known. The widow, who belongs to a church that believes in the return of the dead, appears convinced that her husband has come back in the body of this stranger. Eventually, the widow, the townspeople, and the reader discover that things are not as they seem, and that there is a very logical explanation for the supposedly supernatural events accompanying the stranger’s arrival in town.

Davies’ skill in creating the illusion that something supernatural is involved is demonstrated dramatically in Stranger to Town. It is so skillfully done, in fact, that the casual reader, on discovering that he or she has been fooled along with the widow and the citizens of the town, will at first assume that Davies has not “played fair” in spite of his claims to the contrary. What Davies actually does is to suggest interior monologue in the opening pages so that the reader has the impression that it is the stranger’s mind that is being exposed. What the casual reader assumes to be interior monologue is, in fact, a description of the stranger’s actions from the point of view of the one witnessing them.

The Land of Leys

Although in general Davies’ writing is fast paced and exciting, his habit of returning repeatedly to the identity crisis-disorientation theme can result in writing that labors and plods. The White Room and Assignment Abacus (1975) both try the reader’s patience with plots that move forward one-half step, then return a full step or more as the heroes, on the verge of making major breakthroughs, become disoriented by yet another in what seems to be an interminable sequence of druggings. Plodding through this kind of plot development, the reader is likely to believe that continuing is not worth the effort. Unfortunately, this same feeling can come at the beginning of the book to a reader having previous experience with Davies. The Land of Leys (1979), for example, begins with an amnesia victim regaining consciousness only to discover that all clues to his identity have been removed by a person or persons unknown. Discovering this familiar situation in chapter 1, the reader may simply decide that enough is enough.

Although understandable, such an attitude is unfortunate, for it prevents the reader from discovering the variety beneath the surface similarities of plot and characterization. Bringing a distinctive approach to the mystery and detective genre, Davies has produced a series of novels that feature well-told stories while providing the reader with tantalizing excursions into the mysteries of science, science fiction, and the unknown.

Bibliography

Joshi, S. T. The Evolution of the Weird Tale. New York: Hippocampus, 2004. This work concentrates on supernatural and horror fiction such as that written by H. P. Lovecraft. Contains an essay on Davies and his work.

The New York Times Book Review. Review of Give Me Back Myself, by L. P. Davies. 77 (January 23, 1972): 28. Contemporary review of one of Davies’ mystery novels, evaluating it for both popular and specialist audiences.

Royle, Nicholas. The Uncanny. New York: Routledge, 2003. Extended psychoanalytic study of the representation of supernatural events in literature. Provides perspective on Davies’ works. Bibliographic references and index.

Wilson, Neil. Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction, 1820-1950. Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, England: British Library, 2000. This study of Davies’ immediate and Victorian precursors helps elucidate both his influences and his innovations. Bibliographic references and index.