Reading this novel was definitely like stepping back into a different time and era, and like stepping into another world.

I really loved the mystery and the intrigue of the story. It had me turning the pages and wanting to find out more, was David really an intruder or was he who he said he was? I really enjoyed how the story was told from Christopher's point of view and how he got involved in the investigation. Also I thought he was super brave for actually have the guts to speak up to Lady W which a lot of them didn't!

Other than Christopher I found a lot of the characters hard to like. Even Betty who, although quite amusing, was also quite annoying at the same time. I really enjoyed the story but did feel that dragged on a little when they were in Paris. At this point, I really wanted them to get on with hunting down David but they spent a lot of time getting drunk and I felt like this went on too long.

Overall, it was an enjoyable murder mystery, set in a different time which you could really feel in the narrative. I'd definitely read more from this author.

One of my favorite tropes is "he's back - but is it really him??" Inheritances up for grabs, gloomy country houses, and schools of red herrings - great classic post-WWII mystery. And I'm really intrigued by "the sort of indoor cricket that you play on paper by picking words out of a book."

Christopher Barrington has lived at Belting, the sprawling country house belonging to his maternal great-aunt, ever since the age of twelve, when he lost his parents in an air crash. The family is a strange one: the widowed old Lady Wainwright and her two sons, hapless Miles and uptight Stephen, along with Stephen’s wife Clarissa. Two other sons, Hugh and David, were lost in the Second World War and Lady Wainwright has never come to terms with her loss, especially that of David, her bright and charming favourite. In the summer of Christopher’s eighteenth year, we watch through his eyes as the old order at Belting comes under attack. As Lady Wainwright lies dying of cancer, a letter arrives, closely followed by a stranger, who claims that he is the long-lost David Wainwright. Inspired by the famous Tichborne case, this is a highly entertaining – albeit hugely convoluted – story.

For Lady Wainwright, her favourite son’s return is cause for celebration. ‘David’ has a tragic tale to tell: shot down over Germany, he was then sent to a Russian labour camp, where he remained for several years. Only now, having worked his way back across Europe, has he been able to come to terms with his horrific experiences, and only now has he dared to contact his family. His mother is convinced, seeing it as a miracle that she can be reunited with her son before she dies; but Stephen and Miles are equally certain that David is an imposter. Although he seems to know his way around Belting and can answer pointed questions about the past, they’re sure that his arrival is merely a cynical ploy to take a cut of the family money. And so Stephen, the more ruthless of the two, decides to seek out some of David’s old friends to get their opinions on his identity. The matter is urgent, for Lady Wainwright has already summoned the family solicitor with a view to changing her will, and time is running out at Belting.

Christopher is an endearing narrator, full of undergraduate pretension and pomposity. His passions are self-consciously archaic and would be more at home in the 1890s: a copy of Max Beerbohm’s Works close to hand; a penchant for Aestheticism and Oscar Wilde; and a bedroom redecorated in a voguish Japonisme style. But he still has flashes of boyishness: one moment, he’s feeling superior to his family; the next, he’s competing with Miles to see who can come up with the worst puns. Symons is very good at capturing ‘voices’ (I talked about his skilful creation of a very different narrative voice in my post on The Colour of Murder), and Christopher is an ideal guide: young enough to be ignorant of the dark secrets lying in the family’s past, but curious enough to ferret them out. In a way, though, he’s so convincing as a self-centred, posturing adolescent that it’s difficult to believe in his flights of deductive brilliance which help to solve the mystery of David’s past. For me, that final section in Paris is where the book falls down a little.

Symons is wonderful at conjuring up Belting: a rambling old house which has outlived its glory days, and in which the family rattle around under the iron thumb of old Lady Wainwright, clinging to the memories of a mothballed Victorian past. (Having just read Wylder’s Hand, I found that there were some parallels in the setting – not to mention the themes of potential imposture.) And yet, although the plot shifts into a higher gear when we leave Belting for France, its credibility seems to fade. Christopher’s deductions display intuitive leaps worthy of Sherlock Holmes, which seem unlikely in a rather dreamy boy, and there are some tremendous coincidences which are a little hard to credit. Nevertheless, it’s fun. Symonds combines a homage to the Golden Age of crime novels, seen in the Belting sequences, with glimpses of the looser, livelier society that’s opening up in London, Folkestone and Paris. Although it’s never specified, the events of the novel must take place in the early 1950s, although characters like Betty Urquhart anticipate the sexual freedom of the time when Symons was writing.

The world of the novel is engaging and colourful, even if the plot takes a sharp turn towards implausibility, and the ending felt a little too pat for me. But the journey is enormous fun, as you try to puzzle out whether or not David is truly who he claims to be. It’s interesting that Symons chooses to give us a definitive answer about that, in contrast to the case of the Tichborne Claimant which, as I said earlier, inspired The Belting Inheritance. There, matters were far less clear cut: despite a court case that became a cause célèbre in Victorian England, and which seemed to prove that the Claimant was an imposter, there are still proponents for and against his claim. I see that a film was made about The Tichborne Claimant, which looks rather fun, and the case also inspired the short story ‘The Improbable Imposter Tom Castro‘ by Borges.

And of course, tales of supposed imposters are nothing new: for a notorious medieval equivalent, take a look at The Return of Martin Guerre.

For the review, see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2021/04/30/the-belting-inheritance-1965-julian-symons/

*Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing me with arc in exchange for my honest review.*
A truly enjoyable read for me! Occasionally I request and receive novels via Netgalley in the series of British Library Crime Classics. I am a fan of this series as it allows me to read some authors long forgotten who deserve absolutely to be brought back to contemporary readers enjoying good old murder mysteries, and Julian Symons is one of them. I can understand why for some readers his novels are not that enjoyable. Books written fifty or sixty years ago have some aura that may be hard to appreciate nowadays as they seem simply old-fashioned with the social nuances some of which are long gone. I believe Martin Edwards does a grand job with his Introductions to each book in the series. These introductions are a must for me, being a non-native speaker of English.
THE BELTING INHERITANCE introduces us to the story of an English family struggling to identify a man as a son who was presumably killed during WW2 and who arrives unexpectedly one day to claim his inheritance. The theme of an alleged imposter is based on a real 19th century case, as Mr Edwards explains in the Introduction, and was used by Ms Tey in one of her novels as well.
I enjoyed the first-person narration by Christopher Barrington who happened to be informally adopted by the Wainwrights and who witnessed the events and took active part in solving the mystery. His acute observations and witty remarks throughout the novel do make the narration truly enjoyable. The puzzle is craftily woven and let me stay alert till the very end.

Another British Library Crime Classic and another gorgeous cover. I want to step right into that picture. The Belting Inheritance* is narrated by Christopher who is eighteen at the time the events in the book take place. He was orphaned as a child and raised by the Wainwright family. One day, one of Lady Wainwright's sons who went missing during WWII returns home. Or does he? Is this man who he says he is? What other family secrets are going to be brought out in the open? Is it possible to get most of the main characters to Paris on what seems to be a relatively flimsy pretext? Read it and find out for yourself. Despite the unnecessary detour to Paris, I enjoyed this.

Originally published in 1965, and recently reissued with a gorgeous new cover from Poisoned Pen Press. The story is told in the first person by Christopher, an eighteen-year-old at the time the events transpire but who is writing at some undisclosed time in his later adulthood and reflecting on how they affected him and his family and reflected societal changes in England brought about by the war. Christopher was orphaned as a child and raised by an eccentric family dominated by a strong-willed matriarch. Everything is placid and boring until someone claiming to be one of Lady Wainwright's sons, missing and presumed killed in World War II, returns to the family fold. Part coming of age story, part mystery, the book is well written and deals with one overlooked part of history--the many thousands of mostly European soldiers who were transferred from German prisons to Russian prisons at the end of WWII, many of whom disappeared into the gulag system for years after the war end, and some of whom never made it out alive. Generally very enjoyable, with a strange and somewhat unsatisfying resolution in Paris (the resolution of the mystery was fine, but why did a significant number of the main characters wind up in Paris on what read as flimsy excuses? That was pushing credulity a little.) Recommedned for mystery fans and cosy mystery lovers in particular.

The Belting Inheritance is a classic mystery narrated by Christopher, a relatively young man who was perfectly positioned to solve the case. When he was orphaned, he came to live with the Wainwrights, his aunt and adult cousins, her two surviving sons, the elder presumably died in World War II. His aunt is dying of cancer and he will be a minor legatee so less inclined to see other heirs as a challenge.

Out of the blue, a letter arrives announcing that David Wainwright, a pilot who was shot down, has survived years in prison camps in Germany and Russia and is now coming home. His cousins assume he is a fraud. Christopher is not so sure. When the old retainer who worked for the Wainwrights is murdered, some think the killer must be David. After all, they note, he was suspected of murder ten years earlier. But are they right?

This is news to Christopher and he begins to investigate and meets another person who wants that long ago murder solved. They work together with youthful confidence they can unscramble the mystery.


I read The Belting Inheritance in one sitting. I wavered while reading the first few chapters, unsure whether I would even continue. I am glad I did. It took a bit to Julian Symons’ efforts at writing like a recent college graduate who is as inane as he is clever. There is a familial love of wordplay that interferes with the direct narrative at the beginning, but it evens out fairly quickly. I thought the mystery was completely fair and yet complex enough so that even those of us who think we have it figured out will get a surprise or two.

I received an e-galley of The Belting Inheritance from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Belting Inheritance at Poisoned Pen Press
Julian Symons at Wikipedia
The Colour of Murder by Julian Symons review

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The story is about a young boy, Christopher, whose parents are both killed and who is subsequently taken in by a wealthy relative, Lady Wainwright. Lady W. is still mourning the loss of her two oldest sons in WWII, and just as she is beginning a serious decline in her health, a man claiming to be one of her dead sons comes back home. But Lady W's two surviving sons question this man's claim. The story is told from the perspective of Christopher and is interesting and entertaining. I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good British mystery, or any mystery for that matter.

Although this is an older retold story this book is very interesting because the mystery and murder is not solved by the investigating officer. The story is told by an older version of the 18 year old boy who solved the mystery. The boy was a relative of the family involved and therefore had a perspective as both inside and outside the story. As an older man he is penning the story for publication and remembering it as it happened. Just that in itself held your interest because he would speak of how he saw things then and react to that vision as an older version of the storyteller. There were no clues or interviews of suspects which gave the story a different feel. The story moved from detail to detail without loosing its flavor while being neither scary or suspenseful yet holding the reader entranced in the unfolding narrative. I will look for more from this author regardless of the time of publication.
Note: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I received this ARC via Netgalley in return for an honest review. A re-release of a book written in 1965 and considered a 'Golden Age' mystery. The story is told from the POV of Christopher Barrington, an orphaned relation of Lady Wainright. She had four sons; two of whom were killed in WW II (remember, this story was written when that was only 20 years in the past). The remaining two live with her at her estate, Belting Manor. Lady Wainright is dying and trying to determine what to do with her estate, including Belting Manor, when her lost son, David, appears. He claims to have suffered incarceration as a result of the war that also led to injuries that changed his appearance. The remaining brothers don't believe it; others in the story are either believing or ambivalent. Then, a current murder changes everything and Christopher is drawn into solving the mysteries. This style of writing really isn't to my taste; I'm an Agatha Christie/Dorothy Sayers-type and this book tends to be on the darker side of things. The writing is done well and the author certainly conveys atmosphere well in his writing.

The Belting Inheritance is a mixed bag for me. Symons has written a Golden Age style mystery and grafted onto it an element of the beginning of the Swinging Sixties. The core of the story is the classic plot of the missing heir. Lady Wainwright, the matriarch of her family, is dying. One day a man shows up at Belting Manor claiming to be her son David, declared missing in action, presumed dead, after his plane is shot down in Germany in 1944. He explains that after his crash he was taken in by a sympathetic family who procured false papers and a German uniform so he can escape to Allied territory. Unfortunately, he was captured by the advancing Soviet army and spent the next eight years in a Soviet prison camp where the conditions were so brutal that it altered his appearance. After release he was so broken that he could not bear to return to his previous life so he stayed in Paris until he decided to return home in 1960.

Is he really David? Lady Wainwright accepts him unconditionally. His two remaining brothers believe he is a fraud. Other witnesses are inconclusive. The manor gardener knows him immediately. The family doctor is ambivalent. A former lover absolutely denies his claim. It falls to the 18 year old narrator Christopher Barrington, a cousin of David and Lady Wainwright's ward, to solve the mystery. In his sleuthing, he uncovers another possible murder which occurred near Belting Manor that might shed light on the current situation.

Christopher decides to go to Paris to trace David’s life after his return from Russia and the last fifty pages of the novel are a series of improbable coincidences, descriptions of avant-garde artists and free love, gay walk-on characters who are there for no reason except to show their sexual orientation. Christopher discovers the answer to the puzzle and I was left shaking my head, not because of who the villain was but by the way he was revealed.

Still, Symons wrote such interesting characters and added such a wallop of a final twist that, in the end, I enjoyed the novel

This is a lovely book, first published in 1965. I read the Colour of Murder by Julian Symons, also published by those truly excellent people at Poisoned Press, immediately before starting this book. What a difference! The Belting Inheritance is a joy to read from beginning to end.

The narrator, Christopher, is an eighteen year-old orphan living with his great-aunt, Lady Wainwright, and her two sons plus one daughter-in-law. He is thus an outsider, yet is an observer with an insider’s privileged view of events. One of Lady W’s other sons, David, who went missing in the war and presumed dead, writes to her. The surviving sons suspect a fraud. Although it’s easy to say that they are motivated by a fear of losing (or, at least, receiving a much smaller share of) their inheritance, I had the impression that they really did want to protect this vulnerable old lady.

Christopher is inexperienced in the ways of the world, e.g. drink and women, and we see his introduction to both. I liked “We were squeezed together on the narrow pavement by two men going the other way, and our hands touched. She put her hand in mine, and we walked along like that.” Ah, young innocent love!

There are aspects that stretch credibility, such as Christopher deciding on the spur of the moment to go to Paris and a journalist, Elaine, deciding to accompany him. (Don’t worry, they had separate room in the hotel!) I would encourage you to be tolerant; to overlook those points; and to enjoy an extremely well-written coming of age book that happens to have deaths and a mystery at its heart.

#TheBeltingInheritance #NetGalley

The author won the Edgar Award for best crime novel four years before the Belting Inheritance was published in 1965.

An orphan is brought to stay at Belting at twelve. There is the formidable Lady Wainwright, and her two adult sons, Stephen and Miles along with Stephen’s wife, Clarissa. Lady Wainwright is haunted by the wartime deaths of her two older (and favorite) sons, Hugh and David.

Flash forward six years to the orphan returning home from school before his scholarship in the fall. There is a man claiming to be David returned from a Russian gulag. As Lady Wainwright is contemplates changing her will, both Miles and Stephen try to prove the interloper a fraud to preserve their inheritance.

I enjoyed the many twists and turns of the plot in this slow moving tale. However, there is absolutely no way to guess the denouement because crucial information is kept from the reader until the slam bang ending.

While not for armchair detectives, the Belting Inheritance is a good post-Golden age British mystery. 3 stars.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lady Wainwright is mourning the death of her two eldest sons, Hugh and David, both killed in the war. In the meantime her two youngest sons still live at Belting with a great-nephew Christopher Barrington. Then ten years later, as Lady Wainwright is dying, a man contacts her saying that he is David Wainwright. Not long after he arrives a body is found.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Christopher (aged 18 years) and is set in the early 1950's (written in 1965) as he tries to discern the truth. Complicated by a death from ten years earlier. The writing style is certainly reflective of that time but I did enjoy the story. Though I don't think there were any likeable characters as far as the Wainwrights are concerned.

The plot of this book is appropriate for a trick-ending short story and cannot come close to carrying a novel, even with a gigantic dose of coincidence. The pages are padded with a large cast of colorful characters, brought in via pretexts that range from slim to none. They are individually comic but don't generate additional humor via interaction, they show up for their solos and then disappear.

That said, the writing is skillful and the book is enjoyable taken page by page. There is a sweet coming-of-age/sexual-awakening romance plot, the weak mystery already mentioned and a family drama that subverts some of the Golden Age manor house conventions.

I recommend this for a pleasant read, but an hour later you will be hungry again.

An intriguing first-person mystery that has identity and inheritance as the focus, not murder. It's told from the point of view of a young man, the orphaned nephew of the home's owner. Things get turned around when the eldest son returns after being thought to be shot down & killed during the war.

Is he who he says he is? How can we tell? The narrator goes off to discover the truth, starting at the urging of his cousins. But soon enough he becomes engaged in the question himself. All the clues needed to solve the mystery are in plain sight but it kept me guessing until the solution was revealed near the end of the book.

As one would expect with Symons it's beautifully written, compelling, tons of fun, and very easy to read.

This book was very different from what I have come to expect from the crime classics. I got through the whole thing and appreciated the irony of the end.

Quite a stylised mode of writing and a story peopled by English Eccentrics - the plot is a kind of Brat Farrar reworked as a man claims to be a long-lost son - is he for real or a brazen impersonator? Lots of coincidences abound but I loved the narrative voice. Self-consciously witty and smart.

The Belting Inheritance by Julian Symons is an unusual period mystery.

Narrated by Christopher, who lost his parents and came to live with his mother's aunt in a old manor. Her two sons have lost their live in the war and she has two more who live with her. The story starts with Christopher explaining events that led to his move with his aunt. From his point of view we get to meet the rest of the family. Years later, aunt's health is failing and sons are pretty much hanging around just not to be taken from the will. When a stranger shows up claiming to be one of the lost sons the household is in the upheaval.
Christopher is sent to find some old friends of the son who was presumed dead in order to prove that he is an impostor.
I must admit that the language was somehow stilted and it was difficult to follow the story at times. Overall I liked the plot and the settings. The characters were interesting enough, typical for the roles they played. The story although not a new one was quite interesting to me.
However I thought that the story should have moved at a slightly faster pace. The ending was a surprise.

Lady Wainwright rules over Belting Manor with an iron hand. Her elder sons Hugh & David have both been killed in the war and she’s left with her two younger sons, who she finds to be perpetually disappointing. Also in the household is her orphaned nephew, who is now 19 and has just returned from college on a break. Lady Wainwright’s health is starting to fail and the brothers are hanging around out of habit and a desire to not be written out of the will. But then a stranger shows up claiming to be David, returned from years in a Russian prison camp. Everybody is skeptical except Lady Wainwright. Hugh sends his nephew to London to find people that knew David and will be able to expose him as an imposter. When the mystery is finally solved you will be surprised.

My work for this book is charming. The story is told by the nephew as narrator and he is delightful. The story is carefully crafted to move at a fully engaging pace with fascinating people and conversations. The number of family secrets seems limitless and there is more than one skeleton hidden in the closets of Belting Manor. I was quite frankly, surprised by how much I enjoyed story. A great example of a British crime story and I highly recommend it.