The Rasp

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The Rasp
1st edition (UK)
Author	Philip MacDonald
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Anthony Gethryn mysteries
Genre	Mystery novel / Whodunnit
Publisher	Collins (UK, 1924); Dial Press (USA, 1925)
Publication date	1924
Media type	Print
OCLC	10207126
Followed by	The White Crow (1928, the next Gethryn novel)

The Rasp is a whodunit mystery novel by Philip MacDonald. It was published in 1924 and introduces his series character, detective Colonel Anthony Gethryn. It is set in a country house in rural England.

Plot summary

Anthony Gethryn, ex-secret service agent, is an occasional "special correspondent" for a weekly newspaper and is assigned to cover the story when a cabinet minister, John Hoode, is found murdered in the library at his country house, battered to death with a wood-rasp. Gethryn recalls his acquaintance with a member of the household and is thus invited to investigate the crime as a kind of "friend of the family". It soon seems as though everyone concerned has a cast-iron alibi for the time of the crime, but Gethryn comes up with an imaginative way for the murderer to have accomplished the deed and established an alibi, and reveals the murderer.

Literary significance & criticism

Anthony Gethryn is an early example of the amateur detective, the idea of which was soon to become popular in detective fiction. The focus on the breaking of an elaborate alibi is similar to the work of Freeman Wills Crofts, MacDonald's contemporary. "The story is the conventional body-in-the-study, with a fair amount of obvious detection. ... The killer's fakery is plain from the start. Despite all this, it has several times been declared "a classic" and "epochmaking" by students of the genre."^[1]

Film

The story was made into a film with a screenplay by Philip MacDonald which was directed by Michael Powell in 1932. It starred Claude Horton as Gethryn but is now missing, believed lost.

References

↑ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper and Row, 1971, revised edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8

v t e The films of Michael Powell

With and without Emeric Pressburger – films made with Emeric Pressburger are shown in bold

1930s	Two Crowded Hours My Friend the King The Rasp Rynox The Star Reporter Hotel Splendide C.O.D. His Lordship Born Lucky The Fire Raisers Red Ensign Something Always Happens The Girl in the Crowd Lazybones The Love Test The Night of the Party The Phantom Light The Price of a Song Someday Her Last Affaire The Brown Wallet Crown v. Stevens The Man Behind the Mask The Edge of the World Smith The Spy in Black The Lion Has Wings

1940s	The Thief of Bagdad Contraband An Airman's Letter to His Mother 49th Parallel One of Our Aircraft is Missing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Volunteer A Canterbury Tale I Know Where I'm Going! A Matter of Life and Death Black Narcissus The Red Shoes The Small Back Room

1950s	The Elusive Pimpernel Gone to Earth The Tales of Hoffmann The Sorcerer's Apprentice Oh... Rosalinda!! The Battle of the River Plate Ill Met by Moonlight Luna de Miel

1960s	Peeping Tom The Queen's Guards Herzog Blaubarts Burg Espionage: "Never Turn Your Back on a Friend" Espionage: "The Frantick Rebel" Espionage: "A Free Agent" The Defenders: "The Sworn Twelve" The Doctors and the Nurses: "A39846" They're a Weird Mob Age of Consent

1970s	The Boy Who Turned Yellow Return to the Edge of the World

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