 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Philip MacDonald |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Anthony Gethrynmysteries |
| Genre | Mystery novel /Whodunnit |
| Publisher | Collins (UK, 1924) Dial Press (USA, 1925) |
Publication date | 1924 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| OCLC | 10207126 |
| Followed by | The White Crow (1928, the next Gethryn novel) |
The Rasp is awhodunitmystery novel byPhilip MacDonald. It was published in 1924 and introduces his series character, detective ColonelAnthony Gethryn. It is set in a country house in rural England.
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.
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 ofFreeman 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]
| The Rasp | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Michael Powell |
| Written by | Philip MacDonald |
| Produced by | Jerome Jackson |
| Starring | Claude Horton, Phyllis Loring,C. M. Hallard,James Raglan, |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Faithfull |
| Distributed by | Film Engineering, Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 44 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The story was made into a film with a screenplay by Philip MacDonald which was directed byMichael Powell in 1932. It starredClaude Horton as Gethryn but is now missing, believed lost. The film is one of Powell's manyquota quickies. MacDonald worked again with Powell onRynox (1932).
In a contemporary review,Kine Weekly called it "an ingenious murder mystery."[3]
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