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Book Review: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

Last updated : 05 December 2008 By Brian Dawes

The title no doubt will sound vaguely familiar and that's because some of you already know this title as an old film. The film will certainly be familiar to all the Arsenal Club Members who received a DVD formatted version in a past membership pack. It was a black and white movie made in 1939 and features most of the Arsenal playing staff and quite a bit of the then manager George Allison. Allison's acting may not have been the greatest but was at least as good as that of 'Leslie Banks who played the lead role of Inspector Slade of Scotland Yard. Bank's acting was memorable for some very hammy acting and the hat fetish which seemed more important to Inspector Slade than solving the murder that took place at Highbury, the setting for both the film and the book, this book, that it was based on. Which is why this book could be considered of interest to Arsenal fans, and anything that evokes memories of The Arsenal Stadium has to be a good thing, right?

Unlike the other books Arsenal I've reviewed this title then is a work of fiction and is best described as a football related murder-mystery set around a match day at Highbury. The match in question is between the top professional team, Arsenal of course, and the leading amateur club called the Trojans. In the book the Trojans play in blue shirts. Whilst in the film the 'Trojans' are played by Brentford in white shirts as I recall and that is the only difference I detected between the book and the film.

The reviews of this title to date are nothing much to go by but I particularly enjoyed the one by John Hull who is quoted as saying 'Better than watching Tottenham….'. But then again there are some that would claim that anything is better than watching Tottenham.

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

by Leonard Gribble.

(Originally published by George Harrap & Co Ltd 1939)

This paperback edition published in 2008 by GCR Books

For further details contact www.gcrbooks.co.uk