Witting, Clifford -- Dead on Time (1948)

B

A very good pub murder (similar to Marsh’s Death at the Bar).  The first half—the bulk of the detection—has the genuine fascination of fact gathering, as the detectives build up a pattern of the complex movements of suspects around the building—a good, solid problem.  The second half returns to the semi-inverted form and the criminals of Michaelmas Goose: the masterminds and their plot (steal a Maharajah’s collection by hijacking lorries) are known, but their agent isn’t.  There’s some loss of interest—I prefer detective stories without gangs or criminal schemes—but Witting gets away with it.  The ending is very good: a genuinely clever and original method with all the simplicity of Carr, and a hard to spot murderer.

·        Quentins appeared in TCOT Michaelmas Goose—one of four examples of suspects in two different books: Bailey’s Garstons and Red Castle, Coles’ Pendexter Saga, Rawson.

Nick Fuller.