Punshon, ER - Death Comes to Cambers (1935)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

My first encounter with Sergeant Bobby Owen, here a guest of Lady Cambers, whom he finds strangled on the village field. Although the detection is somewhat sketchy in parts, this is a more orthodox story, and hence more pleasing, than the Carter and Bell series. We are given a good domestic tangle, with a great number of vivid characters to suspect, including a splendidly mad creationist and an arrogant archaeologist. The plot is elaborate, but the pieces fit together as neatly as vintage Carr or Christie, and the closely reasoned solution is very logical and satisfying, with a pleasingly original alibi. Other good features include an ingenious cipher, an amusingly obtuse Chief Constable (another unpleasant authority figure in Punshon's work), and writing that is sharp and to the point, without the necessity of deciphering quasi-Victorian verbose verbiage. In short, superb.