Punshon, ER - The Cottage Murder (1931)

Review by Nick Fuller

2/5

So vivid is his writing and so powerful his imagination that Punshon occasionally promises more than he delivers. The Cottage Murder opens very effectively in a dark cottage in a storm where a wireless plays over the dead body of the hero's uncle, watched over by a mysterious woman with whom the hero falls in love at first sight. Unfortunately, the rest of the book does not live up to this excellent scene, and there are definite signs of backsliding after Proof, Counter Proof. The plot is as complex as its predecessor, but not handled so well, for there is less detection and more thrillerish elements, and, despite evidence pointing towards the aristocracy, this reworking of a theme from the earlier book is uninteresting. Although the truth dawns on the reader at the same time as Bell, the solution is as unconvincing as that of HC Bailey's "The Lion Fish" (in Mr Fortune Speaking). The murderer turns out to be a vicious drug dealer, who imprisons the hero and heroine in the coal-cellar and tries to set them on fire, a clichéd scene which not even a meditation on love in the face of death can make believable. On being rescued, they live happily ever after on the drug money.