Cole, GDH and M - The Murder at Crome House (1926)
Review by Nick Fuller
4/5
A decent, complex, straightforward and competent detective story — solved not by Wilson, but instead by the academic James Flint (obviously Cole himself) and his friends. The plot involves photographs (and hocusing thereof), mysterious masked men, an unbreakable alibi relying on transport, and a rather Holmesian victimised woman. The writing is witty, and somewhat Chestertonian in style, but the plot recalls more Crofts and Christie (especially [Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?]). Gradual revelation of the murderer’s identity well-handled.
Comments (1)
Ronald Smyth said
at 1:07 pm on Jul 7, 2016
I was less impressed than Nick. The writing was good but the mystery would have been solved by any half way competent investigator who bothered to do any actual questioning of witnesses, which the police apparently never did for no believable reason, and the murderer was blatantly obvious to me. The complexities seemed artificial rather than an integral part of the plot I would give it no more than a 2.5 out of 5.
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