Reilly, Helen -- Not Me, Inspector (1959)

Beautiful young Mercedes Allert, whom everyone for some reason calls 'Dace', is married to wayward, lovable scamp Harvey. They have an argument, and Harvey storms out of the house and disappears. Later he is accused of forging a cheque by Dace's old flame, serious, kindly widower Hugh Clavering. Harvey, apparently on the run, makes a lot of phone calls, visits houses when the occupants are out, and appears briefly from time to time with a hat pulled down over his face...

... and if you haven't guessed the whole plot already, including the Big Reveal, then you obviously haven't read a book by Helen Reilly before. It is perfectly clear to the reader what has happened by about page 30, but Reilly goes on dropping hints with a resounding clang, and only the slowest mind in detective fiction can prevent Inspector McKee putting the villain behind bars while the story is still a novella. As a result the book has as much drama and tension as a pillow-fight with a teddy bear, and the only question remaining to puzzle the reader is just why the author thought they would be thick enough to miss anything so obvious.

"We defy anybody to guess this one!" says the blurb. Well, consider it done.

Thomas Love Peacock commented on a similar artist in Headlong Hall:

"Allow me," said Mr Gall. "I distinguish the picturesque and the beautiful, and I add to them, in the laying out of grounds, a third and distinct character, which I call unexpectedness."

"Pray, sir," said Mr Milestone, "by what name do you distinguish this character, when a person walks round the grounds for the second time?"

Jon.