Smith, Derek - Whistle Up the Devil

Locked room detective novel

Listed in Adey’s Locked Room Murders

Author’s only mystery.  An homage to the classic plot driven detective novels of the “Golden Age” with an obvious affection for the locked room.  Numerous allusions to vintage crime/mystery books including Cleek - Master Detective, The Big Bow Mystery, The Three Coffins, Death from A Top Hat.  Several other books and their authors are mentioned.  In fact, one chapter consists of the police inspector and the amateur detective and protagonist, Algy Lawrence, sitting in a mystery novel lined library discussing the famous locked room lectures of Gideon Fell and The Great Merlini and applying those categories of sealed room crimes to the murders they are investigating.

An ancient curse on the Querrin family and a room in which a murder was committed three centuries ago figure in this detective story.  Was Roger stabbed by the ghost of his ancestor?  How did the murderer enter and exit the room while it was locked and guarded from both inside and outside the house?  A very enjoyable and entertaining book.  If the denouement is not surprising to many readers, certainly the trip getting there is worth it.

J.F. Norris

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Although John Norris has called it the author's only mystery, that's not true. As I found out in my research, Derek Smith also wrote a book called Come to Paddington Fair (also starring Algy Lawrence) and a Sexton Blake novella called Model for Murder. Below is my full review of the book, along with all the biographical information I could gather on Derek Smith:

http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/2011/12/devil-take-hindmost.html

Patrick

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See also : http://deathcanread.blogspot.it/2012/06/tribute-to-carrderek-smith-whistle-up.html

Recently the three novels by Derek Smith, have been united in an omnibus edited and published by John Pugmire. Here the link

Pietro