Gask, Arthur - Cloud, the Smiter (1926)

This book marks the first appearance of Gilbert Larose, Gask's primary detective character but he is only a minor figure in this early volume and plays a rather trivial part. The book is very poorly structured and cannot make up it's mind as to whether it is a mystery, a thriller or a love story and essentially fails at all of them. It opens with a strange incident on a lonely road in chapter one but then skips an entire year. A murder is then committed but we very soon learn the identity of the villain, a famous international gang leader. Then we have several chapters of the hero watching the fellow, who is subsequently captured and hanged with half a book to go. Then his gang shows up and it becomes a story of vengeance against Inspector Romilly. Naturally justice triumphs but we still have a full fifth of the book remaining which now turns into a love story. All in all a very poor beginning to what was in fact a very famous and successful series, admired by such luminaries as H G Wells and Bertrand Russell.