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Death Leaves No Card

Page history last edited by Jon 11 years, 6 months ago

Rhode, John as Miles Burton - Death Leaves no Card (1939)

 

When a writer establishes a successful crime-solving partnership in his books, it’s always a surprise when one of the investigators is absent, as in this 1939 mystery from Major CJC Street. For the first time since his fully-fledged debut in The Menace on the Downs, Inspector Arnold of the Criminal Investigation Department goes it alone in attempting to solve the death of a man discovered alone in a locked bathroom. The cause of death baffles the police and although there are suggestions that something like electric shock may be to blame no possible source can be discovered. Suspicion quickly falls on the dead man’s uncle, and he clearly has a motive, but opportunity and means seem to be non-existent and the mystery begins to look insoluble.

 

It would normally be at this point that Arnold would seek the aid of his long time companion, Desmond Merrion, but the latter is unavailable due to illness and Arnold is forced to continue alone. Soon he is on the track of a mysterious van-driver, whose vehicle was seen outside the fatal cottage at the time of the death, and he shows more intelligence than he often does when Merrion is around in tracing the man’s movements and activities. But it is only when he has an inspiration about the motive and receives some assistance from an expert witness that he finally discovers the true solution.

 

Unusually for a locked room mystery, the seasoned reader may find the mechanism of the crime more easily discernible than the motive and identity of the criminal - as this reviewer did. The absence of Merrion is also unfortunate as it also robs the tale of any of the amusingly fractious interactions between him and Arnold that are often a feature of their cases together. Still on the whole this is mostly successful and if not classic Burton it is still well worth seeking out to devotees of Street or the realist school.

 

R E Faust

 

See also http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2011/07/death-cant-be-locked-out.html

See also http://www.classicmysteries.net/2012/09/death-leaves-no-card.html

 

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