Crofts, Freeman Wills - Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy / The Starvel Hollow Tragedy (1927)
Review by Nick Fuller
5/5
One of Crofts’s best-known works, with good reason. A miser and his servants are burnt to death in Yorkshire. Despite the verdict of accident, the fact that the bank notes, which should have perished in the fire, are still in circulation suggests murder. French, disguised as an insurance investigator, travels north, and from thence to France and Scotland. Despite a great deal of travelling, his plodding detection is genuinely interesting, and, although he only solves the crime a minute before he arrests the murderer, he comes across as more of a thinker than in later tales. The red herrings are as fresh as the writing and characterisation; and, although the reader will not be unduly surprised by the final revelation, he will marvel at the intricacy of a highly ingenious plot, with a nice bit of body-snatching for extra merit.
Comments (1)
Jon said
at 7:18 pm on Dec 4, 2011
Finished Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy. French not at his top form. He neglects to ask the most obvious questions or raise the most obvious points thus very nearly letting the real villain (and the one surviving murderer) off but for one of those useful fresh scars.
However, two things fascinated me. One was that there were several delightful passages of French day-dreaming about being credited with a truly difficult case and getting promotion. Makes him a good deal more likeable. Secondly, I found it extraordinary that Scotland Yard could let one of their top detectives spend weeks in Yorkshire, tramping up and down the moors as well as travelling hither and thither by train, in pursuit of a will o'the wisp. Wow! Either crime rate in the mid-twenties was low to non-existent (not true) or the dreaded manpower shortage had not raised its head.
Helen Szamuely
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