Berkeley, Anthony -- Roger Sherringham and the Vane Mystery (1927)

B 

A turning point in Berkeley’s career—the first half is very much in the line of Layton Court or Wychford (1920s amateur sleuthing à la Milne, with more facetious back-chat than plot or character development—the sort of thing Barzun called ‘how jolly all this murdering is!’), but the second half looks forward to the great books to come, with Roger’s ingenious but wrong solution, his rivalry with Inspector Moresby, strictures on the misleading nature of evidence, and a supremely cynical surprise ending. 

·        Triumph of police over gilded amateur—but can’t prove case.

·        Only romance in all Berkeley’s books, and then as a misdirection

·        Roger’s ingenious wrong solution (victims did each other in): Crispin’s Swan Song

·        Victim falls off cliff: Panic Party

·        Seaside murder: Sayers’s Have His Carcase

·        Poison in pipe: Allingham’s Police at the Funeral 

Nicholas Fuller