Stout, Rex - The Broken Vase (1941)

Tecumseh Fox is the detective in this rather uneven story of deception and death. Jan Tusar, a violinist, makes his solo debut at Carnegie Hall and muffs it. He commits suicide during the intermission. Fox, as a contributor to the purchase of his Stradivarius, is called in to investigate, and finds himself involved a double murder and the disappearance of a valuable vase. The motives are fairly thin, and the elaborate precautions taken by the murderer seem to belong to another genre altogether - that of PG Wodehouse, perhaps. If this was Stout's attempt to write a Lockridge-style cosy, it didn't really come off, but the book has some good moments.

Jon.