Crofts, Freeman Wills - The Loss of the 'Jane Vosper' (1936)

Review by Nick Fuller

2/5

A Crofts that all too treacherously arouses the reader’s expectations with its dramatic opening depicting the sinking of a ship at sea, no lives lost. The growing certainty that the ship was sabotaged for the insurance and the disappearance of a private detective bring in French, who is at his most plodding and pedantic; indeed, the early sections of the investigation are among the dullest we have yet read by this author. The plot is equally dull: the question of identity is irrelevant and hence anti-climactic, while the reader should be able to solve the how question halfway through. Bah.

The cargo ship Jane Vosper is en route from London to South America when four mysterious explosions in the hold send her to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The crew take to the lifeboats and are rescued, and a coronial enquiry in London finds the sinking was no fault of theirs. The shipping company hires a private detective to investigate, and when he too disappears the case becomes one for Chief Inspector Joseph French.

French's method is slow but sure; he interviews, searches and deduces, and gradually the whole resources of the British police are called in to uncover what turns out to be a diabolical plot. There are lots of dead ends, but when the criminals are finally apprehended, French has more than enough evidence to make the hanging charges stick.

The seaborne scenes are done well and so is the enquiry. French is dogged rather than inspired, and if his maths were a little better he could have solved the whole case much sooner. But it is all entertaining stuff. I was particularly amused to read Crofts' offhand comment on the proceedings: 'Not a single woman or girl was present; all were men.' A modern writer would get into all sorts of trouble that way.

Jon.