Table of Contents
CLASSIC CRIME
Murder At Aldwych Station
By Jim Eldridge (Allison & Busby £8.99, 320pp)
Murder At Aldwych Station By Jim Eldridge (Allison & Busby £8.99, 320pp)
Having exhausted the list of luxury hotels for his wartime crime settings, Jim Eldridge turns to landmark Tube stations for his latest mysteries. First off is Aldwych, long out of commission but popular as a night-time shelter during the Blitz.
When the body of a young jazz musician is found on the tracks, Chief Inspector Coburg and his faithful sidekick, Sergeant Lampson, are swept into a murky hinterland of dingy nightclubs and rival gangs of drug dealers.
Complications multiply when Coburg finds that a critical witness is an old flame who shows every sign of wanting to rekindle the fire. Taking in threats against his wife, a notable jazz singer, not to mention a running battle with a gang of looters, the pace is fast and furious with old-fashioned detection winning out against the forces of villainy.
The Black Spectacles
By John Dickson Carr (British Library £9.99, 224pp)
The Black Spectacles By John Dickson Carr
The chief exponent of the ‘locked room’ mystery and the ‘impossible crime’, John Dickson Carr excelled himself with this intriguing novel. The basic premise is the fallibility of witnesses to a crime; they invariably fail to see what is in plain sight.
At least, so says Marcus Chesney, who makes his point with a dramatisation of murder by poison with himself as the supposed victim.
The enactment, before a party of family and friends, is all too successful. Chesney really does die of poison, though none of those present can agree on how the fatal dose was administered.
The police are equally baffled by the case. But not so the jovial Dr Gideon Fell, corpulent private detective and a Dickson Carr regular, who sets out to prove that first impressions, if often misleading, can with intelligent interpretation point to the unvarnished truth. The result is a dazzling display of ingenuity.
Murder At Crime Manor
By Fergus Craig (Sphere £12.99, 288pp)
Murder At Crime Manor By Fergus Craig
Be warned, all fans of classic crime, Murder At Crime Manor is a glorious send-up of the Golden Age. The setting is all too familiar.
In a country mansion cut off in a snow storm, a wealthy social climber entertains a posh gathering. When the host is found dead, Detective Roger Le Carre is on hand to lead the investigation.
Unfortunately, our hero has the mental agility of a dozy oyster. There follows an absurdist catalogue of misadventures, with Roger’s dedication to irrelevant details leading to a succession of embarrassing dead ends.
But his self-confidence is unshaken, even when — supposedly isolated from the outside world — a prime suspect orders out for pizza.
Fergus Craig’s self-deprecating humour takes in a blood-soaked scene inserted solely for what he hopes will be the movie adaptation. If only Peter Sellers, aka Inspector Clouseau, was here to play the lead.
DailyMail
