Book 9 in the Inspector French series, and whilst I have only read a handful of them, I don't sense that one needs to read them in order, either to:
- make sense of them, as the books I have read are all stand alone books; nor
- because there is considerable (main) character development from book to book (as happens in Sue Grafton's Alphabet series (A for Alibi; B for Burglar etc); Martin Walker's Bruno series; Peter Robinson's DCI Banks series).

It may well be that the changes across the series may, in themselves, be interesting (think of how much commentary there is as to early, mid and late Ellery Queen), but that discussion is for another time once one reads enough of them, which I intend doing.

But turning to this book (set in the early 1900s).

The background is a construction site where an existing rail corridor is being widened to allow for a dual track. A death occurs, apparently an accident. That conclusion is confirmed by the inquest (held a day after the death. apparently not unusual for the day). The day after, the local police receive new information which throws some (but certainly not conclusively inconsistent) doubt on that conclusion. (I have no qualms in mentioning this, though some might suggest it is a spoiler, given the back cover of the edition I read (Collins Crime Club - pub 2020) references that development, though inaccurately as it states

"At the inquest, the tragedy becomes a dark and sinister mystery when a witness swears to seeing a man running away from the scene of the accident - a statement that results in the intervention of Inspector French."

That statement also suggests that Inspector French arrives because of new information, almost because of the difficulty of the mystery. Alas such is another misdirection: the local police are busy on other matters and call on New Scotland Yard to provide some extra resources to deal with what is expected to be a relatively straight forward reconciliation of inconsistent (perhaps) facts.

But it does not turn out that way: what starts as being perceived as a straight forward accident morphs into something somewhat convoluted, with another death (I use a neutral word deliberately), another inquest (the findings of which are in turn also challenged by new information) and a potential fraud.

Wills Crofts was a civil engineer (on the railways no less). And whilst I (not an engineer, builder or similar) found the description of the structural diagrams/plans and the invoicing process very easy to follow and (whilst, now decades out of date) interesting. But I found the description of the physical engineering works themselves and the sites in which they take place somewhat confusing - I could not conjure in my mind an image of what was being described. But that did not detract from the flow of the narration nor denouement.

What I like about these early mysteries is learning of the historical methods of detection but also of ordinary life, with references to cyclometers and accommodation addresses to mention but a few.

Inspector French is renowned as a meticulous investigator and logician (not over the top on the logic side as Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen are sometime accused of being) and is said by some to be an early precursor and the 'police procedurals' of more recent times.

Overall, a satisfying read, with the author playing fairly with clues and the deductions.

I will read more in the series.

Big Ship

8 April 2022 ( )

A man is hit by a train working on the widening of the Southern Railway. It’s deemed an accident, but then there are reports of another man running away from the scene. Inspector French is called in—and then a second death occurs. Is this an unhappy coincidence, or are the deaths linked by foul play?

Readers who find the methodical evaluation of evidence and careful ruling out of false trails boring will likely glaze over at least once during this book. I did myself, and I generally find the French books soothing for their very meticulousness. And given that this book is set on a railway job site, there are some pockets of nerdy train details that may be of interest only to ferroequinologists (trainspotters to you and me).

This book is somewhat similar to the French novel Man Overboard! in that a female character makes a late-story burst of private investigation, so if you liked or disliked that one, it may be a fair gauge of whether you’d like this book too. ( )