Death at Hallows End (Carolus Deene Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC DETECTION
Review: Although this book was just published for the first time here in the US, it was written in 1965. Its style and its hero, Carolus Deene, hark back to an even earlier time -- when gentleman sleuths like Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Doctor Gideon Fell solved mysteries for the sheer intellectual challenge they posed. Deene, independently wealthy, teaches history at Queen's School in the city of "Newminster" to quiet his conscience and gets involved in murder investigations for recreation.

A solicitor he knows slightly vanishes while on a business trip to the remote village of Hallows End. He'd gone there to deliver a will to an important client for signing. By odd coincidence, the client, who was visiting relatives, apparently dies of a heart attack on the same night his lawyer disappears. Carolus is asked to find out what has become of the missing solicitor.

Leo Bruce, a pen name of the late Rupert Croft-Cooke, scatters suspects, false scents, and mysterious events before the reader with gleeful abandon. Some of the characters are straight from central casting, like the pompous headmaster of Queen's School and Deene's housekkeper who cooks "chocolate suffle" and "patty mason" for his supper, but the suspects are a diverse and eccentric lot who defy easy stereotyping. The book is a good read for those who enjoy a classic mystery of deduction. Few readers are likely to come up with the full solution before Deene explains all in the final pages.

Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC DETECTION
Review: Although this book was just published for the first time here in the US, it was written in 1965. Its style and its hero, Carolus Deene, hark back to an even earlier time -- when gentleman sleuths like Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Doctor Gideon Fell solved mysteries for the sheer intellectual challenge they posed. Deene, independently wealthy, teaches history at Queen's School in the city of "Newminster" to quiet his conscience and gets involved in murder investigations for recreation.

A solicitor he knows slightly vanishes while on a business trip to the remote village of Hallows End. He'd gone there to deliver a will to an important client for signing. By odd coincidence, the client, who was visiting relatives, apparently dies of a heart attack on the same night his lawyer disappears. Carolus is asked to find out what has become of the missing solicitor.

Leo Bruce, a pen name of the late Rupert Croft-Cooke, scatters suspects, false scents, and mysterious events before the reader with gleeful abandon. Some of the characters are straight from central casting, like the pompous headmaster of Queen's School and Deene's housekkeper who cooks "chocolate suffle" and "patty mason" for his supper, but the suspects are a diverse and eccentric lot who defy easy stereotyping. The book is a good read for those who enjoy a classic mystery of deduction. Few readers are likely to come up with the full solution before Deene explains all in the final pages.