Groote Park Murder

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Summary: Never be lured into a meeting at a lonely place!
Review: Trudging along a railway line, on his way home after completing an all-night shift, a railway signalman discovers a man's body on the track inside a tunnel. It is clear that the man has been struck by a passing rain and that the injuries are terrible. Crofts provides this opening to his 1923 crime novel, and thereafter sets out his detection puzzle with his usual expertise and craftsmanship. This is one of his earlier books. To his talents for story telling, time tabling, and depicting courtroom procedure, he displays here his skill at describing settings and geographic locations. The second half of this novel is set in Scotland. To read the descriptions of Ballachulish, Crianlarich, and the lochs thereabouts is to want to visit the locations, to want to traverse the journeys, and to measure the distances as told here. Crofts sets the first half of the book in South Africa, initiating a pattern followed by several other "golden age of detective fiction" writers of the 1920s and 1930s. The investigation of the initial murder proceeds very rapidly. Croft had not yet created his Inspector French, but the methods of detection are the same. Then, a subsequent crime in Scotland follows the same pattern: the victim is enticed to a meeting at a lonely place by the lure of vital information. Yes, the criminal is the same in each case - but who is he? You, like the investigating officer, will be in for a surprise!