Enemy Unseen

Rating:
Summary: How a criminal takes advantage of wartime conditions.
Review: "Enemy Unseen" was written during World War Two. Detective Inspector French of Scotland Yard is wondering "why war conditions had not been more widely taken advantage of by criminals". Just such a crime then comes to his notice. Coils of wire and boxes of hand grenades are reported missing from a Home Guard ammunition store at a Cornish coastal village. Soon after an explosion on the beach nearby kills an old man, and later there is a similar murder.

This is a grimmer, more static mystery than Crofts usually provided, no doubt reflecting the harsh "war conditions" in which it is set and written. One of the characters is a writer of detective fiction. He provides illuminating views of the craft of which Crofts was a master.

Rating:
Summary: How a criminal takes advantage of wartime conditions.
Review: ..."Enemy Unseen" was written during World War Two. Detective Inspector French of Scotland Yard is wondering "why war conditions had not been more widely taken advantage of by criminals". Just such a crime then comes to his notice. Coils of wire and boxes of hand grenades are reported missing from a Home Guard ammunition store at a Cornish coastal village. Soon after an explosion on the beach nearby kills an old man, and later there is a similar murder.

This is a grimmer, more static mystery than Crofts usually provided, no doubt reflecting the harsh "war conditions" in which it is set and written. One of the characters is a writer of detective fiction. He provides illuminating views of the craft of which Crofts was a master.

Rating:
Summary: How a criminal takes advantage of wartime conditions.
Review: ..."Enemy Unseen" was written during World War Two. Detective Inspector French of Scotland Yard is wondering "why war conditions had not been more widely taken advantage of by criminals". Just such a crime then comes to his notice. Coils of wire and boxes of hand grenades are reported missing from a Home Guard ammunition store at a Cornish coastal village. Soon after an explosion on the beach nearby kills an old man, and later there is a similar murder.

This is a grimmer, more static mystery than Crofts usually provided, no doubt reflecting the harsh "war conditions" in which it is set and written. One of the characters is a writer of detective fiction. He provides illuminating views of the craft of which Crofts was a master.

Rating:
Summary: How a criminal takes advantage of war time conditions.
Review: Readers of classic British Detective Fiction can be grateful to the English publishers the House of Stratus. During 2001 they republished the 35 crime novels by Freeman Wills Crofts. Of course, browsing in second-hand book shops is always a fun pastime, and in such places in recent years I have chanced on two Crofts' titles. Now, however, all of them are available, in a uniform edition, for internet ordering.

"Enemy Unseen" was written during World War Two. Detective Inspector French of Scotland Yard is wondering "why war conditions had not been more widely taken advantage of by criminals". Just such a crime then comes to his notice. Coils of wire and boxes of hand grenades are reported missing from a Home Guard ammunition store at a Cornish coastal village. Soon after, an explosion on the beach nearby kills an old man, and later there is a similar murder.

This is a grimmer, more static mystery than Crofts usually provided, no doubt reflecting the harsh "war conditions" in which it is set and written. One of the characters is a writer of detective fiction. He provides illuminating views of the craft of which Crofts was a master.