Bogue's Fortune

Rating:
Summary: An English Mystery with Plenty of Humor and Surprises
Review: This is a very skilful yarn that starts with a murder in the English countryside, at a progressive school for "difficult" boys and girls. It turns out that the school building was once the country home of a corrupt Member of Parliament, Johnny Bogue. Bogue was lost in a plane crash during World War II, but he apparently left something of great value hidden in his former home. Charles Applegate, a new teacher at the school, and Hedda Pont, a very refreshing heroine, get tangled up in the quest for Bogue's "fortune", opposed by a group of sinister characters who reminded me of the gang of heavies in "The Maltese Falcon". I was most interested by the well-drawn characters (many of them eccentric - the book is quite humorous), and especially by the gradual revelation of the personality and history of Johnny Bogue. (By the way, you won't find out the exact nature of Bogue's fortune until the very end.) Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An English Mystery with Plenty of Humor and Surprises
Review: This is a very skilful yarn that starts with a murder in the English countryside, at a progressive school for "difficult" boys and girls. It turns out that the school building was once the country home of a corrupt Member of Parliament, Johnny Bogue. Bogue was lost in a plane crash during World War II, but he apparently left something of great value hidden in his former home. Charles Applegate, a new teacher at the school, and Hedda Pont, a very refreshing heroine, get tangled up in the quest for Bogue's "fortune", opposed by a group of sinister characters who reminded me of the gang of heavies in "The Maltese Falcon". I was most interested by the well-drawn characters (many of them eccentric - the book is quite humorous), and especially by the gradual revelation of the personality and history of Johnny Bogue. (By the way, you won't find out the exact nature of Bogue's fortune until the very end.) Recommended.