R. A. J. Walling (1869–1949)

The businessman Entwhistle hires Tolefree, a private detective, to spy on a woman holidaying in a French seaside village and report back on who speaks to her. Tolefree and his associate Farrar are held up on their return by fog in the Channel, and arrive at Entwhistle's house to find him murdered and the police in attendance. Tolefree is invited to help in the investigation.

There is a confusion of motives: a potential divorce; a great deal of cash; a will that is about to be changed. The friends and associates present at Entwhistle's house on the night of the murder are all suspects, as is the elusive man who communicated with the woman in France. Everyone is hiding something.

An entertaining mystery, with a breezy tone and a traditionally know-all detective.… (mehr)

Quite a good read from an almost forgotten writer; the opening, where the narrator catches a strange young woman as she falls off her horse, encourages you to read on, and the murder situation, with its twist on the locked-room genre, is quite intriguing. However, the author doesn't seem to have made up his mind whether he was writing a detective story or a thriller, and though the central section (involving an escaped convict and a boat trip across the Channel) is not bad, the overall effect is unmemorable, and the denouement is disappointing.… (mehr)