In brief, Franks Cairns, who writes crime fiction under the pseudonym of Felix Lane and is reasonably successful at it, has his life turned upside down by a hit and run accident that kills his only son. The newspaper clippings at the end were a very fine touch and the whole book was a pleasure from cover to cover. It must also be added that, despite the classic style with its Poirot-esque limited number of suspects, I didn't manage to guess which one of them did it, nor was I entirely comfortable with the guilty party's ready acceptance of the fact that they would be hanged for their crimes. It was rather refreshing to read a book that was very far-from-noir and not at all gruesome and I was pleasantly surprised by its unexpected ending. However, once I was comfortable with the style, I found it to be really enjoyable.
This classic style of this murder mystery book is very different to my usual taste and it took me a while to get into it. It is part of the series that Blake wrote featuring Nigel Strangeways, an awesome private detective who gets results where the police cannot. This book was originally published in 1938 by Collins and has been republished this year by Vintage. Review - The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake
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