Crime At Guildford

Detective and police procedural work in fiction nowadays is as much about extra-curricular conflict as it is about crime solving. Family life and partnerships are dysfunctional, colleagues are vicious, and superiors are likely to hand the case over to somebody else. As W S Gilbert would say, "A policeman's lot is not a happy one". By comparison Freeman Wills Croft's Detective Chief Inspector French of Scotland Yard had a very easy time in this 1935 "Golden Age" novel. Colleagues all spring into action willingly, his superior is entirely supportive, his marriage is stable, and he is free to devote all his energies to pure detective work. His investigation is into the affairs of Nornes Ltd, a large firm of jewelers. The managing director proposes a weekend board meeting in his comfortable house at Guildford, south of London, to discuss the ways of heading off the threat of bankruptcy. When the guests prepare to settle to work on Sunday morning it is discovered that one of their number has died during the night. Several days later comes the news of the theft of half a million pounds' worth of jewels in London.Inspector French works to solve two interconnected mysteries: how did the death occur and how were the jewels stolen. A tad of good luck and weeks of patient alibi checking and site scrutinizing lead to the solution, the cut to the chase, and the final page of a satisfying vintage crime novel.