Polferry Riddle V711

Whenever I want to settle down with a mystery from the "old school" one of my favorite authors is Philip Macdonald (also spelled sometimes as MacDonald). It always seems to me to be a shame that this author is not more widely known and that it is necessary to search for his mysteries. The Polferry Riddle is a wonderful example of Macdonald's belief that an author should play fairly with the readers of mysteries. He gives the reader all the information as it is collected by the amateur detective (here Anthony Ruthven Gethryn) and the members of Scotland Yard. Dr. Hale-Storford and his wife Eve have just moved into a country house with a collection of family members, guests and their housekeeper when a fierce storm strands a boat upon the sands below their home. Two friends are rescued from the boat and offered shelter for the night. Upon taking the two men to their bedrooms to retire for the night Hale-Storford discoveres that his wife is dead from having her throat slashed. What an exciting story. The evidence seems to lead one way and then another. No sooner do Gethryn and the Scotland Yard detectives follow up one lead and figure out the truth about it than they are lead down another course and must try to prove or disprove these new clues. Throughout the entire investigation the reader is given all the thoughts and clues which the professionals receive themselves. Each time I was given a solution to the crimes, for there are multiple crimes here, I honestly thought the solution was at hand - except for the fact that there was still so much of the book left to be read! This book was written in 1931 and contains all the hallmarks for the elite British upperclass private citizen working with Scotland Yard to solve a crime. As compared to some stories written during this Golden Age of the mystery, Macdonald seems to me to make his detective more approachable, more down to earth. I enjoy reading about the relationship Gethryn has with his family and with the Scotland Yard men he works with. If you are interested in reading books by this author I would suggest doing some research into his writing career. Many of his novels were published in Britain under one title and in America under another. Some books have as many as three titles. All of this is good to know so that you do not buy the same book multiple times. My favorite reference book for this type of information is Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Second Edition, with editor John M. Reilly, published in 1985 by St. Martin's Press. That book contains material which is very difficult to find anywhere else. I know it is hopelessly out of date now but since I use it for authors who were writing long before the reference book was published, it still comes in handy for my purposes. I hope you will give this classic mystery a try. I think it will be time well spent.