Anthony Berkeley (1893–1971)

This is a classic example of mysteries written during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (1920s/30s), with a simple plot, a limited cast of suspects, an amateur detective, and a solution that relies heavily on timetables, method, and misdirection.

Our meek but likeable sleuth, Mr. Chitterwick, believes himself to have witnessed a murder ... but did he really see what he thought he saw? At the request of the prime suspect's desperate wife, Mr. Chitterwick reluctantly agrees to investigate the case, assisted by a disarmingly charming young aristocrat whose automobile possesses the convenient property of being able to whisk the both of them from the family's country seat to London in less than three hours - something they must do repeatedly in order to recreate the crime, interrogate witnesses, and check in with perhaps the world's most amiable and cooperative Scotland Yard detective.

Berkeley's prose is brisk and quite witty. I often found myself smiling, and sometimes laughing aloud. True, there's no attempt at character development here, but would be unfair to hold that against the author since character development wasn't an expectation of the genre at that time. However, I *will* ding the author for a plot that is over-reliant on coincidence. To be fair, Berkeley absolutely abides by the golden rule of Golden Age Mysteries: "thou shalt provide all the clues necessary for the reader to solve the crime." The twist ending, when it comes, aligns with the evidence and is certainly twisty, but predicated on events and circumstances that strain credulity.

In summary, found this to be a pleasant period read that checks all the "Golden Age" boxes without offering anything new or especially memorable.… (more)