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Book Description
The mutilated body of Albert Smith is found lying beside the railway line at the north end of the Dartie Tunnel near Groote Park. A passing train has hit him. Although his death appears straightforward, Inspector Vandam isn't satisfied that it is accidental. When his suspicions are justified he embarks on a baffling mystery.
About the Author
Freeman Wills Crofts was born in Dublin in 1879 and died in 1957. He worked for a Northern Irish railway company as an engineer until 1929, before turning to detective fiction His plots reveal his mathematical training and he specialised in the seemingly unbreakable alibi, laying layer upon layer within his stories. He loved ships and trains and the intricacies of transport timetables feature in many of his stories. Crofts' best-known character is Inspector Joseph French. French appears for the first time in Inspector French's Greatest Case. He is a detective who achieves his results through dogged persistence.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Trudging along a railway line, on his way home after completing an all-night shift, a railway signalman discovers a man's body on the track inside a tunnel. It is clear that the man has been struck by a passing rain and that the injuries are terrible.
Crofts provides this opening to his 1923 crime novel, and thereafter sets out his detection puzzle with his usual expertise and craftsmanship. This is one of his earlier books. To his talents for story telling, time tabling, and depicting courtroom procedure, he displays here his skill at describing settings and geographic locations. The second half of this novel is set in Scotland. To read the descriptions of Ballachulish, Crianlarich, and the lochs thereabouts is to want to visit the locations, to want to traverse the journeys, and to measure the distances as told here.
Crofts sets the first half of the book in South Africa, initiating a pattern followed by several other "golden age of detective fiction" writers of the 1920s and 1930s. The investigation of the initial murder proceeds very rapidly. Croft had not yet created his Inspector French, but the methods of detection are the same. Then, a subsequent crime in Scotland follows the same pattern: the victim is enticed to a meeting at a lonely place by the lure of vital information. Yes, the criminal is the same in each case - but who is he? You, like the investigating officer, will be in for a surprise!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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Freeman Wills Crofts occasionally tells us first who did it, then lets us watch as his police detective sifts clues, follows them up meticulously and eventually, arduously gets his baddy. Croft's murderers are usually really bad ones too; he wrote in a time when murderers were hanged and always makes sure that his readers felt that "the ultimate penalty" would be thoroughly deserved.
The Groote Park Murder is one of those where we actually don't know who did it. There is not much room with Crofts for the psychology of crime. If he finds a motive then he follows it up as ever; it's the clues and the painfully slow process of cracking seemingly unbreakable alibis that get us to the bottom of the mystery, not a clever interview with the suspect. None of that modern malarky here. Unusually, this one starts outside the British Isles, in South Africa with Inspector Vandam, and moves to Scotland where Inspector French takes over. True to form there's a lot about railway timetables, a clever criminal disguising his tracks, and a risky plot to catch the perpetrator and a slow, simmering build up to tension and suspense which grab you unexpectedly because you've failed to notice how stealthily they've been creeping up.
I don't usually liken detective novels to Henry James, but don't let the long, slow start put you off. At the beginning you might be wondering why you bothered but, as with James, by the time you get to the middle you're hooked.
The Groote Park Murder is one of those where we actually don't know who did it. There is not much room with Crofts for the psychology of crime. If he finds a motive then he follows it up as ever; it's the clues and the painfully slow process of cracking seemingly unbreakable alibis that get us to the bottom of the mystery, not a clever interview with the suspect. None of that modern malarky here. Unusually, this one starts outside the British Isles, in South Africa with Inspector Vandam, and moves to Scotland where Inspector French takes over. True to form there's a lot about railway timetables, a clever criminal disguising his tracks, and a risky plot to catch the perpetrator and a slow, simmering build up to tension and suspense which grab you unexpectedly because you've failed to notice how stealthily they've been creeping up.
I don't usually liken detective novels to Henry James, but don't let the long, slow start put you off. At the beginning you might be wondering why you bothered but, as with James, by the time you get to the middle you're hooked.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I had looked forward to reading this book as I am an admirer of fiction of around this time but found its painstaking following up of clues with precious little action a tad too slow for me. My taste runs to Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers, Nicholas Blake, Cyril Hare, John Creasey et al. I'm glad that I tried it because the English is brilliant but I don't think that I shall dip again.
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