This is the first book I've read by Freeman Wills Croft (his real name), an Irish engineer in the daytime and a mystery book writer at night. Croft was heavily involved in designing train bridges and track layouts, so he was certainly clever. His mechanical mind is apparant in this murder mystery, first published in 1933. In fact, it is so complicated, he included a map of the area of the crimes (the house, the woods, roads, bus routes and byways), a map that shows the actions of the two prime suspects on one night with times plotted out to prove that the unbelievably complicated series of events are in fact humanly possible, a description of each and every clue as it was found by Inspector French in the four weeks he investigated the crimes--including page references to when we first discovered each clue to prove to the reader that, yes, we could have figured it out, too, if we just been paying attention AND a timeline of all events, down to the minute, over the course of four weeks. Yes, it was a damned complicated mystery. In fact, while I was very interested while I read it, it wasn't an emotionally gripping story as the struts and girders holding the story together were too apparent. Also, I never really got to know any of the characters--aside from the Scotland Yard inspector. Everyone else is sort of 2 dimensional--I guess this is what happens when almost all events are told from his point of view. Nonetheless, the mystery was mysterious enough.
As mentioned above, the Scotland Yard investigator is Inspector French. We are meeting French mid-career and he has already had quite a few famous successes solving other murder mysteries (which also involved engineering situations). Croft wrote 23 French mysteries (he wrote non-French novels, too--all told about 35 novels) and this was was about his 10th or so. Occasionally French remembers earlier mysteries he solved--conveniently he gives them the same names as the books so we can set out to buy them. As with other Scotland Yard inspectors of this era, French is a happy man who enjoys smoking a pipe and drinking whiskey in moderation. He loves his wife and he never works on weekends (unless he gets called in because a body has been found--but that doesn't happen too often) and he spends Sundays traveling around with is wife, picnicking and walking on trails along seasides. He also likes to sit by the fire and do his heavy thinking when stuck on a case. We don't really meet his wife, but are told that they have been together for too many years to keep track of, and he says that they are perfectly suited to one another.
This book starts with the arrival of Ursula Stone who is visiting university friends she hasn't seen in over 10 years. She's successfully runs a children's hospital "In Town" (London, I guess) and is taking a few weeks off for the first time in ages. She arrives at the home of Julia, whose sister Marjorie is also visiting. Julia recently married Dr. Earle, a semi-retired doctor who is shifting out of practicing medicine to researching medicine. The marriage was rushed and now, a few years later, they are unhappy together. They do not dislike each other, they just realize too well that they are too different: he wants to stay home and read and write, and she wants to gad about with young men who play golf, gamble on horses, and drive fancy sports cars. Nonetheless, both Julia and Earle like Ursula so her visit is a happy one--until Earle vanishes. The circumstances are inexplicable: Dinner is over, Ursula is visiting another university friend who lives about 10 miles away and Julia and Marjorie and doing the dishes and cleaning up after dinner. Earle is in the study until he isn't--his body is gone, and there's no sign of violence. He was wearing indoor clothes and slippers (we are told the nights are cold) and the car is in their garage. He took no papers or his wallet and no money.
It makes no sense but there is no sign of health emergency or murder, so Inspector French decides that it's a "voluntary disappearance" (someone runs away from an unhappy home or life). Julia insists that Earle just wouldn't do such a thing. Then it is revealed that weeks earlier he had met up with a nurse he occasionally worked with--and she has disappeared! (Those who know her also insist that simply leaving without giving word to her employer is also completely out of keeping with her character). So, that seems to seal it--they ran off together and he must have had other clothes and sources of money that his wife, Julia, didn't know about.
Then two weeks latr ANOTHER body disappears from the Earle home in exactly the same manner as Earle disappearance! Well, the idea that all three have run off together (or run off in separate directions) is too stupid to believe so now we must presume that missing body 3 must be murder--and if that one is murder, perhaps the others are, too? This prompts a far more serious body hunt than took place before when people were just looking for evidence of Earle stepping outside and slipping or having a heart attach. And lo we have it--all three corpses--are found (in VERY grisly circumstances which I will not relate, I'll just say their deaths and decomposition are vividly described). So now the question is: who could possibly have a motive to kill all three? Anyone who would want to kill the doctor and nurse would seem to have no motive to kill Dead Person 3. Anyone who would want to kill #3 would have no reason to kill the others....very mysterious. And complicated. I was very happy to have the maps and timelines.
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