"Ask a Policeman" by 'The Detection Club'

This murder mystery is a joint effort. The problem is laid out by John Rhode after which Helena Simpson, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley and Dorothy L Sayers each provide solutions; these authors use the detective of one of the others. Finally, given that the solutions contradict one another, and given that there are points of discrepancy (Mr Mills is sometimes in jail and sometimes free) Milward Kennedy tries to provide a final solution.

It is thus an interesting exercise but not necessarily a great read.

Of the four authors I enjoyed most the characterisations of Helen Simpson (who was using the detective Mrs Bradley, created by Gladys Mitchell):

• "the stately gambols of Lady Selina Lestrange, who weighed fifteen stone, and seldom moved far save under haulage."
• "Lady Selina, at her none too extensive wits' end."
• "Marriage is like cold cocoa, nourishing but nauseous."
• "a face screwed up like a fried sole."
• "Men conscious of inferiority are always trying to impose themselves on others, because they know that underneath they are cowards or cretins. Very occasionally they see themselves as they are; then they go down in the dumps."
• "Always on time, always out, even nights when there's plenty'd wait about in shelter, always worrying to be doing right."
• "And there's my own wife; if I broke my leg to-morrow, nothing'd be too good for me, and yet if I was to break a vase to-night she'd give me hell."
• "There is a good old Scots word. spunk. which means, I believe, tinder; he has none."

Of the other writers I selected only Anthony Berkeley, writing about Lord Peter Wimsey:

• "My dear Charles, I am not a bad driver, as you seem to think. On the contrary, I'm an astonishingly good one. We're still alive, aren't we?

An interesting exercise.

October 2019; 311 pages

This book was one of the 'Books and Beer' subscription which my wonderful wife bought me for Christmas. Other titles include:

• Most Wanted by Robert Craik: a fast-paced thriller set in California
• The Devil's Dice by Roz Watkins: a whodunnit set in the English Peak District
• Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth: a stunning tale of crime and revenge, of temptation and sin, of evil and redemption set in 1880s Queensland and as gritty as only the Australian Outback can get.
• Snap by Belinda Bauer: a brilliant story about a young lad who, having become a burglar in order to survive, discovers his mother's killer.
• Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic: a murder mystery set in Australia in which the PI is deaf
• The Mongolian Conspiracy by Rafael Bernal: classic Chandleresque Mexican noir
• The Closer I Get, a thriller in which an author is stalked by an obsessive fan.
• Homegrown Hero by Khurrum Rahman, an up-to-date thriller about fundamentalist terrorism set in Hounslow, West London