Inspector French's Greatest Case is a 1924 mystery detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts.[1] It is the first in his series of novels featuring Inspector Joseph French, a Scotland Yard detective of the Golden Age known for his methodical technique.[2][3] Like much of the following series the plot mixes the traditional form of the puzzle mystery with that of a police procedural. French has to carefully study railway and shipping timetables and crack a cipher in order to solve his case.
 First edition | |
| Author | Freeman Wills Crofts |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Inspector French |
| Genre | Detective |
| Publisher | Collins |
Publication date | 1924 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Followed by | The Cheyne Mystery |
| Website | https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/freeman-wills-crofts/inspector-frenchs-greatest-case |
Synopsis
editA robbery of the safe of a diamond merchant in London's Hatton Garden leaves one of the firm's veteran employees dead. Summoned to handle the case French pursues disparate clues over a number of weeks with some of the trails turning out to be dead ends. His travels take him from the capital to Southampton and a variety of destinations on the Continent including Amsterdam, the Swiss Alps, Barcelona and Le Havre. Eventually he believes he has hit on the solution: a former West End actress has adopted an elaborate disguise to carry out the disposal of the diamonds and raise ready cash to flee on a liner heading for South America. He races to Portugal in the hope of catching her and her partner-in-crime, whose ultimate identity gives him a great shock.
References
editBibliography
edit- Evans, Curtis. Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961. McFarland, 2014.
- Herbert, Rosemary. Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing. Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.
External links
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