A review by jacki_f
Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts

4.0

This is a vintage murder mystery, written in 1931. I had never heard of Freeman Wills Croft until he was mentioned in [b:Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading|35226994|Jacob's Room is Full of Books A Year of Reading|Susan Hill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509551050s/35226994.jpg|56572847] but he wrote 33 novels between 1920 and 1951, the most famous of which included Scotland Yard detective Inspector French.

Murder in the Channel begins with the discovery of a yacht drifting in the English Channel. On board are two dead bodies, with no signs of a struggle, no murder weapon and no other people. The two that have been killed were the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of a investment bank which was on the brink of collapse. Inspector French is charged with solving the case. His approach is slow and methodical but absorbing to read. There are no flashes of Holmes or Poirot brilliance: rather he carefully checks and double checks every theory as he goes.

I throughly enjoyed this vintage police procedural. It was something of a comfort read, but the way that the mystery comes together is also very pleasing.