Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy (Inspector French Mystery) Paperback – January 12, 2017

First published in 1927, The Starvel Hollow Mystery brings us Inspector French at his most inquisitive, obsessive, enthusiastic, imaginative, unflagging, and suave.He follows many a trail to nowhere, but is always ready to start over. He’s often on the verge of arresting an innocent person, and saves himself just in time! Equipped with skeleton keys and a bent wire, he breaks into buildings with impunity. He reconstructs an elaborate crime in his mind — and is only partly wrong. “It must be followed up” is French’s mantra. No even faintly possible clue is left unexplored. And somehow, even the Inspector’s fruitless inquiries are full of interest.A terrible fire consumes a gloomy house in a sinister hollow in the wilds of the Yorkshire moors. The old miser who owned the house and his two servants are likewise burnt up — as well as the fortune in banknotes the miser was hoarding. Luckily his pretty niece was away on a visit. Her budding romance with a young architect offers an engaging subplot.But the main focus is on Inspector French and his suspicion that the fire was no accident — and his theories about the dark deeds behind the tragedy. To add to the complexities of the case, an extra body crops up that’s difficult to fit into any theory.In short, I found this mystery intriguingly intricate and totally absorbing. Crofts has been considered a member of the “humdrum school” of crime fiction. But I don’t find him at all humdrum in this book. His passion for detailed, methodical detection is rather charming. And he did, after all, prefigure the modern police procedural.

I have a special fondness for Freeman Wills Crofts. His Mystery on Southampton Water (aka Crime on the Solent) was the first detective novel I every read--years ago--and it got me hooked. Anyway, I just read for the first time and enjoyed "Starvel Tragedy," the tragedy being the death of three people in a house fire on the Yorkshire moors.Inspector French, Crofts' rather colorless police inspector, lacks the quirkiness found in other detectives of the period. He lives alone and appears to have no social life (but he's not at all the noir loner of later mystery fiction). What emotion he shows mostly has to do with his career as a cop: the excitement of discovering and interpreting clues, dreams of recognition and promotion as a result of his successes, and desolation when his theories go bust. It's all on view in this novel when French's self-congratulating pride in thinking he's solved mystery of the burning of Starvel gets punctured more than once. But (career man that he is) he persists in his quest of the truth.Crofts novels excel in their methodical plots--something I find satisfying in a detective story. Inspector French adheres to the procedural approach of examining evidence and arriving at conclusions based on the evidence--or tries to. In "Starvel Tragedy," however, Crofts shows us French repeatedly jumping to conclusions (which are premature but admittedly warranted given the clues to that point in the story) only to find that further evidence shatters the scenario he's built up in his mind. These unexpected twists keep the plot interesting.

Freeman Wills Croft was once quite a big name in mystery fiction, although nowadays he's probably only known to hardcore buffs. Some of these buffs have recently classified him as a "humdrum" writer -- I'm not one hundred percent sure what all is meant by the term, but I take it that it means, at least in part, a quiet concentration on the "humdrum" facts of detection.That surely describes Croft,who would probably be classified in the "police procedural" bin nowadays. Its a mystery, with a puzzling crime, clues, an investigator and a surprising ending, but the focus is on procedure and the careful step by step process of Inspector French, Croft's detective.This story is carefully written but it's pleasant in its carefulness, if that makes any sense. This is a very craftsmanlike sort of book and there's a real pleasure in that, it's very readable. French doesn't really have an inner life or psychology (outside of some modest ambition now and then), but we end up liking him anyway, maybe simply because Croft keeps the viewpoint fairly tight on French for most of the book. The case is clever and has a couple of great reverses, just when you think you have it all figured out. It flags a little when Croft tries to get actual people in it (a love story) or actual emotion (an ill-advised "thriller" portion), but mostly I can recommend this to fans of golden age mysteries.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I actually took time off work to finish it. I hadn't pegged the culprit, although I should have, perhaps.The writing style is not modern, and it shouldn't be, and there are ponderous areas that one can actually skim, but over all this is an enjoyable book.The character of French is so believable, as though the author was sitting next to the man reading his mind, which adds a lot to the whole novel. The crime is horrendous and yet so interesting that I simply hated to put the book down.

A complex and fairly credible plot, excellent writing, and satisfying last minute twist. It is annoying how biased the inspector is in favor of the upper class. But putting that aside, it's absorbing to follow the investigation, watch French develop his theories of the crime, and share with him in the pleasure as pieces fall into place.

Good old-fashioned language. Refreshing not to have the edginess so popular anymore.

Story is good early 20th century British mystery. This reprint has very small font with light inking. Difficult to read.

Standard hundrum style of detective novels. I'm required to read by a writing class. Otherwise not so much recommended

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This is the third in the Inspector French series first published in 1927. I think it is rather better than the first two although there were still times when I felt like prodding the Inspector and telling him to get on a bit faster…and stop daydreaming about promotion!The investigation is of the death in a fire of miser and his two servants.When some banknotes, supposedly lost in the fire, pass into circulation, suspicions are aroused. French embarks on his usual thorough and plodding inquiry. Included in the novel are a love interest, some foreign travel, and train journeys to Scotland. The crimes uncovered include arson, murder, blackmail and body snatching.I did not think it was too difficult to work out the solution as there were plenty of strong indications. However, there were sufficient, well- placed red herrings to divert me and cause a few doubts.3.5 stars.

I have read all of Crofts novels and have enjoyed almost every one of them. I like the way that French builds up his case by testing his theories and collecting the evidence in his dogged and determined manner. He doesn’t get put off if he finds something that doesn’t fit with his original idea of what happened. He just reconsiders the evidence and what he’s learned and looks at the mystery anew, deciding how he should proceed. Don’t be put off by Julian Symons description of him as a humdrum, for sheer readability he is up there with the best of the Golden Age Detective Fiction authors. In this book after much dogged detection he finally works out what he thinks really happened at Starvel Hollow but in a twist ending he suddenly realises he’s got it wrong and he only just gets the real villain.

A clever plot, and clever detection through dogged attention to detail. Happy days when a bank remembers a £20 note, and a face. There are quite a few bodies around, not all where they should be, and French's net widens to include some surprises. I enjoyed this, its unhurried but never boring pace, and the sense of focused determination to find the truth.

First published in 1927, this is an intricate and well written mystery. Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard is sent, incognito, to look into the destruction by fire of a remote house in Yorkshire which resulted in the death of the owner and two servants. The case had been closed as a tragic accident until a twenty pound note which was thought to have been destroyed in the fire turns up at a bank.It is a refreshing change to read about a detective who does not have huge personal problems which he is battling at the same time as trying to unravel a complex case. French is an interesting and likeable character. He plods along studying the smallest details to try and work out what has happened. He asks apparently innocuous questions of the most unlikely people and gradually manages to work out the solution to the mystery.This complex mystery will keep most readers guessing until almost the large page though the clues are there if you look back when you have finished. The book is an excellent example of the Golden Age of British crime fiction and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.