4.0 out of 5 stars
Clue from a Dead Man – 4.5 stars
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 19 August 2017
With his usual dextrous use of language, Freeman begins this story with a young, newly-qualified Doctor Jardine discovering the body of a man in a deserted lane very late on a cold, wet night. After ascertaining that the man was dead, Jardine hurries back to notify the police. Coming upon a constable not far away, he tells his story and shortly, accompanied by the constable, a sergeant and an inspector, Jardine leads them to the place, only to discover the body has gone. The police are inclined to the view that Jardine was mistaken and don’t appear to be very interested in pursuing the matter. Jardine goes back and has a good look around the area and finds an unusual little ornament that he picks up and takes back to his lodgings.
The following day at the hospital he runs into Dr Thorndyke who suggests that Jardine act as locum for a Doctor Batson, a General Practioner, who is going on holiday for a week. Jardine is reluctant but agrees, and goes with Batson to certify the death of a patient who died early that morning. The landlady of the dead man, Mrs Samway is an unusual looking young woman of about thirty and doesn’t seem at all pleased by Jardine’s examination of the dead man, who supposedly died from some kind of heart disease. Before his week is out, Jardine is bored and pining for a return to the hospital wards, when he is called out to an industrial accident. It proves to be a hoax and Jardine has a very close encounter with death. Luckily for him, Doctor Batson’s maid, Maggie, had taken him to the site and knew where he was and he is rescued by Maggie and Thorndyke. Of course, Thorndyke wants to know everything and is soon in possession of everything Jardine has seen and done since he found the mysteriously vanishing body, and then, quite naturally, Thorndyke begins to investigate.
What follows is really quite a fun read, verging sometimes on the ridiculous, as there are various attempts on Jardine’s life and he often seems to be impervious to his danger. He is a rather large young man and has the endearing quality of believing that women should be looked after and protected, and the rather less endearing quality of being singularly casual about his own safety, even to the point of seeming dim-witted on occasion. There are two women in his life, a young, pretty amateur artist, Miss Sylvia Vyne, and the strangely beautiful Mrs Samway. There are three murders and Thorndyke’s exposition at the end is an incredible one, showing how he built up his case using seemingly totally unrelated incidents and pieces of information, as well as finding odd objects in unusual places, and his practice of writing everything down so that as more becomes known, the pieces slot in to make a whole. There is some beautifully descriptive prose in this story, a good plot, some memorable characters, all combining to make a great mystery. There are quite a few coincidences, but not to the extent of ruining a jolly good mystery. This is the fourth Thorndyke book as I am reading them randomly and not in sequence. Recommend to those who like great mysteries from the golden age of crime writers, and this is a very good one.
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