This collection of 10 short stories from the Department of Dead Ends describes criminal cases that have gone cold and are solved when an obscure clue turns up in the Dead End department. Each story has a similar formula: it begins with a description of the crime so you know from the beginning who committed the crime. then, 1-2 chapters before the end, a clue turns up that allows the police to capture the criminal.

The book is highly recommended to any fans of early British crime fiction ( )

The book's gimmick is that the Department of Dead Ends preserves unaccountable pieces of evidence - a child's rubber trumpet in the first story - and through indexing, memory or simple instinct manages to use them to unravel unsolved crimes. The stories have something of the appeal of Columbo - a clever (or more often, lucky) murderer getting away with it until one niggling little piece of evidence brings down their deception.

Most of the crimes are Edwardian, which gives them the feel of one of those `notorious local murders' books. This is a world of clerks, music-hall turns, pharmacist's assistants, and parlour-maids. The people are called Elsie, Ethel, Hilda, George, Constance. They are murdered for their insurance policies or out of sexual frustration by respectable chaps with high collars and little moustaches.

This is a good quality edition (at least I didn't notice many typos or formatting issues), and there is added value in the form of a short biography of Roy Vickers and an appreciation by Ellery Queen, no less.

Full review ( )

The book's gimmick is that the Department of Dead Ends preserves unaccountable pieces of evidence - a child's rubber trumpet in the first story - and through indexing, memory or simple instinct manages to use them to unravel unsolved crimes. The stories have something of the appeal of Columbo - a clever (or more often, lucky) murderer getting away with it until one niggling little piece of evidence brings down their deception.

Most of the crimes are Edwardian, which gives them the feel of one of those `notorious local murders' books. This is a world of clerks, music-hall turns, pharmacist's assistants, and parlour-maids. The people are called Elsie, Ethel, Hilda, George, Constance. They are murdered for their insurance policies or out of sexual frustration by respectable chaps with high collars and little moustaches.

This is a good quality edition (at least I didn't notice many typos or formatting issues), and there is added value in the form of a short biography of Roy Vickers and an appreciation by Ellery Queen, no less.

Full review ( )