This book shares some similar aspects to an earlier book by Crofts (Sir John Magill's Last Journey) but is sufficiently different to make each worthwhile, provided who enjoy the first of the two that you read. If you don't, I suspect that reading the second will not change you mind.

There are some clever people/scientists, who believe they have discovered an magnificent new product, but need financial support. They reach out to an unusual target, with a young couple associated with the target, playing a role as a go between the 2 groups.

An independent investigator is engaged to review the heavily secreted/guarded product, who is suspected of wanting to steal the invention.

A person disappears from a vessel travelling between Belfast and Liverpool..is it an accident, suicide or murder?

Inspector French once again is on the scene, and he catches up the Ulster constabulary, who he worked with on the earlier Magill mystery.

This one seemed to drag a little more than Magill. And when the text again and again suggests that something 'just cannot have occurred that way', and not in a way that it is just someone lamenting as to why they cannot how something could not have occurred that way, it is a little disappointing to later learn that indeed it did happen that way (and even then not by reason of some clever trick or quirk) just because it did happen that way.

I will read more Croft as they come across my desk.

Big Ship

1 December 2022 ( )

A passenger disappears from the Ulster Sovereign as it crosses the Irish Sea from Belfast to Liverpool. Was it accident, suicide, or murder? The coroner’s inquest rules it a case of suicide, but given that the passenger was an emissary for a firm looking to buy a new industrial process, murder looks like a bigger possibility. Inspector French is called in to help with the case because the Yard is considered to be better at liaising with multiple city police departments. His methodical investigation and adherence to routine will help him solve the case.

I found this book rattled along quite nicely. Sometimes French books can be a bit plodding because of how methodical he is—the previous French I’d read, The Hog’s Back Mystery, fell into that category. But this one had high personal stakes and kept me turning the pages. The setting is great, too, with Northern Ireland playing a significant role. I also liked the use of the ferries, particularly when the characters travelled from Belfast to Stranraer, which is a route I took myself on a trip several years ago (or rather, to Cairnryan, which is where the ferries go now).

This is the 15th book in the French series and does contain some discussion of the John Magill case from the 6th book in the series, Sir John Magill’s Last Journey, so readers who like to read in order may wish to read that one first. ( )

A young engaged couple get involved with some scientists who are supposedly making remarkable discoveries. Another young man (who had displayed some interest in the engaged young woman) vanishes on a sea trip --an earlier, fuller version of this story was published as Man Overboard. This is an abridged edition. Personally I have a prejudice against abridged editions, but I inherited this from my parents. In general, I like Inspector French novels as solid police cases, often involving time table alibis. ( )

This is one of my all-time favorite vintage paperback covers, certainly over-the-top even by the standards of one of its most sensationalist practitioners, Avon Books. The lighting and content – dead man’s [severed?] head, redheaded woman in low-cut red dress, and the bit of blood on cover – are reminiscent of those great Hammer horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, though in this case the book beats them to the punch by at least a decade. Again, lamentably, as was the case with so many Avon covers from the golden era, the cover artist is unattributed.

I must confess that I never heard of Freeman Wills Crofts before I came across this book. My research reveals that he was pretty big in the UK in the between-the-wars group of mystery writers, and apparently Raymond Chandler had a high regard for him. -- BCS