A newlywed couple, Reginald and Molly Dane, have just moved into their new house, and after the movers leave, Molly sets about unpacking boxes, and Reginald explores the place; in the corner of the basement, Reginald finds the earthen floor has been disturbed and hopes to find buried treasure. However, he is horrified to discover a woman buried in their basement. Reginald immediately calls the police, and Chief Inspector Moresby is assigned to the case.
Chief Inspector Moresby outlines the difficulties of identifying the woman in an era before DNA, a national database of missing persons, or even a database of known criminals who have committed similar crimes. A dead woman buried in a house that has stood empty for months will be hard to identify.
Preliminary investigations led to a young woman who used to work at Roland House, a young boy’s school, who left abruptly. Her fellow teachers believe that she may have gone abroad to marry her fiancé. However, actual evidence of her departure and even the existence of the fiancé are scanty.
Chief Inspector Moresby visits his friend, amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, who, until recently, had been substitute teaching at the school for a friend, and using Roland House as inspiration for his newest mystery novel. Sheringham then lends the manuscript to Chief Inspector Moresby as evidence. The characters and situations in the manuscript are thinly veiled analogs of the people who work at the school, with many of their secrets, rivalries, and love affairs laid bare.
The insertion of the manuscript is a substantial part of the book and outlines the many motivations for murder, sabotage, and subterfuge at Roland House. Chef Inspector Moresby must disentangle what is just ill will between colleagues and whether the young woman who worked at Roland House is the woman in the basement.
After a long search for the woman’s identity, which hinges on why she was buried naked, with only gloves. Once identified, Chief Inspector Moresby must search for her murderer, he believes that it is the father of her unborn child, but there are many possibilities.
The last mystery, and most baffling of all, is how she ended up buried in the basement of Reginald and Molly Dane’s house. Murder in the Basement is a veritable feast- a three-in-one mystery- that as soon as one mystery is solved, another arises to take its place.
There’s much to like about Murder in the Basement, chiefly the three mysteries in one combo. Chief Inspector Moresby takes a long time to identify the murdered woman and is meticulous in his search. There are suppositions and theories, but the proof is in short supply. Without witnesses, physical evidence, or a positive body identification, so much has to be ferreted out.
The book has genuine melancholy stems from the author recognizing how easy it is for people to go missing and for identities to be lost. Chief Inspector Moresby is saddened by the death of this young woman and her unborn child, but his sadness is compounded by the fact that this is too common. The murder of women, especially by their partners, happens often, and many are not solved. This brutal truth makes Murder in the Basement more timeless than I would like to admit. Unlike many amateur sleuth mysteries of the period, their book is nearly devoid of hijinks or snappy quippy dialogue. Its more serious and somber tone strengthens my Chief Inspector Moresby taking center stage in Murder in the Basement.
I also really enjoyed how Roger Sheringham was deployed in the novel- he is not actively investigating the crime, and his manuscript provides psychological insight. Still, again it’s fiction and not fact. While many of Roger Sheringham’s impressions prove correct, at least in part, Chief Inspector Moresby has to dig deep into the people’s lives at Roland House, which proves difficult with many attempts to conceal something.
The manuscript and its reading/ retelling to Chief Inspector Moresby is a significant portion of the book, and it’s a technique that pushed the envelope of the mystery genre. Roger Sheringham is removed from the investigation for long periods, and the reader gets more insight into the thoughts of the investigator instead of what he is doing. Some readers will not like this twist, and even I found this section a little overlong. Still, one thing I like about Anthony Berkeley’s writing style is that he always tries new framing devices, and his stories are never formulaic because of his inventiveness.
Overall, Murder in the Basement pushes the conventions of the traditional mystery, which I appreciate. It also adds dimension and insight into Roger Sheringham’s process without him being the main investigator for most of the novel. The book’s plodding, meditative nature, and unconventional structure made Murder in the Basement a great read.
Murder in the Basement Reviews
Anthony Berkeley Reviews
British Library Crime Classics Reviews
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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