The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts (1933)

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts (1933)

July 11, 2023

5–7 minutes

1933, BookReview, British Library Crime Classics, Freeman Wills Crofts, Golden Age Mystery, Inspector French, Police Procedural, The Hog’s Back Mystery

When Dr. James Earle mysteriously vanishes from his home one evening wearing only his soft house shoes, Inspector French is called upon to decipher if Dr. Earle was a victim of foul play or disappeared of his own accord. There’s lots of circumstantial evidence to support that Dr. Earle abandoned his wife, Julia Earle, who is having an affair with their neighbor Reggie Slade, and taken up in some unknown location with his own paramour, a nurse he met a few times while attending a sick elderly patient. This theory is supported on the testimony of Ursula Stone who saw Dr. Earle and and the nurse together in London. However, if Dr. Earle did leave of his own accord to take up with another woman, his wife, Julia insists that he would have at least left her a note of explanation. He was that kind of man. Inspector French is also puzzled by the fact that Dr. Earle seemingly left without taking any money or emptying his bank accounts- which suggests that he had not left to start a new life somewhere else.

After much painstaking investigation into the voluntary disappearance of Dr. Earle and finding no concrete proof that he or the nurse he supposedly run off with were together, or even that the nurse was alive and well somewhere, Inspector French concludes that Dr. Earle was a victim of foul play. With mounting evidence that the nurse seen talking to Dr. Earle had been murdered, and no leads on the whereabouts of Dr. Earle, Inspector French begins attempting to work out how they were lured to their respective deaths and where their bodies are being concealed.

Inspector French, fastidious in checking alibis concentrates on the Earle household, Julia Slade, and her sister Marjorie Lawes who is visiting for part of the summer, and their school friend, Ursula Stone, but can find no cracks in their stories. He then moves on to the Earle’s neighbor, Reggie Slade, but besides being an idler, who is too fond of horses and Mrs. Earle, he can prove no involvement in Dr. Earle’s disappearance, Finally Inspector French concentrates of Dr. Earle’s replacement, Dr. Campion, but their appears to be no ill will between them and Dr. Campion would occassionally consult Dr. Earle with particularly difficlut cases. Dr. Campion and his wife, good friends with the Earle’s also have solid alibis for the time of the disappearance.

Inspector French is bewildered by the case of Dr. Earle and makes little headway, until Ursula Stone also disappears from the house. This time, a few drops of blood in Dr. Earle’s study, and some matted grass where the imprint of he lifeless body laid before being spirited away, are the clues that start to unravel the most complicated case Inspector French has ever solved.

The Review

Solving The Hog’s Back Mystery reminded me of trying to solve a large rubik’s cube, every time you think you have the correct configuration there’s a piece that doesn’t match up so you are forced to go back to the begining and reassemble to facts again. This is usual fare for Freeman Wills Crofts and the first part of The Hog’s Back Mystery is dogged reconfiguration after reconfiguration, based on newly acquired information about Dr. Earle and the alibis of the people in the Earle household.

However, despite a rather compelling opening gambit featuring, Reggie Slade mistakenly trying to kiss Ursula Stone because he thinks she is Julia Earle, and some revealing dialogue between the three school fiends, which is admittedly very good, any further character work is sublimated, and instead replaced with trying to find out what happened to Dr. Earle. I don’t think I could tell you too many distinguishing characteristics about Dr. Campion besides that he’s a doctor and build doll house fruniture in his spare time, and even less about his wife. Infact, Marjorie Lawes and Julia Earle receed from the story and are only interviewed or mentioned in attempts to establish a correct timeline or alibi. This is a common feature of Crofts storytelling and while I was not surprised that it’s rigourously hued to The Hog’s Back Mystery, it does lead creedence to the comlaint that his writing is dead dull sometimes.

I was feeling a little bored and frustrated with French’s seeminly endless toiling to dead ends when Ursula Stone’s disappearance finally provides headway. There have been lots of clues so far, but I like Inspector French overlooked them. With the newest disappearance I began creating various theories all of which were nowhere near the right track. The answer like so many of French’s cases is buried in the details corncering the timeline of events and this one is so devilishly clever. I was so entranced in the story because, I knew the timeline didn’t add up, but I couldn’t make it make sense- I tried working it out on a notepad, but had no luck, but I did love trying to figure it out.

The solution to The Hog’s Back Mystery really showcases how meticulous and ordered both Inspector French and Freeman Wills Crofts iis, Inspector French takes his superintedent through the whole ordeal and the Freeman Wills Crofts handily footnotes the pages all that all of the clues were given to the reader. It’s nothing less than brilliant and I was in awe of the whole thing.

The Hog’s Back Mystery is the best example of Freeman Wills Crofts ability to craft intricately plotted mystery. Inspector French is quintessential in his methodical and dogged pursuit of the criminals. Inspector French is surprisingly introspective and saddened by the fates of Dr. Earle and Ursula Stone and has more of a connection to the victims in the Hog’s Back Mystery than in other Inspector French mysteries that I have read and I really enjoyed the added depth to his character.

I highly recommend The Hog’s Back Mystery to readers who like a difficult puzzle and who are most interested in the trying to work out a solution to a mystery and who are less interested indepth characterization, or a lush writing style. I don’t think The Hog’s Back Mystery will appeal to everyone, but it will appeal to those who are already familiar with Crofts works