his is a story for those of you that love the hunt. Inspector French ia awoken in the middle of the night to investigate the murder of Mr. Gething the head clerk of Duke & Peabody’s Diamond Merchant. Mr. Gething was found with a gash on his head next to the open and empty diamond safe. After dusting the the room for prints he embarks on getting to know all of Mr. Gething’s aqaintences and friends. Mr. Gething a devoted husband to his invalid wife and two lovely daughters is barely making ends meet, but his household agrees that nothing would induce him to steal the diamonds to enrich his circumstances. Upon further questioning it is revealed to Inspector French that the younger daughter is engaged to the junior partner of the diamond firm and Inspector French begins to wonder if they hatched a plan to secure themselves a nest egg.
While he tries to investigate the diamond buyer for the firm of Duke & Peabody he must travel from London to Amsterdam, to the Swiss Alps Barcelona, until they finally meet in Le Havre where the diamond buy spins a long tale that Inspector French suspects is a wild goose chase to frame him.
After doggedly investigating the murder over several weeks, the ruined Mr. Duke commits suicide on an ocean liner. With Mr. Duke’s family in shambles, Inspector French pressures the young couple to tell the truth, which they finally do to clear their names. In the story, they mention seeing a young woman near the Diamond firm on the night of the murder. Inspector French attempts to track her down and discovers she is a gifted stage actress that mysteriously gave up her stellar career to marry. As Inspector French attempts to apprehend the West End actress, she flees to Portugal with her husband and the diamonds. Inspector French must travel the continent to catch them before they escape and start new lives without consequence.
The Review
The plot mixes a puzzle mystery with a police procedural to create a complex and satisfying mystery. Inspector French must travel to Europe and South America, study railway timetables and shipping manifests, crack a cipher and find a woman who disappeared 10 years before the diamond theft to catch two killers. A long, fascinating read that reminds readers that catching a killer is hard work with lots of leads that end nowhere. I only figured out the identity of the second murderer a few pages before Inspector French. It was so unexpected that I couldn’t quite believe the plan’s ingeniousness. I highly recommend this intricately plotted book.
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