This 2017 HarperCollins reprint — under the title Inspector French and Sir John Magill’s Last Journey — is 309 pages long and took me, almost to the hour, two full weeks to read. Ordinarily this would be the sign of a very bad book indeed, but, with the end of term and then Christmas to negotiate, had it been any less good — honestly, now — I probably wouldn’t have finished it. The fractured, disrupted natured of such a reading experience requires the mind to keep plot details fresh while also contending with the busiest time of a busy year, and the clarity amidst complexity of Crofts’ plotting here is joy unconfined to my puzzle-fixated mind. And with the Nativity headed back into its box, here’s why.
Irish cotton magnate Sir John Magill heads back to his native Belfast from his London retirement for the first time in seven years and, having given his son notice of his intent to stay with him upon arrival, stages a vespertine vanishing on Irish soil. Thinking the roots of this may lie in England rather than Ireland — it has been seven years, after all — the Royal Ulster Constabulary invoke the dark arts of Scotland Yard and Inspector Joseph French is put on the case. French, a man for whom ‘recumbent’ simply has no application, gets swiftly to work and we’re left in no doubt that things will get tricky:
[T]here came a time when French might well have said, as Queen Mary is supposed to have said of that of Calais, that when he died [the name Sir John Magill] would be found graven on his heart.
The Sea Mystery garnered five stars while your other three Crofts received four. Not a bad track record. Is it fair to assume that you’d recommend starting with The Sea Mystery? Well, I should probably let you get a few more under your belt before posing a question like that, but I’m still curious what your thoughts are so far.
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I think, for the uninitiated, Antidote to Venom is probably a better place to start of these four. It has a good balance of the traditional and inverted mysteries and gives a good sense of what Crofts was trying to address in the stories he tells. This is just from these four, however; the choice from his career overall will doubtless change as I get a better perspective on his works. I currently own another 11 of his books, so ask again in a year’s time!
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It’s a teacher’s problem, mate! I had the same issue reading The Problem of the Wire Cage. Really, final exams happen at a most inopportune time!
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You had me at “The plot here is a two-sided jigsaw, which once completed and inverted to find the second picture on the reverse, is then reversed again to find somehow yet another, third picture in place of the first.”
Sounds great JJ and love the look of the reprint too 🙂
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PS Ah darn it, thought this was a paper edition … didn’t realise these reprints were Kindle only. Bah humbug!
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Actually, some of them are on paper – OK, that’s more like it, crimbo restored! However, this one seems not to be on paper, yet?
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Oh, yeah — that’s weird, the paperback edition seems to be unavilable in the usual places. Hmmm. Maybe it’s sold out and is undergoing a re-reprint? Most unusual…and makes me think I should snap up the others I dont yet have before they, too, disappear…
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I’m starting to think the same!
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I am much confuse. Panic-buying shall commence in 3, 2, 1…
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All a clever strategy on my part, of course
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They’re not — I read this in paperback!
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Well, ahem, that’s a bit of a mystery then … 🙂 Either, i will get my hands on one (or three)
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Thanks for the review. 🙂 I confess my most recent and second foray into Crofts was not as positive as the previous one. It was ‘Loss of Jane Vosper’, and it wasn’t as interesting as ‘Hog’s Back Mystery’. Perhaps I should dip into ‘Mystery on the Channel’ or ‘Sea Mystery’ sooner rather than later.
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Jane Voisper is one that I’m typically led to understand isn’t all that good, but then someone commented (possibly on here, possibly somewhere else) that they ranked it among their favourites of Crofts’ works — so you never can tell. Whatever you decide, good luck; there will be plenty of FWC here over the cpoming years, so we’ll keep in touch regarding the man and his works, have no fear.
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I think Curt Evans listed it in his top ten favourite works by Crofts. I’ll probably keep ‘Sea Mystery’ as my last foray into Crofts. 😀
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I thought The Loss of the Jane Vosper was much much better than the slightly disappointing The Hog’s Back Mystery.
I have no idea why people find Crofts’ prose dull. I suspect it’s because they’ve been told that he’s dull. He has a sly sense of humour.
I also have no idea why he gets a hard time for his supposed deficiencies when it comes to characterisation. For me French is one of the most fascinating of golden age detectives.
Actually I do know why he gets castigated for his characterisation. Joseph French is a nice guy. He’s decent and he’s amiable and he’s a good team player. He’s happily married. Crime fiction fans have been heavily indoctrinated into thinking that only flawed tortured detectives have real depth. By the standards of GAD fiction French does have depth. He just happens to be a nice guy.
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I’m glad someone else sees French with my eyes — he’s a very understated man, I agree, but easily one of the most interesting detectives to feature in this era. And Crofts’ humour is marvellous — this dullard reputation really doesn’t stand up once you start to, y’know, actually read what he wrote. So I’m glad it’s not just me who sees this.
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I am enjoying your enjoyment of this series and looking forward to seeing which other Crofts titles you will read next. I am excited at the prospect of more reviews!
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I, too, look foward to discovering wat I read next from Crofts — I don’t klnow whether to follow my own advice and start doing them chronologically (SJMLJ was the next I had after TSM, but following Christmas that is no longer the case…plus I have some even earlier ones now) or whether to take them in order of intrigue (the inverted mystery The 12:30 from Croydon, for instance, sounds wonderful). Gah, decisions!
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“This is only the fourth book of his I’ve read, but my love affair with Crofts gets deeper with every chapter.”
No, no, Crofts is the solid but dull fiance who you have to throw over at the end for the crazy wild spirit – who takes you on a roadtrip with lots of whacky police involvement, comfort-zone-boundary-exploding and possibly leopards.
It’s fine though, he’ll settle down with John Bude and raise model trains.
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At my time in life, solid-but-dull has a lot going for it. And I’ll thank you not to speak of my fiance in those terms.
Those leopards do have me curious, though…
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I may have overdosed on ‘Bringing up Baby’ at a formative age.
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That’ll do it.
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