At The Villa Rose is a little curio that fell into my hands. My copy is a tight 1941 edition but it was written in 1910 by A. E. W. Mason, filmed three times (a 1910 silent version, in 1930, and 1940), and features Inspector Hanaud on the case.
We begin with a Mr. Ricardo visiting the casino houses of Aix-les-Bains, France. In the season it is the very place for him - an elderly man of small importance - to take the waters and relax. Instead, he becomes embroiled in an exciting case of murder, mystery, kidnapping, romance, blackmail - and we are along for the ride.
One night he notices beautiful young Mlle Celia rushing into the gardens, distressed at her baccarat losses. To the rescue: her new beau wealthy Henry Wethermill. Celia is the young companion to Mme Dauvray, a stout older woman taken to wearing too much makeup and too many of her priceless jewels.
By chance Henry and Mr. Ricardo share a walk from the casino to their hotel that night, and learn Mme. Dauvray has been killed! Her rooms ransacked and the maid bound to a chair, there is no sign of Mlle. Celia and the empty safe lay open. And it is only page 19.
Enter Inspector Hanaud of the Surete, the cleverest of French detectives, who agrees to take the case. It is soon learnt that Celia grew up as a fake spiritualist and has been conducting phony seances with Mme. Dauvray, to the distress of her maid. Celia was spotted in town buying the same rope that strangled Mme. Dauvray and bound the maid. It is her shoe print found fleeing the scene - but is she the culprit? Inspector Hanaud is very similar to Agatha Christie's Inspector Poirot, razor sharp with a few endearing quirks, he will not only solve the case, but almost stay one step ahead.
"Oh, but this is interesting - yes, I tell you - I, who have seen many strange things - this is interesting."
Inspector Hanaud, Mr. Ricardo, Wetherhill and the team of French Police will uncover the case to either prove Mlle. Celia a mastermind or a victim, there is no doubt.
This sped along at a brisk pace - step by step deduction and investigation, dropping clues and sorting them in short order without diversion. Typical of mysteries of this time, there is a break halfway where the clues are clearly laid out. I was surprised the finale was arriving too soon at page 200, then found the story continuing in a recap for the remaining 100 pages, as the story is told from a different point off view to fill in the all the gaps.
Thoroughly entertaining in a breezy way. Intelligent with enough clues to keep you guessing and feel you have a handle on it. Very entertaining.
1910 / Hardcover / 317 pages
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