The Norwich Victims is a clever crime novel by Francis Beeding - a pseudonym for English authors John Palmer and Hilary St George Saunders, who met at Oxford and together wrote over 30 novels, including the popular Death Walks in Eastrepps. Each also wrote prolifically under other names through the 1930's.
Spinster schoolmarm Miss Haslett has won the French lottery, and takes a weekend to collect her prize. Amongst the people who know it are the school headmaster, his niece the lovely teacher Elizabeth and Mr. Throgmorton, a stockbroker who instructs her on investments. Within a day, she turns up dead in a sack in the train yard, without possessions. The interesting plot is told as it happens, and we are there when she consults the broker, takes the trip, and is murdered. We know who did it and why, and follow Inspector Martin Green (beau to young Elizabeth) as he interviews various witnesses (aware or unaware of what they have seen) to find an airtight case - Haslett was murdered for her money upon return to England... or was she?
This police procedural appears to be an open book - we see every move and hear the conversations as the story unfolds - but - there is an ingenious twist at the end you will not see coming! A few more murders and a few dead leads keep us entertained until then, not to mention a teacher heavily in debt to the broker and an antique Borgia cameo for sale to keep you distracted. If you are a fan of old mysteries, you'll find this an intriguing puzzle. We know who-done-it right from the start, but even though it is obvious - and you were there when he did it - you would be wrong!
Inspector Martin Green appears again in Francis Beeding's No Fury and He Could Not Have Slipped. The partners also had a consecutive titled series including One Sane Man, Two Undertakers, Three Fishers, Four Armourers, Five Flamboys, Six Proud Walkers, Seven Sleepers, Eight Crooked Trenches, Nine Waxed Faces, Ten Holy Horrors, Eleven Were Brave, Twelve Disguises, and There Are Thirteen. Predating Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries and James Patterson's number series, it's interesting to see this gimmick used as early as the 1920's.
1935 / Tradeback / 254 pages
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