There's Trouble Brewing by Nicholas Blake: A Review

It was a dreadful shame about the death of Truffles. Someone had thrown the poor dog into the copper brewing kettle at the local brewery, and Truffles was cooked. Truffles was the pet dog of the brewery owner, Eustace Bunnett.

Erudite author and amateur detective Nigel Strangeways had been invited to address the Maiden Astbury Literary Society something that he would normally avoid at all costs. He had, however, been invited by Sophie Cammison who was married to Dr. Herbert Cammison who had been a friend of Nigel's at Oxford. Nigel's talk went well, and at the discussion afterwards, he met Eustace Bunnett . Eustace wished to employ Nigel to find the murderer of Truffles, and Nigel agreed to accept the case.

Nigel took an instant dislike to Bunnett. As his investigation continued, he found many others who did not like Bunnett.  Bunnett had been mean to his employees, and had fired them for incidents which were really Bunnett's fault. He had even been mean to Truffles. The employees at the brewery much preferred Eustace's brother Joseph who was more pleasant and friendlier. Joseph worked at the brewery as a representative to the pubs. Eustace had also refused to update the brewery and to use more modern brewing methods, and the employees believed that Joseph would modernize the brewery. Sophie and Herbert Cammison seemed to be afraid of Bunnett.

Somebody acted to murder Bunnett. Most of Bunnett's body was found in the copper brewing kettle, and  boiling in the kettle had removed most of the identifying marks on the body.  Bunnett was identified by his false teeth.

His brother Joseph, who would inherit the brewery, was away sailing so he was cleared of suspicion.  Miss Mellors, the head of the literary society, and Gabriel Sorn, a budding poet who had been condemmed to writing advertising jingles for the brewery, seem to hold a lot of hostility toward Bunnett. Dr. Herbert Cammison had a strong reason to murder Bunnett, but Nigel could not believe that his friend was guilty.

Nigel Strangeways conducted his investigation in a through manner and eventually discovered the murderers of both Truffles and his master, Eustace Bunnett, in this entertaining and well plotted mystery.

Nicholas Blake was the pen name of English Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis. Blake wrote 20 mystery novels. All but four featured Strangeways as the detective. There's Trouble Brewing was published in 1937, and is currently available as an e-book.