Duplicate Death by Georgette Heyer

A most mysterious murder occurred during a bridge party given by Lady Haddington at her house in London.  Of course, it was a very large bridge party - forty people or so were attending. Dan Seaton-Carew was strangled with a length of wire while seated in a room by himself and talking on the telephone. There were those at the bridge party who were very important for the narrative. There was Lady Haddington and her very beautiful, spoiled and selfish daughter Cynthia. It was said that Seaton-Carew was very interested in Cynthia. There was Beulah Birtley, Lady Haddington's secretary, who had some mysterious connection to Seaton-Carew. Beulah did indeed have a secret, and was not in the upper levels of society, but she was in love with Timothy Harte who was in an upper level and who was in love with her.

Also present was highly strung Sydney Butterwick who really seemed to mourn the death of Seaton-Carew, hardly anybody else did. It seems that Sydney was gay, but this term is not used in this book. There was Lady Poulton-Nest who also seemed to have a connection to the dead man. One which her husband, Lord Nest, did not seem to know any thing about. There were also the servants who were present. The butler always seemed a bit suspicious to me.

Chief Inspector Hemingway and his assistant Inspector Grant were called to investigate the case. First they had to figure out how the murder was done since nobody was seen to enter the room where Seaton-Carew was using the phone. Then they, of course, had to question a large number of people in order to find out who the murderer was. Then another murder took place in just the same manner as to duplicate the first. In a way, this narrowed down the list of suspects, and Chief Inspector Hemingway determined the identity of the murderer.
 

This book was published in 1951. I have always enjoyed Georgette Heyer's mystery novels. They are well written and have a good bit of wit. It is a shame that her regency romances were preferred by the reading public. I do wish that she had written more mystery novels.

Inspector French and the Box Office Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts

A young woman named Thurza Darke came to Scotland Yard to tell Inspector French about some very suspicious events in her life. She worked at a box office of a cinema in London and really didn't earn a lot. A new friend had told her about a way she could earn some extra money. It was a small gambling scheme in which Thurza would bet a small amount and her friend told her that she was sure to win. At first Thurza did win and then she started losing money until she was in debt to the gambler. Then she borrowed money to pay off the debt and got deeper and deeper into debt. Then she was told there was a way, that she could earn money to pay off her debts. This last method made her really suspicious, and that was went she decided to talk to someone at Scotland yard.

Inspector French was interested in her story, and decided to investigate. After a few days, he wanted to talk to her again, but found that she hadn't shown up for work and was not at her lodging. Then the body of a young woman was found in the ocean. The local police considered it a suicide, but French looked at the body and found it was Thurza. French believed she had been murdered. He believed that the people she was in debt to had found out that she had gone to Scotland Yard, and decided to kill her before she could tall more.

Inspector French began a very methodical investigation and found other deaths of young women who had worked in cinema box offices. He had a very difficult time figuring out just what kind of crime was being committed. I will admit that he used some unethical methods (no search warrant, breaking and entering) to investigate the crimes, and even enlisted the young son of a police officer in his pursuit of evidence. If you happen to have a map of London, you will be able to follow along.

This is a very detailed investigation of a rather complex criminal activity. Freeman Wills Crofts was a master of the police procedural, and the reader is taken along every step of the investigation. This book was published in 1929. It has an alternate title The Purple Sickle Murders.