Murdock's Acid Test by George Harmon Coxe

Kent Murdoch and his wife were visiting the island of Barotique while he was taking time off from his job as a newpaper photographer.They were guests of Sir Stanley Bannister, a retired Colonial Service official who had purchased the island after his retirement. They had been invited by Margaret Grant who was Sir Stanley's daughter. The island had a large house for Sir Stanley and his wife, and six smaller cottages for visitors.

Kent and his wife were soon to find that their fellow guests were some really annoying people. There was Carl Anderson and wife flo. Carl was hiding out after carrying out a kidnapping five years before. With them was Joe Endicott, who was wanted for shooting a policeman. Essentially he was acting as Anderson's body guard, and was pretending to be Flo's brother. There were good looking Nigel Porter and his wife Lucy. It was believed that Nigel abused Lucy. Bruce Porter, Nigel's brother, was also there. Hubert Coleman and his wife Nina were in one of the cottages. He was jealous about Nina, and she was afraid on him. Kay Joslin, the niece of Bruce, was there and was in love with Ralph Coleman, the son of Hubert. There were also the Macphersons, a father and daughter, who were East Indians. Sir Stanley didn't like then because he felt that they had rented their cottage under false pretenses. Only whites should have the name Macpherson.

Murdock's visit started off with a bang when Nigel Porter was shot dead in his cottage. When Murdock arrived there he saw Lucy kneeling over the body with a gun in her hand. Sir Stanley Bannister asked Murdock to take over the investigation of the case which he declined pleading a lack of experience. Eventually Murdock accepted, and carefully interview all those on the island. Another death occurred, and Murdock continued his investigations until the solution of the case was found.

This book was published in 1936 and was the second mystery to feature Kent Murdoch. This is not really my favorite kind of mystery novel, and I may be too critical because of this. Murdoch interviews everybody so much that I found the story got rather tedious. The men are tough guys or are weak and wimpy. The women in the story really do not do much and are judged on how attractive they are. They are taken away from the crime scene because it may too much for their womanly eyes. In other words, I do not recommend this book