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| The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude |
Title: The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: The British Library
Three stars because I figured out who did it early on and didn't find the How-dunnit to be as compelling as I'd hoped.
I did like the characterizations very much and enjoyed getting to know Meredith a bit better. Major Forest along with Mrs. Meredith and Meredith's son, were good additions to the story. The son had interesting perspectives that added to his father's investigation. The strongest disappointment and complaint I had came at the very end with Meredith pretty much shrugging off one of the parties of the murder plot absconding and saying they were simply misguided.
This is the third Superintendent Meredith book I've read and while it's my least favourite, I'm glad I've read it. This, along with The Cheltenham Square Murder and Death on the Riviera are included in the British Library Crime Classics reissues and there are two more Meredith books I still need to read. I recommend this but I'd say read another before this one.
Summary: 'Already it looked as if the police were up against a carefully planned and cleverly executed murder, and, what was more, a murder without a corpse!'
Two brothers, John and William Rother, live together at Chalklands Farm in the beautiful Sussex Downs. Their peaceful rural life is shattered when John Rother disappears and his abandoned car is found. Has he been kidnapped? Or is his disappearance more sinister - connected, perhaps, to his growing rather too friendly with his brother's wife?
Superintendent Meredith is called to investigate - and begins to suspect the worst when human bones are discovered on Chalklands farmland. His patient, careful detective method begins slowly to untangle the clues as suspicion shifts from one character to the next.
This classic detective novel from the 1930s is now republished for the first time, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards.
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