Scan barcode
A review by fictionfan
The 12:30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts
5.0
Through the eyes of a killer...
It's 10-year-old Rose Morley's first trip on an aeroplane so she's excited, despite the fact that the reason for the trip is to go to Paris where her mother has had an accident and is in hospital. With her are her father, Peter, and her elderly and rather ill grandfather, Andrew Crowther, whose manservant and general carer Weatherup is with him too. Before they take off, they get a telegram to say Rose's mother will be fine after all, so they can enjoy the journey with no fear. But when they arrive in Paris, it turns out that grandfather Andrew is not sleeping as they had all thought – he's dead. And it's soon discovered that he's been murdered.
This is an interesting take on the crime novel, and innovative for its time. We may have seen crimes from the perspective of the murderer fairly often now, but apparently this was one of the first when it was published in 1934. Following the rather brilliantly described flight to Paris, at a time when planes were still held together by little more than chewing-gum and prayer, the book flashes back a few weeks in time and we meet Charles Swinburn, nephew of the murdered man. It's from Charles' perspective that the story unfolds from there on.
Charles had inherited his uncle's successful manufacturing business but the depression of the 1930s has brought him near bankruptcy. Unfortunately, he's also fallen hopelessly in love with the beautiful but mercenary Una, who makes no secret of the fact that she will only marry a rich man. So when his attempts to raise a loan meet with failure, Charles begins to imagine how convenient it would be if his rich uncle would die so that Charles can get his hands on the inheritance he's been promised. The reader then follows along as Charles decides to turn this dream into reality.
I found the first section of the book fairly slow. Crofts describes Charles' business difficulties in great and convincing detail, with much talk of profit margins and wage bills and so on. It's actually quite fascinating, giving a very real picture of a struggling business in a harsh economic climate, but after a bit it began to feel a little like I was reading financial reports.
However, once Charles decides to do the deed, I became totally hooked. It carries that same level of detail over into the planning of the crime, and I should warn you all that I now know lots of incredibly useful stuff should I ever decide someone needs to be murdered – just sayin'. In the planning stage, it's almost an intellectual exercise for Charles and he goes about it quite coldly. But in the aftermath of the crime, we see the effect it has on him – not guilt, exactly, but a kind of creeping horror at the thought of what he's done. And when Inspector French arrives on the scene to investigate, we see Charles swaying between confidence that he's pulled off the perfect crime, and terror that he may have missed some detail that will give him away. I won't give any more away, but there are a couple of complications along the way that ratchet up the tension and the horror.
There's a final short section, an afterword almost, when we see the investigation from Inspector French's perspective. To be honest, this bit felt redundant to me – I felt it would have been more effective had it finished before that part. I suspect it may only have been added because French was Crofts' recurring detective, and perhaps Crofts felt existing fans would have felt short-changed if his part in the story didn't get told.
So, a slow start and an unnecessary section at the end, but the bulk of the book – the planning, the crime itself, and the investigation as seen through Charles' eyes – is excellent. I like Crofts' writing style – it's quite plain and straightforward, but the quality of the plotting still enables him to make this a tense read. The question obviously is not who did the crime, but will he be caught. And, like Charles, I found myself desperately trying to see if he'd left any loopholes. In fact, it was a bit worrying how well Crofts managed to put me inside Charles' head – I wouldn't say I was on his side, exactly, but I was undoubtedly more ambivalent than I should have been. The format leads to some duplication as we see the same events from different angles and perspectives, but this was a small weakness in what I otherwise thought was a very well crafted and original novel. Highly recommended – another winner from the British Library Crime Classics series. Keep 'em coming! 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
It's 10-year-old Rose Morley's first trip on an aeroplane so she's excited, despite the fact that the reason for the trip is to go to Paris where her mother has had an accident and is in hospital. With her are her father, Peter, and her elderly and rather ill grandfather, Andrew Crowther, whose manservant and general carer Weatherup is with him too. Before they take off, they get a telegram to say Rose's mother will be fine after all, so they can enjoy the journey with no fear. But when they arrive in Paris, it turns out that grandfather Andrew is not sleeping as they had all thought – he's dead. And it's soon discovered that he's been murdered.
This is an interesting take on the crime novel, and innovative for its time. We may have seen crimes from the perspective of the murderer fairly often now, but apparently this was one of the first when it was published in 1934. Following the rather brilliantly described flight to Paris, at a time when planes were still held together by little more than chewing-gum and prayer, the book flashes back a few weeks in time and we meet Charles Swinburn, nephew of the murdered man. It's from Charles' perspective that the story unfolds from there on.
Charles had inherited his uncle's successful manufacturing business but the depression of the 1930s has brought him near bankruptcy. Unfortunately, he's also fallen hopelessly in love with the beautiful but mercenary Una, who makes no secret of the fact that she will only marry a rich man. So when his attempts to raise a loan meet with failure, Charles begins to imagine how convenient it would be if his rich uncle would die so that Charles can get his hands on the inheritance he's been promised. The reader then follows along as Charles decides to turn this dream into reality.
I found the first section of the book fairly slow. Crofts describes Charles' business difficulties in great and convincing detail, with much talk of profit margins and wage bills and so on. It's actually quite fascinating, giving a very real picture of a struggling business in a harsh economic climate, but after a bit it began to feel a little like I was reading financial reports.
However, once Charles decides to do the deed, I became totally hooked. It carries that same level of detail over into the planning of the crime, and I should warn you all that I now know lots of incredibly useful stuff should I ever decide someone needs to be murdered – just sayin'. In the planning stage, it's almost an intellectual exercise for Charles and he goes about it quite coldly. But in the aftermath of the crime, we see the effect it has on him – not guilt, exactly, but a kind of creeping horror at the thought of what he's done. And when Inspector French arrives on the scene to investigate, we see Charles swaying between confidence that he's pulled off the perfect crime, and terror that he may have missed some detail that will give him away. I won't give any more away, but there are a couple of complications along the way that ratchet up the tension and the horror.
There's a final short section, an afterword almost, when we see the investigation from Inspector French's perspective. To be honest, this bit felt redundant to me – I felt it would have been more effective had it finished before that part. I suspect it may only have been added because French was Crofts' recurring detective, and perhaps Crofts felt existing fans would have felt short-changed if his part in the story didn't get told.
So, a slow start and an unnecessary section at the end, but the bulk of the book – the planning, the crime itself, and the investigation as seen through Charles' eyes – is excellent. I like Crofts' writing style – it's quite plain and straightforward, but the quality of the plotting still enables him to make this a tense read. The question obviously is not who did the crime, but will he be caught. And, like Charles, I found myself desperately trying to see if he'd left any loopholes. In fact, it was a bit worrying how well Crofts managed to put me inside Charles' head – I wouldn't say I was on his side, exactly, but I was undoubtedly more ambivalent than I should have been. The format leads to some duplication as we see the same events from different angles and perspectives, but this was a small weakness in what I otherwise thought was a very well crafted and original novel. Highly recommended – another winner from the British Library Crime Classics series. Keep 'em coming! 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com