JOHN FERGUSON – Death of Mr. Dodsley. Collins, UK, hardcover, 1937. White Circle Books, UK, paperback, 1939. No US edition.

   When I bought this novel, I was not aware that this was the John Ferguson who had written Death Comes to Perigord, which I found both dark and tedious. Belatedly making this discovery, I began the book with some reluctance, which I need not have since it turned out most enjoyable.

   What does M. G. Grafton’s fictional mystery novel “Death at the Desk,” have to do with the murder of Richard Dodsley, proprietor of a new- and rare-book store? Other, that is, than that Grafton is in love with Dodsley’s nephew, that the novel contains the sentence, “The prophet who was slain by a lion had a nobler end than Bishop Hatto who was eaten by rats,” and that certain aspects of the novel’s plot have been repeated in the book-store murder?

   And what is one to make of the apparently drunken young man who shortly before the murder saw a cat open and close the book shop’s door?

   Fortunately for the police, private detective MacNab had earlier unsatisfactorily investigated rare-book thefts from the shop and interests himself in the case, one that is somewhat less complicated than the police make it out to be.

       The Francis MacNab series —

A. Father, a policeman:

   The Dark Geraldine. Lane, 1921.

B. Son, a private detective:

   The Man in the Dark. Lane, 1928.
   Murder on the Marsh. Lane, 1930.
   Death Comes to Perigord. Collins, 1931.
   The Grouse Moor Mystery. Collins, 1934.
   Death of Mr. Dodsley. Collins, 1937.