REVIEWED BY GLORIA MAXWELL:

   

C. B. H. KITCHIN – Death of His Uncle. Malcolm Warren #3. Constable, UK, hardcover, 1939. Perennial Library, paperback, 1st US printing, 1984.

   Malcolm Warren is a London stockbroker. He has had nominal success as an amateur sleuth in two cases involving relatives. Warren is contacted by an acquaintance, Dick Findlay, he knew at Oxford, who he does not consider a close friend. Dick casually asks Warren to help him discover the whereabouts of his uncle, who has not returned from a mysterious holiday.

   Warren intends only to help Dick learn whether his uncle is still on holiday or met with an unfortunate accident (turning the case over to the police if the latter happened). Try as he might, Warren is unable to dismiss the observations and indicators that seem to point toward foul play. Even after evidence points to a bathing accident, Warren is unable to stop making deductions and pursuing interviews with possible suspects.

   The illogicality of a missing mackintosh, a pair of patent leather dress shoes and no dress suit, and a missing pad of paper provide Warren with the salient clues for a murder solution, Tremendous for those who like mysteries with an old-fashioned flavor!

– Reprinted from The Poison Pen, Volume 6, Number 3 (Fall 1985).

   

Editorial Comment: Be sure to also read Gloria’s preceding review, Death of My Aunt, also by C. H. B. Kitchin, and the first of the Malcolm Warren stories.