JOHN CREASEY – The Scene of the Crime. Inspector Roger West. Berkley F1245, paperback; 1st printing thus, June 1966. Published earlier by Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1961, and by Charles Scribner’s Sons, US, hardcover, 1961.

   It is not particularly pleasant to watch a man plan and carry out two murders that, with his logic, seem almost straightforward and natural. A warped mind is revealed with all of its rationalities, and more chilling because of that. What can you say about a man who loves his family so much that he will kill them so they will never learn the truth about him?

   Inspector West’s family becomes involved when they go house-hunting, only to find the one the murderer’s wife has her heart set on it.  And his sons do a bit of Hardy boys adventuring, though much more dangerous, as part of first love, with the murderer’s daughters.

   A case is built against the wrong man, doubt sets in, and that case so carefully constructed must somehow be torn down, Since knowledge of the real murderer is the reader’s from the beginning, a sense of urgency floods over everything.

   Human interest deduction, with the emphasis on “human.”

Rating: *****