Once again, the remarkable small British publishing house known as the Dean Street Press has discovered another Golden Age author to rescue from undeserved obscurity. Dean Street Press is punching far above its weight, as they say, when it comes to rediscovering some of the fine writing talent that made the Golden Age of Detective Fiction what it was. This time, the publishers have rediscovered an author named Robin Forsythe, who wrote just eight mysteries. Five of them featured an amateur sleuth named Algernon Vereker, and the first of those, Missing or Murdered, was published originally in 1929. Missing or Murdered is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here. I should note that Dean Street Press provided me with an e-book copy for review.
The book begins with the strange and sudden disappearance of a minor official, the head of an obscure ministry in the British government. Lord Bygrave had gone off for a brief holiday. He checked into an inn, went out for an early morning walk - and simply vanished, without a word to anyone. Lord Bygrave's staff was concerned. So was Scotland Yard, in the person of Detective Inspector Heather. And so was Lord Bygrave's executor, Algernon Vereker, who rather fancied his own abilities as an amateur sleuth. The first question to be settled, quite obviously, was the one posed in the book's title - was Lord Bygrave indeed missing or had he been murdered? If dead, where is the body? If alive, why has he disappeared and not come forward? Who might benefit from the death or disappearance of a man who appeared to have no enemies? The deeper they dig, the more secrets are unearthed – including some secrets about Lord Bygrave which come as a surprise even to Vereker, a good friend of the missing man as well as his executor.
Robin Forsythe had quite an interesting background: before becoming an author, he was imprisoned for fifteen months as the central figure in a British scandal involving stamp trafficking and fraud. That may explain why the book takes a rather dim view of government, and Forsythe has some very pointed barbs aimed at the bureaucrats who inhabit many government offices. This Dean Street Press edition - the first republication for the book in some seventy years - includes an introduction by mystery historian Curtis Evans, who provides more background about the author, including details of that crime which landed Forsythe in prison. I do recommend Missing or Murdered for your reading pleasure.
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