There's no question about it: the murder of a seemingly inoffensive little man named Alf Brown was going to be a headache for Bobby Owen. I beg your pardon: Deputy Chief Constable, Acting Chief Constable, Wychshire County Police Robert Owen. A title which, according to author E.R. Punshon, made him "too dignified now to be referred to as Bobby, except when he wasn't there or by a wife little impressed by high-sounding titles bestowed on one who to her still seemed most of the time a rather troublesome charge and responsibility".
Which leads us to the quandary facing Bobby Owen – there are a lot of suspects in the murder of Brown, but each time a new fact is uncovered by the investigators, it seems that the new information merely broadens the scope of the puzzle. As Bobby says, it’s a case that might lead anywhere. And It Might Lead Anywhere is a very apt title for the 1946 book which is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
The British publisher Dean Street Press recently sent invitations to its readers to download (for free) several of E. R. Punshon’s Bobby Owens mysteries. I enjoy Punshon's mysteries - I've reviewed several of his books already - but some of the ones sent out by the publisher were new to me. Among the ones I hadn’t read yet, It Might Lead Anywhere was the first on my list.
It was only after Bobby Owen began working on the case that he began to discover some very interesting facts about Alf Brown. The trouble was, none of the facts seemed to fit properly with each other. They seemed to take the investigation into different directions. And even when Bobby had become certain that he knew who committed the murder – and could answer that all-important question of “why” – it certainly looked as if it was going to be very difficult to get enough proof to convince a British jury.
For the reader, it all adds up to an enjoyable search for that information, complete with some thriller overtones. The complex plot and quiet humor make E.R. Punshon's It Might Lead Anywhere a pleasant and often pointed read. Mystery historian Curtis Evans has contributed an excellent introduction to this edition with more information about Punshon and about his books.
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