Found Floating

Inspector French #16

by Freeman Wills Crofts

Old William was losing touch and a younger man was needed to take over the family business. Jim was the obvious choice but William had other ideas. When Mant was brought in to run the firm, from the forgotten side of the family in Australia, murder was the result.

Genres: Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Born in Dublin of English stock, Freeman Wills Crofts was educated at Methodist and Campbell Colleges in Belfast and at age 17 he became a civil engineering pupil, apprenticed to his uncle, Berkeley D Wise who was the chief engineer of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR).

In 1899 he became a fully fledged railway engineer before becoming a district engineer and then chief assistant engineer for the BNCR.

He married in 1912, Mary Bellas Canning, a bank manager's daughter. His writing career began when he was recovering from a serious illness and his efforts were rewarded when his first novel 'The Cask' was accepted for publication by a London publishing house. Within two decades the book had sold 100,000 copies. Thereafter he continued to write in his spare time and produced a book a year through to 1929 when he was obliged to stop working through poor health.

When he and his wife moved to Guildford, England, he took up writing full time and not surprisingly many of his plots revolved around travel and transport, particularly transport timetables and many of them had a Guildford setting.

In retirement from engineering, as well as writing, he also pursued his other interests, music, in which he was an organist and conductor, gardening, carpentry and travel.

He wrote a mystery novel almost every year until his death and in addition he produced about 50 short stories, 30 radio plays for the BBC, a number of true crime works, a play, 'Sudden Death', a juvenile mystery, 'Young Robin Brand, Detective', and a religious work, 'The Four Gospels in One Story'.

His best known character is Inspector Joseph French, who featured in 30 detective novels between 1924 and 1957. And Raymond Chandler praised his plots, calling him "the soundest builder of them all".

Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010

Reviews

[Marsali Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was feeling really tired, so decided I'd return to my Freeman Wills Croft shelf. I discovered him when I found a three-book compendium in a second-hand shop. I launched into 'The Cask' and was instantly hooked, as much for the period detail (horse-drawn drays delivering in London!) as for the mystery. After that, a FWC became part of my Christmas stocking, until I'd got most of them. I read three or four in the last week, and have forgotten the names already ... but this was the last. It was narrated over the shoulder of Katherine, which I enjoyed, although the love bits were slightly cringey, until Inspector French got involved. The mystery was good - a seemingly impossible poisoning, followed by a disappearance during a cruise.

I didn't feel the 'purple prose' cruise place description was particularly well done - where FWC excels is in describing processes, particularly to do with mechanics - the working of the cruise liner was much more vivid. In 'The Loss of the Jane Vosper' you'd be seriously annoyed if your husband insisted on turning out the lights as you were reading the opening, the ship going down. (Maybe other people's husbands can sleep while you're still reading. It's the sort of thing that should be on a pre-marriage questionnaire...)

Another of his strengths is in the depiction of a painstaking investigation, step by step.

However the big plus for me, in this one, was that I understood how this murder was done! Some are so seriously complicated that you're left going 'Whaaat...?'

He lacks the psychological depth we've come to expect, but I'd recommend any of his books as a good, light read.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, a note about numbering. This is Book 13 in the Collins Crime Club reissues, but is really 16 in the Inspector French series. For completists or those who like to read in order, the three "missing" books have been reprinted fairly recently as British Library Crime Classics.

There are a few interesting points about the structure of this one.

It has been printed with four sets of "hints" by retired Superintendent Walter Hambrook which originally accompanied the novel's newspaper serialisation. I chose not to read these as they occurred but did so afterwards. They are quite illuminating, but probably will not spoil readers' enjoyment if read as they appear.

It also has a two-part plot. The first concerns the poisoning of six members of the Carrington family at a dinner party, the second, the death of one of them while they are all on a recuperative Mediterranean cruise.

I liked the poisoning section rather a lot, but confess that the cruise part, with its mind-numbing chapter on the ship's engines and its "guide-booky" description of the tourist highlights as well as an over-elaborate murder method, was less to my taste. While I had my suspicions about the murderer, the motive had me a bit stumped.

There were too many late revelations and the ending is unexciting and weak. FWC missed an opportunity in not sending Inspector Kirby, who headed the first investigation, on the cruise with French.

There are some compensations. The romance between Katherine Shirley and the wonderfully-named Dr Runciman Jellicoe is nicely-done, and some of the characters are better-fleshed-out than usual.

Very readable, apart fom Chapter 10, but not Crofts at his best.

3.5 stars.

[Pipina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Inspector French cases, but this one defies all credibility. The killer's method is so cumbersome that it's impossible for him to succeed.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent French . A pleasurable read but does not have as much meat of Mystery as others . However, the description of far of places in far off times was very interesting as was the chapter on running a big ship out of a tricky harbour . I had guessed the motive right but did not really see through the method . While the origin of the motive could not have been guessed , there were very clever misdirections too.