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Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries #13
L'affare D'Arblay (Il Giallo Mondadori)
Stephen Gray, medico, è intento a raccogliere campioni di flora e fauna da uno stagno, quando ai suoi occhi si offre uno spettacolo raccapricciante. Appena sotto la superficie scorge il volto cereo di un uomo, il resto del corpo quasi completamente nascosto dalle piante. Si tratta dello scultore Julius D'Arblay, che la notte precedente non è rientrato a casa. Sembra esclusa l'ipotesi dell'incidente, data la scarsa profondità dello specchio d'acqua, o del malore improvviso, essendo improbabile che la vittima fosse andata a passeggiare al buio in un luogo così isolato; resta da valutare quella del suicidio. La stranezza del caso induce Gray a consultare il dottor John Thorndyke, il più autorevole degli specialisti viventi, del quale ha frequentato le lezioni di medicina legale. Iniziativa provvidenziale, poiché l'autopsia individua la causa della morte nella somministrazione di un veleno tramite un'iniezione. È allora una vera fortuna che a fare luce su un omicidio attuato con modalità tanto subdole si impegni il massimo fautore dell'investigazione scientifica.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1926
44 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
R. Austin Freeman
609 books86 followersRichard Freeman was born in Soho, London on 11 April 1862, the son of Ann Maria (nee Dunn) and Richard Freeman, a tailor. He was originally named Richard, and later added the Austin to his name.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing.
With the publication of 'The Singing Bone' (1912) he invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.
A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing.
With the publication of 'The Singing Bone' (1912) he invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.
A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 7, 2011
This is one of the better Dr. Thorndyke mysteries. Solid and intricate plot, suspense, likable characters, and the thorough detective work of Dr. Thorndyke all make this a mystery worth reading.
July 9, 2023
It has been a while since I read a Dr Thorndyke and this made an excellent choice. It combines readability with an interesting set of puzzles and some droll humour, the latter a feature one sometimes forgets about. A few examples:
Here Dr Gray is viewing a dead patient.
‘“So peaceful,” she added, with another shake of her head, and Miss Bonington chimed in with the comment, “Peaceful and restful.” Then they both looked at me and I mumbled indistinctly that I had no doubt he did; the fact being that the inmates of coffins are not in general much addicted to boisterous activity.’
Here he is working with Thorndyke’s assistant-
‘“…you are as bad as the doctor, Polton. A regular Machiavelli.” “I never heard of him,” said Polton, “but most Scotsmen are pretty close.’
And attending an exhumation-
‘“This is a queer sort of function,” I remarked as we took our way down the stairs; “a sort of funeral the wrong way about.” “Yes,” Thorndyke agreed; “it is what Lewis Carroll would have called an unfuneral—and very appropriately, too.”’
The book is tightly plotted from the discovery of a body in Chapter one right to the final explication which is both detailed and satisfying without being dull.
A recommended good read.
Here Dr Gray is viewing a dead patient.
‘“So peaceful,” she added, with another shake of her head, and Miss Bonington chimed in with the comment, “Peaceful and restful.” Then they both looked at me and I mumbled indistinctly that I had no doubt he did; the fact being that the inmates of coffins are not in general much addicted to boisterous activity.’
Here he is working with Thorndyke’s assistant-
‘“…you are as bad as the doctor, Polton. A regular Machiavelli.” “I never heard of him,” said Polton, “but most Scotsmen are pretty close.’
And attending an exhumation-
‘“This is a queer sort of function,” I remarked as we took our way down the stairs; “a sort of funeral the wrong way about.” “Yes,” Thorndyke agreed; “it is what Lewis Carroll would have called an unfuneral—and very appropriately, too.”’
The book is tightly plotted from the discovery of a body in Chapter one right to the final explication which is both detailed and satisfying without being dull.
A recommended good read.
January 12, 2019
Although the first part of the book repeated a scenario from an earlier Thorndyke mystery (so familiar was it that I thought I had read this book before during the first few chapters!), the eventual solution to the mystery and several of its elements were unique. Thorndyke (& Freeman) performed at his usual high standard.
September 26, 2025
I think that you either like the intricate detail of a Thorndyke story or you don't. I do. Normally written in the first person by more than one narrator and usually finished by Jervis, Thorndyke's Watsonesque sidekick these stories are written in quite old fashioned English even by standard of the period. The fact that they are doctors and barristers makes them that much more different from the other sleuths of the time. Thoroughly enjoyable.
June 5, 2018
I like these early 20c novels as I'm there with the my port and a pipe (I don't smoke really.) listening to the tale narrated by Dr Gray of an event some 20yrs previously. He was a newly qualified doctor and taking a trip into the country, lots of walking in this book, when he discovers a body in a pond. As so often in a Thorndyke novel there is a young woman in distress and murder in the air. Gray enlists Thorndyke's help to uncover a mystery of murder, theft and deception.
Enjoyable although Thondyke's final account is most intricate and takes some unravelling to understand how the conclusion was reached. Well worth 3.5 stars.
Enjoyable although Thondyke's final account is most intricate and takes some unravelling to understand how the conclusion was reached. Well worth 3.5 stars.
August 8, 2019
This was a nice story, although at the beginning it reminded me of another one of these that I read a while ago, but it transformed into a different story, although the premise was very similar. It was quite a romantic one as well as a crime story and the characters were good and empathetic. I keep these ones for reading in between bigger books which is quite nice as there's plenty of these in the bumper edition I have.
April 15, 2020
This one is a lot of fun. This should please anyone who likes their mystery cerebral, with the violence mostly offstage. It's entirely a puzzle, or series of them, and while I did not work things out, at the end I felt as if I could have. That's the sign of a good classic British mystery for me.
I was surprised by how contemporary this felt, even though there were occasional reference to cabs which were likely to have been horse-drawn. There are also flashes of wit, which I enjoyed. The characters are pretty stock, as is typical of this genre, except for Polton, who is a delight.
No deeper meaning here, no gratuitous and horrible violence, a pretty saccharine love story in the
background -- all the elements of a cozy by-the-fire sort of book. I enjoyed it.
I was surprised by how contemporary this felt, even though there were occasional reference to cabs which were likely to have been horse-drawn. There are also flashes of wit, which I enjoyed. The characters are pretty stock, as is typical of this genre, except for Polton, who is a delight.
No deeper meaning here, no gratuitous and horrible violence, a pretty saccharine love story in the
background -- all the elements of a cozy by-the-fire sort of book. I enjoyed it.
February 7, 2017
"It is all very involved and confusing. Would you mind telling us exactly what happened?" pleads one of the main characters at the very end of this mystery, after Thorndyke has already explained it once in devastating detail. Of course you want to know what happened too, and this time it's clear[er]. Well, shorter.
All those confusing details aside, as far as I could tell these 2 really evil, immoral or amoral bad guys are Americans. While these evil doers pass for each other alive and as corpses, it's hard to see as they went unnoticed as Americans [at least when they were alive!], but they seem to have. So not the best of this generally good series.
All those confusing details aside, as far as I could tell these 2 really evil, immoral or amoral bad guys are Americans. While these evil doers pass for each other alive and as corpses, it's hard to see as they went unnoticed as Americans [at least when they were alive!], but they seem to have. So not the best of this generally good series.
April 19, 2017
Unlike the last one, this one is back to the clueless protagonist needing Thorndyke to explain everything at the end. However, it was much more involving and much more complicated, so the ending explanation probably would have been needed either way! I rather enjoyed this one, it was like reading "The Red Thumb Mark" again. It was a totally new concept to me and got me to remember why I appreciated reading Freeman's mysteries in the first place.
May 10, 2014
Excellent stuff for the Thorndyke fan. A good plot, though of course full of the usual coincidences, plenty of Thorndyke and more Polton than I think in any other of his novels, thoroughly entertaining.
January 28, 2018
A few holes in the story (like, why was no one more worried when their houses were broken into?!), but overall another excellent addition to the Dr Thorndyke series.
December 28, 2018
New writer for me. Very good 👍
March 4, 2019
Very entertaining with a complex plot. Goid characters and the story moves at a good pace.
October 6, 2024
By this point in the series, Freeman is working a bit to a formula when it comes to setting up the story. There's a young doctor, a former student of the medico-legal detective Thorndyke, who comes across a mystery and takes it to his old mentor. There's a mysterious patient that the doctor is asked to see, who (at least not by coincidence this time) is at the heart of the plot. There's a young woman who's described as "attractive," but mostly not otherwise described, who the young doctor falls in love with inevitably and immediately, and who needs protection. (She is, at least, a competent woman who is supporting herself in a trade, but her competence doesn't extend to having any active impact on the plot; she's a purely passive character, like every other non-villainous woman in the Thorndyke stories.) Thorndyke plays his cards so close to his chest they're practically embedded in his ribs, but he needn't be so cagey, since the young doctor has taken the John Watson correspondence course and is as dense as a very dense thing, unable to figure out the most blindingly obvious clues. This is probably so the reader can feel superior to him.
All of these elements we've seen in the series before, some of them multiple times. The mystery itself, though, is a fresh one, and so is its complicated resolution. Thorndyke points out what I've often thought when reading mystery stories, that the failing of criminals is that they set out to make themselves safer after the initial crime and, in so doing, inevitably create more clues.
It's not the best of the series in my mind, partly because it's retreading a lot of ground in the setup if not the resolution, but if you don't mind the dated elements, it's a tricky and clever mystery with suspense and danger, and humane feeling towards the victims of crime.
All of these elements we've seen in the series before, some of them multiple times. The mystery itself, though, is a fresh one, and so is its complicated resolution. Thorndyke points out what I've often thought when reading mystery stories, that the failing of criminals is that they set out to make themselves safer after the initial crime and, in so doing, inevitably create more clues.
It's not the best of the series in my mind, partly because it's retreading a lot of ground in the setup if not the resolution, but if you don't mind the dated elements, it's a tricky and clever mystery with suspense and danger, and humane feeling towards the victims of crime.
December 15, 2024
At start, The D’Arblay Mystery (1926) by R. Austin Freeman appears ready to stumble. Young protagonist Stephen Gray takes a locum tenens position for Dr. Cropper. One of his patients, terminally ill Simon Bendelow, appears surrounded by suspicious characters. Chapter Fifteen later reveals a connection between Bendelow and a crime Gray discovered in Chapter One: the killing of sculptor Julius D'Arblay.
Coincidence indeed has a long arm.
But where Freeman is concerned, gusto and charm distract and disguise melodrama's shortcomings.
There is the young lady, Miss D’Arblay, whom Dr. Gray loves and defends. There is her housekeeper and family factotum, Arabella Boler, almost as good a cadet character as the formidable Miss Oman in Eye of Osiris.
And there is Thorndyke's "crinkly" assistant, Nathaniel Polton, a very reliable and ingenious man.
* * *
Thorndyke sews it up and makes it sensible by the final chapter. Still, not first class.
Coincidence indeed has a long arm.
But where Freeman is concerned, gusto and charm distract and disguise melodrama's shortcomings.
There is the young lady, Miss D’Arblay, whom Dr. Gray loves and defends. There is her housekeeper and family factotum, Arabella Boler, almost as good a cadet character as the formidable Miss Oman in Eye of Osiris.
And there is Thorndyke's "crinkly" assistant, Nathaniel Polton, a very reliable and ingenious man.
* * *
Thorndyke sews it up and makes it sensible by the final chapter. Still, not first class.
August 29, 2023
An intricately plotted British murder mystery featuring Professor Thorndyke who's (sometimes irritatingly) always correct and, so the reader is led to believe, never puzzled by even the most outlandish plot developments. But if the professor knows all along the solution to the mystery the reader at least is kept guessing until the end, though that's not too surprising considering all the twists in the storyline. The characterizations are very well done and the romantic subplot manages to be not too cloying. It was a very enjoyable read.
February 17, 2022
Dr Thorndyke applies his careful detective work to the murder of Julius D'Arblay, whose body is discovered lying in some water in the woods. Gradually, a number of disconnected strands are brought together in an intriguing mystery that has a somewhat involved solution. A good read, but not a great one.
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April 3, 2024I'll probably regret having jumped into this series at volume 13, but I enjoyed the tale nonetheless. Dr. Thorndyke is one of those sleuth masterminds and this mystery's solution is a bit of a stretch. I will definitely hunt for more from this author if for no other reason than to see how good the stories are...
March 28, 2025
D’avventura e intrigo più che giallo, ha una trama macchinosa e allo stesso tempo lenta. L’investigatore, Thorndyke, è esageratamente perfetto e brilla in sagacia anche per il contrasto con il narratore, tonto in modo irrimediabile.
April 17, 2025
Un giallo vecchia maniera e vecchio stile ma allo stesso tempo gradevole e non così datato o scontato. Una bella versione audiolibro.
June 9, 2025
Dr Thorndyke is Holmes like and just as frustrating at times. 😀
January 29, 2021
While walking in Churchyard Bottom Wood, Dr Stephen Gray discovers a body. This turns out to be a Julius D'Arblay, a man which is discovered as been murdered. Gray asks that Thorndyke investigates.
An enjpyable mystery
Originally written in 1926
An enjpyable mystery
Originally written in 1926
January 5, 2023
The book was published in 1926 but is set 20 years earlier. A new-fledged doctor stumbles over a corpse while on a walk in a forest. He also meet the dead man's lovely daugther. Driven by a wish to help her, he consults the famous detective Doctor Thorndyke.
I thought the book was quite good. I have recently been reading quite a lot of Agatha Christie so it is interesting to make a comparison with her.
Freeman is a competent writer, but he does not have Dame Agatha's touch. We don't find Christie's cynical, but humorous, social observations, and the text does not flow like Christie's.
Freeman does not rely on misdirection in this book to the extent that Christie usually does. We get the clues squarely presented to us. As a result it is fairly easy to solve at least part of the puzzle.
I thought the book was quite good. I have recently been reading quite a lot of Agatha Christie so it is interesting to make a comparison with her.
Freeman is a competent writer, but he does not have Dame Agatha's touch. We don't find Christie's cynical, but humorous, social observations, and the text does not flow like Christie's.
Freeman does not rely on misdirection in this book to the extent that Christie usually does. We get the clues squarely presented to us. As a result it is fairly easy to solve at least part of the puzzle.
June 27, 2024
Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries #13
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews