Murder in the Moor: A Dartmoor Mystery

by Thomas Kindon

‘No one, even the creator of The Hound of the Baskervilles, has ever used a moor so effectively… chilling’ The Washington Post‘In Peregrine Smith, Kindon has created a detective who is not only clever but very amusing as well… an entertaining yarn’ New York Times‘Plenty of atmosphere… characters stand out with pleasant eccentricity’ Time Magazine‘A good murder, committed for an original motive in a picturesque setting… delights the imagination’ Barzun and TaylorOne of the top 50 crime novels of the first-half of the twentieth-century as selected by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig TaylorIncludes all the original illustrations, critical to the plot
Detective Inspector Peregrine Smith is on a summer walking holiday on Dukesmoor, Devon when he meets fellow hiker, Angus MacFee. They strike up an acquaintance and decide to travel together the next day. In the thick, early morning fog they start off navigating across the desolate, boggy moor towards their first way point, Okemere Pool, the wildest and loneliest part of Dukesmoor. Whilst they traverse such landmarks as Flagstaff Hill and Grim’s Circle, a prehistoric stone circle, a gruesome murder is committed. Two young women find a man with a fatal head wound on the bank of Okemere Pool, a bloodstained three-pounder cannon shell lying nearby. The corpse is dressed only in underclothes, his boots, trousers and hat are all missing…

About the Author

Thomas Kindon’s life is as mysterious as the plot of his one and only work of detective fiction – Murder in the Moor. We know precisely nothing about the author apart from the fact that he entered his manuscript into London book publisher Methuen’s ‘Prize Competition for Detective Novels’ in about 1927. The competition was judged by three well-known mystery authors, A.A. Milne, H.S. Bailey and Father Knox. Kindon’s book was one of the runners-up. The moor in which is murder takes place, Dukesmoor, is a thinly-disguised version of Dartmoor in Devon, also used as the key setting by Conan Doyle in Hound of the Baskervilles. Kindon’s Georgetown is Princetown, the River Oke is in fact the River Okement, Drakestown is Plymouth, Gunnistock is Tavistock, Gideford is probably Widecombe and Tawhampton North Tawton. It was published by Methuen in 1929, and in the same year in the United States by E.P. Dutton Company, New York. It received excellent reviews when it was published and is rated by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor as one of the top fifty crime novels of the first half of the twentieth-century.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, British Literature

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 24, 2025

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Goodreads blurb it states that not even in The Hound of The Baskerville's was the moor described so atmospherically. This is not true. It's not even in the same league as Conan Doyle.

However, a quite amusing tale with a really oddball copper and a half decent plot from a mystery author who apparently didn't write anything else. This is a shame because this copper, Pithy Smithy, could have been developed into a good character.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

only book written by this author

Smith is quite a character and a lot of fun. The characters are well drawn. But the story drags in places. The engineering descriptions take forever to get through. It took me a long time bc I kept getting bored.

[David Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK Golden Era mystery.