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The Death of Laurence Vining
‘The crime is one of the most ingenious in all the annals of detective fiction’ New York Times‘Enthralling… a most ingenious example of the detective story’ Morning PostThis new 2025 Spitfire Publishers ebook and paperback edition represent the first republication of this classic of the ‘Golden Age’ of detective fiction in almost a centuryIncludes all the original illustrations, critical to the plot
Obnoxious amateur sleuth – and occasional consultant to Scotland Yard – Laurence Vining, is triumphant. Aided by his friend and confident, Dr Benjamin Willing, he has just solved the ‘Shop Murder’ and sent the perpetrator to the gallows. On the scent of his next case, an anonymous letter signed ‘Red Hat’ implores Laurence to meet at Hyde Park Tube Station. The polymath detective descends from the street level station in the tube station lift alone and arrives on the platform below – very dead. A Malay krisembedded deep in the small of his back. Inspector Widgeon of Scotland Yard faces an apparently impossible murder to crack…
About the Author
Alan Ernest Wentworth Thomas was born in London in 1896. Biographical details on Thomas are rather scant. He was educated at Malvern College and Cambridge University and worked as a barrister and literary editor. He wrote throughout his life and right up to his death in 1969. He wrote eight crime novels, of which his first The Death of Laurence Vining (1928), is his most well-known work. In fact, this ultra-rare locked-room mystery has almost mythical status amongst aficionados of Golden Age detective fiction. Inspector Widgeon is one of his literary creations and appeared in Thomas’s first book and Death of the Home Secretary. Thomas’s other series characters, Maurice Arbuthnot and Cyril Fortescue appear in The Stolen Cellini and Summer Adventure.
Praise for Alan Thomas
Daggers Drawn
‘An absorbing story’ The Scotsman
‘Such a break-away from the conventional detective story deserves congratulation’ Daily News
‘A very fine study in psychology’ Evening Standard
‘The trial scene is the best I have read in any detective story; indeed, the whole book stands head and shoulders above its neighbours’ L.P. Hartley, West-End Review
The Tremayne Case
‘An excellent murder mystery’ Daily Sketch
The Lonely Years
‘A sincere and moving book’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Another true human document’ The Spectator
Obnoxious amateur sleuth – and occasional consultant to Scotland Yard – Laurence Vining, is triumphant. Aided by his friend and confident, Dr Benjamin Willing, he has just solved the ‘Shop Murder’ and sent the perpetrator to the gallows. On the scent of his next case, an anonymous letter signed ‘Red Hat’ implores Laurence to meet at Hyde Park Tube Station. The polymath detective descends from the street level station in the tube station lift alone and arrives on the platform below – very dead. A Malay krisembedded deep in the small of his back. Inspector Widgeon of Scotland Yard faces an apparently impossible murder to crack…
About the Author
Alan Ernest Wentworth Thomas was born in London in 1896. Biographical details on Thomas are rather scant. He was educated at Malvern College and Cambridge University and worked as a barrister and literary editor. He wrote throughout his life and right up to his death in 1969. He wrote eight crime novels, of which his first The Death of Laurence Vining (1928), is his most well-known work. In fact, this ultra-rare locked-room mystery has almost mythical status amongst aficionados of Golden Age detective fiction. Inspector Widgeon is one of his literary creations and appeared in Thomas’s first book and Death of the Home Secretary. Thomas’s other series characters, Maurice Arbuthnot and Cyril Fortescue appear in The Stolen Cellini and Summer Adventure.
Praise for Alan Thomas
Daggers Drawn
‘An absorbing story’ The Scotsman
‘Such a break-away from the conventional detective story deserves congratulation’ Daily News
‘A very fine study in psychology’ Evening Standard
‘The trial scene is the best I have read in any detective story; indeed, the whole book stands head and shoulders above its neighbours’ L.P. Hartley, West-End Review
The Tremayne Case
‘An excellent murder mystery’ Daily Sketch
The Lonely Years
‘A sincere and moving book’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Another true human document’ The Spectator
236 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1928
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 7, 2017
Pur riconoscendo la validità della camera chiusa e della sua soluzione, il romanzo nel suo complesso non mi soddisfa pienamente. Alcune incongruenze, come le piantine non corrispondenti fra loro; alcune digressioni fuorvianti, sempre nel diario finale, quando si fanno varie ipotesi sulla presenza o meno di altre persone in ascensore e sui vari comportamenti da tenere. Rendono meno agevole la comprensione del tutto.
Inoltre la parte centrale, con le indagini di Widgeon, rimane un po' avulsa dall'inizio e dalla fine. E, considerando che prende la maggior parte del libro, è poco soddisfacente.
Inoltre la parte centrale, con le indagini di Widgeon, rimane un po' avulsa dall'inizio e dalla fine. E, considerando che prende la maggior parte del libro, è poco soddisfacente.
August 19, 2026
Questo mio commento contiene spoiler, sia su questo libro che su The Murder of Roger Ackroyd di Agatha Christie.
This comment contains spoilers, both for this book and for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
Intanto su questo libro: l'attuazione dell'omicidio non è del tutto chiara, anche perché c'è qualche discrepanza nelle due piantine proposte nel testo; i personaggi non sono bene approfonditi; non si capisce bene, secondo me, come l'investigatore arrivi alla soluzione.
Mentre leggevo pensavo a questa cosa un po' strana, spiegata nel libro, che se uno aveva combattuto in guerra con un grado, quello diventava poi il suo appellativo, per cui abbiamo un capitano Jack Ransome che non è più un militare ma lo è stato. Ed è un po' uno scapestrato, un po', ho pensato, come il capitano Ralph Paton di L'assassinio di Roger Ackroyd di Agatha Christie. E poi c'è un colonnello, e anche ne L'assassinio di Roger Ackroyd c'è un colonnello. In entrambi i libri la vittima ha un legame con il capitano (qui la vittima Laurence Vining è tutore e zio adottivo del capitano Ransome, nel libro della Christie Roger Ackroyd è il patrigno del capitano Paton); dopo l'omicidio il capitano scompare misteriosamente in entrambi i libri e quindi diventa il principale sospettato. A questo punto mi sono incuriosita e ho visto che il titolo originale di questo libro è The Death of Laurence Vining, quindi c'è il nome della persona uccisa nel titolo, come nel libro della Christie che però è antecedente, del 1926, mentre questo libro è stato pubblicato nel 1928. Altre somiglianze: una lettera misteriosa che scompare; il delitto è di quelli definiti "a camera chiusa"; l'arma dell'omicidio è un coltello particolare appartenuto alla vittima; il capitano ha un fidanzamento in corso; una cameriera si comporta in modo strano ma poi si scopre che è per vicende estranee al delitto; e come ultima cosa l'investigatore viene affiancato da un medico, che è amico della vittima, che vive con una sorella n
nubile . È vero che ambientazione, movente, esecuzione del delitto e molti personaggi secondari sono differenti ma insomma le somiglianze sono tante. Ho cercato se qualcun altro le abbia trovate un po' eccessive ma pare che questo libro non sia molto famoso.
First of all, about this book: the execution of the murder isn't entirely clear, partly because there are some discrepancies in the two maps provided in the text; the characters aren't well-developed; it's unclear, in my opinion, how the detective arrives at the solution.
While reading, I thought about this slightly strange thing, explained in the book, that if someone had fought in a war with a certain rank, that then became their title, so we have a Captain Jack Ransome who is no longer a soldier but was one. And he's a bit of a scoundrel, a bit, I thought, like Captain Ralph Paton in Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. And then there's a colonel, and in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd there's a colonel too. In both books, the victim has a connection to the captain (here the victim, Laurence Vining, is Captain Ransome's guardian and adoptive uncle; in Christie's book, Roger Ackroyd is Captain Paton's stepfather); after the murder, the captain mysteriously disappears in both books and thus becomes the prime suspect. At this point, I became curious and saw that the original title of this book is The Death of Laurence Vining, so the name of the murdered person is in the title, as in Christie's book, which, however, is earlier, from 1926, while this book was published in 1928. Other similarities: a mysterious letter disappears; the crime is one of those so-called "locked room" ones; the murder weapon is a particular knife that belonged to the victim; the captain is engaged or perhaps he is not; a waitress behaves strangely, but it turns out it's due to circumstances unrelated to the crime; and finally, the detective is helped by a doctor, a friend of the victim, who lives with an unmarried sister It's true that the setting, motive, execution of the crime, and many secondary characters are different, but overall, the similarities are many. I looked to see if anyone else found them a bit excessive, but it seems this book isn't very well-known.
This comment contains spoilers, both for this book and for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
Intanto su questo libro: l'attuazione dell'omicidio non è del tutto chiara, anche perché c'è qualche discrepanza nelle due piantine proposte nel testo; i personaggi non sono bene approfonditi; non si capisce bene, secondo me, come l'investigatore arrivi alla soluzione.
Mentre leggevo pensavo a questa cosa un po' strana, spiegata nel libro, che se uno aveva combattuto in guerra con un grado, quello diventava poi il suo appellativo, per cui abbiamo un capitano Jack Ransome che non è più un militare ma lo è stato. Ed è un po' uno scapestrato, un po', ho pensato, come il capitano Ralph Paton di L'assassinio di Roger Ackroyd di Agatha Christie. E poi c'è un colonnello, e anche ne L'assassinio di Roger Ackroyd c'è un colonnello. In entrambi i libri la vittima ha un legame con il capitano (qui la vittima Laurence Vining è tutore e zio adottivo del capitano Ransome, nel libro della Christie Roger Ackroyd è il patrigno del capitano Paton); dopo l'omicidio il capitano scompare misteriosamente in entrambi i libri e quindi diventa il principale sospettato. A questo punto mi sono incuriosita e ho visto che il titolo originale di questo libro è The Death of Laurence Vining, quindi c'è il nome della persona uccisa nel titolo, come nel libro della Christie che però è antecedente, del 1926, mentre questo libro è stato pubblicato nel 1928. Altre somiglianze: una lettera misteriosa che scompare; il delitto è di quelli definiti "a camera chiusa"; l'arma dell'omicidio è un coltello particolare appartenuto alla vittima; il capitano ha un fidanzamento in corso; una cameriera si comporta in modo strano ma poi si scopre che è per vicende estranee al delitto; e come ultima cosa l'investigatore viene affiancato da un medico, che è amico della vittima, che vive con una sorella n
nubile . È vero che ambientazione, movente, esecuzione del delitto e molti personaggi secondari sono differenti ma insomma le somiglianze sono tante. Ho cercato se qualcun altro le abbia trovate un po' eccessive ma pare che questo libro non sia molto famoso.
First of all, about this book: the execution of the murder isn't entirely clear, partly because there are some discrepancies in the two maps provided in the text; the characters aren't well-developed; it's unclear, in my opinion, how the detective arrives at the solution.
While reading, I thought about this slightly strange thing, explained in the book, that if someone had fought in a war with a certain rank, that then became their title, so we have a Captain Jack Ransome who is no longer a soldier but was one. And he's a bit of a scoundrel, a bit, I thought, like Captain Ralph Paton in Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. And then there's a colonel, and in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd there's a colonel too. In both books, the victim has a connection to the captain (here the victim, Laurence Vining, is Captain Ransome's guardian and adoptive uncle; in Christie's book, Roger Ackroyd is Captain Paton's stepfather); after the murder, the captain mysteriously disappears in both books and thus becomes the prime suspect. At this point, I became curious and saw that the original title of this book is The Death of Laurence Vining, so the name of the murdered person is in the title, as in Christie's book, which, however, is earlier, from 1926, while this book was published in 1928. Other similarities: a mysterious letter disappears; the crime is one of those so-called "locked room" ones; the murder weapon is a particular knife that belonged to the victim; the captain is engaged or perhaps he is not; a waitress behaves strangely, but it turns out it's due to circumstances unrelated to the crime; and finally, the detective is helped by a doctor, a friend of the victim, who lives with an unmarried sister It's true that the setting, motive, execution of the crime, and many secondary characters are different, but overall, the similarities are many. I looked to see if anyone else found them a bit excessive, but it seems this book isn't very well-known.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2025
Not Quite Worth Reading
This is not one of the greatest Golden Age detective mysteries and has very offensive viewpoints toward dark-colored people. My guess from near the beginning as to the identity of the villain was correct but I kept reading to find out the way the murder was carried out. The motive for the killing was a little more involved than seems believable.
This is not one of the greatest Golden Age detective mysteries and has very offensive viewpoints toward dark-colored people. My guess from near the beginning as to the identity of the villain was correct but I kept reading to find out the way the murder was carried out. The motive for the killing was a little more involved than seems believable.
June 10, 2026
Very clever and interesting
Laurence Vining is a brilliant but detestable character. He ends up being murdered after another exercise of his expertise in aiding the police find a killer. The search for his killer centers on the likely suspects . And the search and solution are remarkable. Worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Laurence Vining is a brilliant but detestable character. He ends up being murdered after another exercise of his expertise in aiding the police find a killer. The search for his killer centers on the likely suspects . And the search and solution are remarkable. Worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
September 28, 2025
One of the best ever
And one of the earliest cozy mysteries. It turns the genre on it's head. The psychology is perfect. Well done!
And one of the earliest cozy mysteries. It turns the genre on it's head. The psychology is perfect. Well done!
May 24, 2025
I found this novel tiresome. None of the characters were interesting enough to draw me in on the basis of personality; there wasn't a fair-play puzzle to engage me in a battle of wits; the action dragged like a bicycle in a molasses spill. The solution, when it came, was unsatisfying. Recommended only if you're shooting for an encyclopedic approach to detective fiction.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews