One by One They Disappeared

Inspector Hugh Collier #1

by Moray Dalton, Curtis Evans (Introduction)

"I want to catch them. To do that we've got to lead them on. Now listen to me."

Elbert J. Pakenham of New York City is among just nine survivors of the sinking of the Coptic - not counting his black cat Jehosaphat. The benevolent Mr. Pakenham has made his fellow survivors joint beneficiaries in his will, his nephew having recently passed away. But it seems that someone is unwilling to share the fortune, as the heirs start to die under mysterious circumstances . . .

Then Mr. Pakenham himself disappears, and Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard suspects dirty work. When a trap is laid that seriously wounds his best friend at the Yard, Superintendent Trask, Collier is certain his suspicions are correct. Into his net are drawn a charming young woman, Corinna Lacy, and her cousin and trustee, Wilfred Stark; a landed gentleman of dubious reputation, Gilbert Freyne, and his sister-in-law, Gladys; an Italian nobleman of ancient lineage and depleted estate, Count Olivieri; and a Bohemian English artist, Edgar Mallory. But Collier will need some unexpected feline assistance before the case is solved.

One by One They Disappeared was originally published in 1929. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Golden Age Mystery, Fiction, Classics

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Pseudonym of Katherine Mary Deville Dalton Renoir (1881-1963)

Katherine Dalton was born in Hammersmith, London in 1881, the only child of a Canadian father and English mother. The author wrote two well-received early novels, Olive in Italy (1909), and The Sword of Love (1920). However, her career in crime fiction did not begin until 1924, after which Moray Dalton published twenty-nine mysteries, the last in 1951. The majority of these feature her recurring sleuths, Scotland Yard inspector Hugh Collier and private inquiry agent Hermann Glide. Moray Dalton married Louis Jean Renoir in 1921, and the couple had a son a year later. The author lived on the south coast of England for the majority of her life following the marriage. She died in Worthing, West Sussex, in 1963.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

I am on a 1920s detective binge thanks to Dean Street Press, who are republishing tons of forgotten writers at exceedingly reasonable prices. This is a very good one by an author I'm delighted to have discovered. Tontine type set up where money is to be divided between the members of a group which is, needless to say, getting rapidly smaller. Good scary Gothic feel, heroine in peril, excellent cat.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This mystery was first published in 1929 and is luckily now back in print. This really is a great time to be a fan of Golden Age mysteries, with so many books being made available again and I really enjoyed this first mystery featuring Inspector Hugh Collier.

Collier meets Mr Pakenham by chance in a London hotel. Every year, the American gives a dinner for survivors of the Coptic, a ship which sunk and of which there were only eight survivors. Mr Pakenham was cared for by the other men in his lifeboat and feels he owes them his life. The wealthy American has pledged to leave his fortune to his fellow survivors. Inspector Collier's interest is piqued when he hears of the strange death of one of the men at the dinner and, before long, he realises that someone is in a hurry to get their hands on Mr Pakenham's money.

Author Moray Dalton introduces a young, guileless and, of course, beautiful girl, to add some love interest to the intrigue and before long there are mysterious Italian Counts, suspects with criminal records, poisoned rings and isolated, creepy houses. Collier gets his heart a little dented in this first mystery but I am sure he will recover by the second in the series and I look forward to reading on.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic Golden Age mystery! I just discovered Moray Dalton through Dean Street Press and I’m really loving her writing style.

This is the first Inspector Collier book in the series and it did not disappoint. Moray Dalton’s writing is smooth, easy-to-read, and suspenseful, but also cozy like an Agatha Christie mystery.

If you’ve read and liked the Tommy and Tuppence novel, By The Pricking of My Thumbs, you will love the book, too. The ending of this mystery was also very satisfying.

I’m looking forward to reading more in this series! Highly recommended!

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this his first adventure the reader meets Inspector George Collier - or is it Hugh? - of Scotland Yard on page one as he readies for a long deserved vacation. Before departing the Inspector stops for a cocktail in a hotel lounge and meets Mr. Parkenham from New York City. Mr. P is hosting an annual gala dinner he throws for eight other men - all of whom survived the sinking of their ship - the other eight younger men keeping Parkenham alive while they waited in their lifeboat to be rescued. He being so grateful for their kindness - and a man of some means and no family - Parkenham has also made them all beneficiaries in his will.

This being a murder mystery trouble soon follows as the number of said Samaritan beneficiaries begins to dwindle “one by one”- thus the pot of inherited money grows for the “survivors”- and Collier - smelling a rat - cancels his vacation to investigate.

This is not the tightest mystery - there are a few holes and obvious red herrings - but the characters are well drawn and the story moves along well enough. So I enjoyed the book - except for one thing.

There is a young female character that even considering when this was written, (1929), is over the top in the “innocent naive damsel in distress” department and I found her extremely annoying.

(She’d be the one who trips and twists her ankle in every B horror movie.)

That being said (written) - I’ll read more by this author.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Packenham and his cat Jehosophat are sitting in the hotel lobby when Inspector Collier happens to pass by. Collier cautions Packenham to beware of the two men who hurredly left - they're confidence men! Mr. Packenham has come to London from New York for the annual dinner he gives to his fellow survivors of the ship Coptic. Only two of the eight show up. When Inspector Collier learns that in the past year some have died under questionable circumstances, the hunt is on. Were they murdered? And who else could be victims?

After finishing this, I went back to my review of Dalton's The Night of Fear to which I had given 3-stars. Perhaps those 3-stars deceived me into thinking I needn't get to another soon. I did enjoy this one and will probably enjoy another, though I'll have to see about acquiring the next one. Still, a very high 3-stars is what these Golden Age Mysteries deserve.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not apparently Moray Dalton's first book, but first mystery. Although I guess Collier's first name gets changed a couple of books in. Not sure if he started this book as an Inspector but he is promised promotion. This was a pretty interesting book - kept me up late several nights.

Detective Collier has a chance meeting at a hotel with a wealthy American and his large cat, Jehoshaphat, on an annual pilgrimage. During WWI he had been on a ship that was bombed and he credits 8 fellow passengers with saving his life. He promised them to be remembered in his will, essentially sets up a tontine (tontine also figures in a later Christie book). They begin to disappear and actually only 2-3 show up for the dinner this year. This strikes Collier as strange so as he works at Scotland Yard he begins to look into it, unofficially. Some deaths could be accidental, others look suspicious. And then Pakinham, the American, appears to have disappeared.

A female interest is introduced, adding to the intrigue. She is a young woman at loose ends who visits an uncle she has never seen before. She looks to him for advice on her future and he, eventually, suggests that she tend to him during a rehabilitation. He also introduces her to one of the survivors. One that has a shady past.

So the suspects are any of the survivors. It is a fun romp.

I look forward to the rest in the series.

I semi guessed this one. I was suspicious of one of the characters because of the amount of knowledge he possessed.

[Tanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

“The Prince of Darkness was a gentleman.”
“Oh, these foreign noblemen are often wrong ’uns,” said Collier, who had not quite caught the title. [loc. 1379]

I can't give an objective review of this novel, because I found one aspect of it desperately upsetting.

Mr Pakenham is a genial, elderly American millionaire, who makes an annual pilgrimage -- accompanied by his cat Jehosaphat -- to a London hotel, where he hosts a dinner for a small group of wartime friends. Pakenham, and Jehosaphat, survived the torpedoing of the Coptic in the First World War: he credits his fellow survivors with saving his life, and has made them all beneficiaries of his will. But on this occasion, only two of the men turn up: several of them have died recently.

Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard, having encountered Pakenham by chance, is intrigued and touched by his story -- and suspicious of the sudden deaths. He begins to investigate, and encounters the highly suspicious Mr Freyne, the charming Mr Stark, and Mr Stark's ward Corinna, who is Hapless.

I bought this book because a friend recommended it, and added 'excellent cat'. The cat is indeed excellent.

After Pakenham and Jehosaphat were parted by plot, I sentimentally looked forward to their reunion. Jehosaphat was instrumental in unmasking and foiling the villain, and played a key role in the resolution.

And then, almost as an aside, we discover Jehosaphat's fate. Pakenham tells Collier: "I want to thank you for letting me have my poor cat’s body. Maybe they did the right thing when they shot him, but it’ll be a long time before I get over it. Jehosh and I were never parted until the time came for us to part forever." [loc 2364]

Maybe this is a period-typical attitude to animals: the novel was published in 1929. But killing a cat, presumably because he scratched the villain and indirectly caused said villain's death? I was in tears, and am still upset about it: part of this is that it triggered some bad memories, but part is just the sheer unnecessary nastiness of it.

And now I can't really remember much of the detail of the book, though it was well-written. I think I found the identity of the villain somewhat predictable, and Corinna not as hapless as initially feared. But ... no.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the earliest of the five works by yet another unjustly neglected writer being republished this month (March 2019) by the wonderful Dean Street Press with well-researched introductions by Curtis Evans.

Dalton (Katherine Renoir) wrote twenty-nine crime novels, fifteen of which feature Inspector Hugh Collier of Scotland Yard. This tale of murders resulting from a will which is effectively a tontine, is stylishly written. Although I early spotted who was behind it all, I had their real identity, and some of the relationships, all wrong.

Collier is an engaging character, efficient, but with a heart, and the story is lightly-spiced with the obligatory romance of the period- it was first published in 1929.

Very easy to read, highly enjoyable and recommended.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this mystery from Moray Dalton. Apparently, this was her first mystery. Inspector Collier has a chance meeting with a Mr Pakenham, a very wealthy American, at a top hotel in London, and learns that this man is a survivor of the ship Coptic, which had been sunk some years earlier. It would seem that there had been 8 survivors in the lifeboat with him. He being very ill, the other 8 had looked after him and he felt he owed them his life. He also had with him a black kitten that he had picked up whilst abandoning the ship. Showing in this instance a black cat really is lucky. To these 8 men Mr Pakenham holds a reunion every year, giving each a present. It would seem he also told them that when he dies he will leave his fortune to any of the remaining company that are still alive. Collier then meets 2 of the men on their way to the lavish dinner Pakenham has laid for the 8. During the following days, Collier hears that one of the men he had met has had a fatal accident, which he finds hard to believe and so he decides that he would postpone his holiday and look into the circumstances of this accident, finding that some others of the survivors have also met with fatal accidents.
Following Collier's investigations we are led back and forth, even as far as Italy, but it is a very interesting journey I do hope that more of her mysteries are made available.

[Carolien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A chance meeting between Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard and Mr Pakenham of America in a London hotel lobby sets up this intricate crime story. Mr Pakenham hosts an annual dinner in London for 9 men who had found themselves in a lifeboat after a ship was torpedoed in WWI. Days after the meeting, one of the dinner attendees is found dead and Inspector Collier starts investigating what was deemed an accidental death. A solid plot and really interesting group of characters. This is a new author to me and I'm planning on reading more by her.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give it 3.5 stars but rounded down because the cat was shot and I was upset about it! .

I found this enjoyable enough I will likely try others by this author.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slight but reasonably entertaining mystery by the newly-rediscovered Moray Dalton. I preferred The Night of Fear, the other book of hers I've read, but now that I'm thinking about it I can't remember much of it.
In this book, a generous and indomitable if somewhat lonely American businessman has survived the sinking of a ship largely due to the assistance of his lifeboat companions. In gratitude he hosts a dinner with gifts for each of them every year, and wrote a will splitting his money between them. Naturally, they start dying off. In the hands of a more skillful writer this would have been pretty juicy, but I found the whole thing reasonably tepid. The most charismatic character is a cat, followed at a second by the American businessman, Pakenham. There's a lukewarm sort of romance with a meek and helpless young lady who wouldn't be out of place as the heroine of a Dickens novel. And perhaps most damning at all, I knew whodunnit immediately. There were a few atmospheric touches with a kidnapping that managed to make it all very creepy, and a villainous death that wouldn't have been out of place on the moors of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Those pieces and the American and his cat were what bumped this book to three stars for me.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does the cat live? No, and it's particularly awful in that the poor cat saved a girl's life by attacking the murderer just in time, in a way that caused the killer to die, so the police later shot the poor cat. The cat-killing happens off-page, and is reported after the fact, but it was totally unnecessary
This is a relatively early outing for Dalton, and it shows. The killer is obvious from their first appearance, because it's such a trope of mystery fiction of the time, and then their actions and words just keep following all the standard lines. Collier comes across as a real idiot for not even considering it, which is very different from who he is and how he runs his cases in Dalton's later work. It was kind of infuriating to read, actually, as nearly every character fits the standard for similar books published in the late 20s. A false sense of action is created by constantly switching from one location to another, and Scotland Yard detectives allow a man to inject cocaine in their office, and then allowed him to take his case of cocaine and hypodermics off to jail with him, despite the book being published 9 years after the Dangerous Drugs Act UK outlawed the personal possession and use of cocaine, and while this same book includes smuggling the illegal drug. Just kind of a mess all around. Fortunately the series significantly improves.

[A Bear and a Bee Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just the kind of mystery novel I enjoy. I plan on checking out more from Dean Street Press in the future. I’m so excited to see so many titles available from the Golden Age. If you enjoy mystery without the blood and gore, then I would say to give this a try.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. The story was engaging. I guessed the villain and the motive (correctly!) long before the detective found any tangible lead but that didn't stop me reading as Collier was rather a pleasant fellow.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Collier goes to a hotel for dinner with friends a few days before taking off on a holiday to Rapallo in Italy. By chance, he strikes up a conversation with Elbert J. Pakenham, a New York millionaire who is also waiting for dinner companions. Pakenham is one of nine survivors of the Coptic, a vessel sunk during the first World War. Each year he hosts a dinner for his fellow survivors and gives them a small gift--a token of his appreciation for their taking such good care of an old man while they waited rescue. Last year, he made an even bigger gesture--telling them all that since his nephew died he has made them joint beneficiaries of his will. The inspector happens to see the first of the men to arrive, a blind man named Raymond and a Mr. Freyne.

The morning Collier is preparing to leave for Italy, he reads a story in the newspaper with the headline "FATAL ACCIDENT TO BLIND PIANO TUNER." that makes him change his plans. He recognizes the name of the blind man as that of the man on his way to the anniversary dinner with Pakenham. All of his alarm bells are going off and he decides to take a busman's holiday rather than a trip to Italy (though Italy will play its part in the drama to come). His unofficial investigation reveals that several of the Coptic's survivors have met with fatal "accidents" in the past year and he begins to suspect that someone wants to make sure that the lion's share of Pakenham's estate will come to them. And when his bet friend, Inspector Trask, who has been assisting him with his investigation is nearly killed by an accident clearly intended for Collier, he's sure he's right.

Then Mr. Pakenham goes missing--on a trip of his own to Italy where he just might meet with one of those fatal accidents...will the wily old American and the British inspector be able to beat a clever killer at his own game?

This is the first of Dalton's Inspector Collier mysteries and as a first in series, it's pretty good. Collier is not your super detective. He makes lots of mistakes along the way and, honestly, Pakenham seems a bit quicker on the uptake in a few of the situations. But Collier is a likeable detective and one hopes that he will get better at the detecting game as the series goes along. The plot is (now) a well-worn one--a tontine-style will where the portions get bigger as the number of potential heirs decreases. But Dalton does well with it and creates some memorable moments along the way. The two things which would have made this better: a stronger detective and a less obvious suspect. The only thing I couldn't quite figure out was how the motive worked for the culprit. The connection isn't nearly as obvious and I don't see how the reader could have figured it out before being told at the end. All that said--an entertaining beginning in a book that was a quick read. I plan to read more by Dalton.

Curtis Evans provides a great introduction to this reprint edition which contains much background information on Dalton. He says: "Only now coming back into print, Moray Dalton (really Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir) resembles the Crime Queens in many ways, having a decided knack for narrative and characterization. Yet for me she is a bit less “posh” (there’s that word again) of a writer than Sayers, Allingham and Marsh and explores sexual and class dynamics in Thirties and Forties Britain in more original ways. See, for example, Death in the Cup and The Strange Case of Harriet Hall, which have some truly striking and refreshing situations. I think that Dalton, who seems to have lived life as something of a privileged outsider, may have been more of a forerunner of the modern crime novel than these other, more famous women, estimable as they are. Her primary sleuth, Hugh Collier, is an appealing young police detective."
★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoyed Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None where there were 10 individuals on an island, one of whom is a murderer that is slowly killing off the others, then you are sure to enjoy Moray Dalton's similar story.

Christie wrote her book in 1939 and it became wildly successful; Dalton's was written in 1929 and has been pretty much off mystery reader's minds — that is until the reissuance of her books.

In all, Dalton — whose real name was Katherine Mary Deville Dalton Renoir — wrote nearly 30 novels in her life time, starting with One by One They Disappeared.

And it's a good mystery. A wealthy American, Elbert Pakenham, is holding an annual dinner for the nine men, who, including himself, were the only survivors of the sinking of the ship Coptic. Pakenham, who has no relatives, has made the men who helped him survive that harrowing event the beneficiaries in his will.

But something is sadly afoot. At the most recent dinner, only two men show up, and slowly all the survivors are dying of what seems to be accidents. The death of one of the men who attended the dinner, so soon after the event, trigger the interest of Scotland Yard Inspector Hugh Collier who decides to investigate. It is soon obvious that it is murder for financial gain, especially when Pakenham himself disappears.

Collier checks in with those that are still alive, digging for clues as to who it could be and where he will hit next. It leads to an interesting thriller and a very enjoyable read.

[Merit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elbert J. Pakenham, an American, has left his fortune to his fellow survivors of a sunken ship - but one by one they started to disappear.

Dean Street Press is publishing 'forgotten' Golden Age mystery writers and it is interesting to compare and contrast against the other more well known authors. Dalton, unlike Christie, more firmly cements her detective and mystery into a time and place, as well as the far reaching impacts of WWI (or simply the Great War back then). However, the mystery is weaker and I'm generally not the greatest sleuth, but I guessed the murderer well before the denouement. Had a slightly more gothic flare, with the heroine in peril and darkly mysterious love interest. The detective in question, Hugh Collier, didn't particularly distinguish himself but perhaps he does in future instalments.

Minor value dissonance over who was originally deemed more suitable for the heroine.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on his showing in his first outing, Collier never should have made it into another book! The choice to make a secondary character into the brains in this one, and let the sleuth bumble along like a Watson, is an unusual one, and I wasn't mad about it. On the other hand, I appreciated Pakenham's astute handling of the situation, and since in future books, Collier will fill his role, and the plot won't be nearly as obviously bread-crumbed for us, this first story serves as a marker for how much better the story-telling becomes.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although quite nicely written, the plot of this story is barely credible. It was far too easy to guess who the murderer was although his motive was initially rather confusing (to me, anyway). Inspector Collier is a likeable and humane copper and as this was his first outing, I will certainly give him another try to see how the author develops him.

[Susan in NC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars -Fun Golden Age mystery, Dalton’s first starring her likable Scotland Yard inspector, Hugh Collier.

I’ve read a few of her mysteries, and find them entertaining but tainted with the racist and sexist tropes of the 1920s, fair warning to readers. She also has a taste for melodramatic flourishes and evil criminal masterminds, usually revealed at the end - I saw this one coming, and for once I was right!

The story opens with Collier arriving at a hotel to meet friends for dinner, and befriending an elderly American sitting with a large black cat. Collierrecognizes the con men sitting with the old man and gives warning- they strike up a conversation and Hugh realizes Mr. Pakenham is no clueless old fella, he’s a successful American businessman. He’s in London for an annual reunion- he was on a ship torpedoed in WWI, and made it into a lifeboat with several other younger men (and the black kitten he found scratching on his cabin door as the ship went down). He was ill, but his fellow passengers kept him alive until they were rescued. He comes over and hosts the reunion every year, giving generous gifts and helping his friends where he can. He has made out his will in favor of his rescuers - whoever survives him will share his fortune.

There is a poor turnout for the reunion, and Collier’s curiosity is aroused - turns out he’s right, as a few of the survivors have recently died in seeming accidents…then Mr. Pakenham disappears, and Collier’s best friend and fellow policeman, helping him unofficially track down the other survivors, suffers a terrible accident that turns out to be no accident, and was clearly aimed at Collier.

A lot going on, but it is fun and entertaining, until the very end - everything is tidied up neatly, but one resolution bothered me. No spoilers, but I went back to reread the concerning bits, and could find no clear explanation. I knocked off 1/2 star for it, seemed clumsy and pointless.

[J. Rubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elderly American millionaire, Elbert Packenham travels to England annually to host a dinner, and present gifts to the eight men who kept him alive during a shipwreck. He has recently decided to make a will dividing his fortune among his saviors, the division that will increase in benefit should any of them die before Packenham. Not all of the men attend the dinner, and afterward it's discovered that a few of them have mysteriously died.
Indigent orphan Corinna Lacy is taken in by her older cousin and trustee, Wilfred Stark, who is the neighbor to Gilbert Freyne, one of Packenham's saviors. When Packenham eludes a plot to do him in, author Dalton's series detective, Inspector Collier, takes on the case, and Freyne becomes the primary suspect.
An interesting premise and solid opening give way to a convoluted plot and unconvincing coincidences, and the criminal mastermind is pretty easy to spot early on. There is very little that's unique or interesting in Inspector Collier (I haven't read others in the series), although I do think there is some merit in reviving the work of minor Golden Age writers. I'll certainly try another of Dalton's books, but this one was no more than fair.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25*

The lure of new editions and beautiful covers... As it happens, this was an unexpectedly brilliant read!

I had never heard of Moray Dalton, or of her sleuth, Inspector Hugh Collier, but this first title in the series proved to be a page-turner. A wealthy American, having no remaining heir, decides to make his fellow survivors, from the sinking of a ship years prior, joint beneficiaries in his will. All very good but the members of this small group start disappearing in mysterious ways, something Collier stumbles across when he meets Mr Pakenham by chance.

The premise in itself was intriguing, but the treatment was even better. The narration is shared between several key characters, and each of them did surprise me. Somehow I was expecting a following of stereotypes, to a certain degree, but Dalton confounds you with her choices and portrayal, some indeed very modern. Also, one of the best cats on page :O)

[JJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Golden age crime

I’d never heard of Moray Dalton. I don’t know why she isn’t ranked alongside the other Golden Age of crime writers.
This was an interesting book about a group of people who meet once a year slowly getting bumped off.
Inspector Collier is on hand to investigate though for quite a while he is completely baffled with only his natural instinct to go on.
He is aided here but and old, though sprightly, rich American who has a great deal of common sense and at whose annually dinner the victims were guests.
The language is a bit old stiff upper-lip type of thing but the story holds your attention.
An interesting easy read.

[Gypsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elbert J. Pakenham holds a yearly dinner for his fellow survivors of a tragic accident. As he is very wealthy with no heirs, he tells these men that he has left his fortune to be divided among them. Unfortunately, by doing this Pakenham has given someone a reason to murder.

This is the first book to feature Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard, a likable character with realistic fallibility. The plot is complex, with clever false trails and a particularly good twist, and though it does stretch credulity at times it was thoroughly enjoyable.

[Calum Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

B–:

The beginning feels rushed and lazy in that there isn't enough to justify Collier's investigations in the first place. The bad guy is extremely guessable from about halfway through. And it's impossible not to compare this unfavourably to J.J. Connington's uber-meticulous and utterly perfect "The Sweepstake Murders", published three years later.

Nevertheless, the writing is modern for the time. The characters are interesting. There are a couple of unexpected story beats. Overall, and for the first of a series, quite good.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "Golden Age" mystery by an author I had never heard of. The main characters were naive and lacked logic throughout, so it was very frustrating all the way through. The way they all leapt to assumptions without a shred of evidence that would withstand a moment's questioning; and, in one case, those unquestioning assumptions actively put the heroine in danger. She was singularly unable to help herself throughout. May read more to see if they get better as the author got more comfortable with the genre, but it was disappointing.

[reveurdart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first one with Inspector Hugh Collier and I enjoyed it immensely! I actually guessed the culprit pretty much from the first scene the character is in, but that did not take anything away from my utter enjoyment in the whodunit: learning how and why the culprit does it was a true mystery to me (even though at first the culprits agenda seemed obvious!), as well as who the culprits real identity is .
The story has well defined characterizations that made it all believable to me. There is a love story, too, and there is a scene later in the book where one of the characters are found and they are reunited with each other that made me tear up. Beautifully done!

[Todayiamadaisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be a cracking Golden Age Detective read. An amiable American millionaire comes to London for his annual dinner with fellow shipwreck survivors, only to be disappointed when only two others turn up. A passing Scotland Yard detective pokes his nose in, and soon finds that the group is being bumped off, one by one, in a plot more complicated than it first seems. (Warning: Off-page, but still mentioned, the murderer also murders some pets, which is upsetting.)

[Jacqueline Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not in Miss Christie's league, but enjoyable nonetheless. The narrative and characters disappointingly wispy but the plot and the fast-paced storytelling kept me hooked to the end regardless. I'll happily spend more afternoons in the company of Dalton's Inspector Collier.....now, what to read next??........