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Inspector French #7
Mystery in the Channel
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"Not only is this a first-rate puzzler, but Crofts' outrage over the financial firm's betrayal of the public trust should resonate with today's readers." —Booklist STARRED review
The Chichester is making a routine journey across the English Channel on a pleasant afternoon in June, when the steamer's crew notice something strange. A yacht, bobbing about in the water ahead of them, appears to have been abandoned, and there is a dark red stain on the deck... Two bodies later, with no sign of a gun, there certainly is a mystery in the channel.
Inspector French soon discovers a world of high-powered banking, luxury yachts and international double-dealing. British and French coastal towns, harbours—and of course the Channel itself—provide an alluring backdrop to this nautical adventure, along with a cast of shady characters.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1931
167 people are currently reading
573 people want to read
About the author
Freeman Wills Crofts
140 books88 followersBorn 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
February 10, 2017
There are times, when life is busy, when a vintage literary mystery is the perfect bookish prescription. When I needed that prescription I picked up this book, and it was perfect.
It begins with a passenger ferry in the English channel, sailing from Newhaven to Dieppe. Captain Hewitt sees a yacht adrift, with a man lying motionless on the deck. He sends a small boarding party and they find that the man has been shot dead, as has another man they find in the cabin.
There is no sign of a murder weapon, or the murderer.
Another man arrives on a motor launch. He is John Patrick Nolan, and he had come to join two of his partners in Moxon’s General Securities on a business trip, to meet a French financier named Pasteur in Fécamp. He identifies the two dead men as Paul Moxon, chairman of the firm, and his vice-chairman, Sydney Deeping.
Back in England the investigation falls to the Sussex Police, and to Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard.
It appeared that Moxon’s General Securities was on the verge of collapse: and that maybe the partners, unable to meet their obligations, were fleeing the country with £1.5 million pounds in cash that was missing from the company’s strong room.
The investigation would be complex. It took in many people involved with and affected by events at the failing finance house; detailed nautical calculations and timetables; and the serial numbers and whereabouts of the missing notes.
It wasn’t difficult to follow. I didn’t try to work too much out, but I enjoyed watching capable professionals doing their jobs; and following the investigation and all of different developments.
The plot was very well constructed.
The characters were drawn simply; just clearly enough to allow the story to move forward.
Many of the details if the story still resonate: particularly the business failure, the executives abdicating responsibility and absconding, and ordinary people suffering life-changing losses. Technology has changed, the figures have changed, but almost everything else would be exactly the same today.
I appreciated that many of those working on the investigation had genuine concern for the families of the dead men and for the many people affected by the collapse of Moxons.
There are many days when I would rather read a mystery with more complex characters, with a plot that held more surprises, and with a story that was a little more profound.
But on the day that I read this book it had exactly the right amount of mystery and real human interest to engage and to entertain.
It begins with a passenger ferry in the English channel, sailing from Newhaven to Dieppe. Captain Hewitt sees a yacht adrift, with a man lying motionless on the deck. He sends a small boarding party and they find that the man has been shot dead, as has another man they find in the cabin.
There is no sign of a murder weapon, or the murderer.
Another man arrives on a motor launch. He is John Patrick Nolan, and he had come to join two of his partners in Moxon’s General Securities on a business trip, to meet a French financier named Pasteur in Fécamp. He identifies the two dead men as Paul Moxon, chairman of the firm, and his vice-chairman, Sydney Deeping.
Back in England the investigation falls to the Sussex Police, and to Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard.
It appeared that Moxon’s General Securities was on the verge of collapse: and that maybe the partners, unable to meet their obligations, were fleeing the country with £1.5 million pounds in cash that was missing from the company’s strong room.
The investigation would be complex. It took in many people involved with and affected by events at the failing finance house; detailed nautical calculations and timetables; and the serial numbers and whereabouts of the missing notes.
It wasn’t difficult to follow. I didn’t try to work too much out, but I enjoyed watching capable professionals doing their jobs; and following the investigation and all of different developments.
The plot was very well constructed.
The characters were drawn simply; just clearly enough to allow the story to move forward.
Many of the details if the story still resonate: particularly the business failure, the executives abdicating responsibility and absconding, and ordinary people suffering life-changing losses. Technology has changed, the figures have changed, but almost everything else would be exactly the same today.
I appreciated that many of those working on the investigation had genuine concern for the families of the dead men and for the many people affected by the collapse of Moxons.
There are many days when I would rather read a mystery with more complex characters, with a plot that held more surprises, and with a story that was a little more profound.
But on the day that I read this book it had exactly the right amount of mystery and real human interest to engage and to entertain.
August 11, 2022
Very much a procedural study of the combinations of police forces for the murders at sea in the Channel.
You will like this one most if you LOVE deduction exercises of great length. Detailed all.
One of the more interesting aspects to me was the level of colloquial language and phrasings that hold some meanings which have been lost since this was written. "Calling back the dogs" and quite a few others that I had never heard at all being cliched during this period. Some had to be defined later in the conversations. I was grateful. I always think the 1925-35 period in particular is also good for intrigue re class differences or consciousness. Not only in England but especially so. It is one of my favorite times of all for not only fiction reads.
Stereotypes of ethnic or country of origin or vast generalizations to class are made repeatedly upon languages or ancestries. To points that are not at all PC in fiction any longer. All the characters here seemed not to care in the least. In fact, some of the foreign consider it welcome or almost funny.
I enjoyed it overall and the double twist. The long passages upon ships, boats and their speeds will put some eyes to glace. It gets very mechanical/ technical.
You will like this one most if you LOVE deduction exercises of great length. Detailed all.
One of the more interesting aspects to me was the level of colloquial language and phrasings that hold some meanings which have been lost since this was written. "Calling back the dogs" and quite a few others that I had never heard at all being cliched during this period. Some had to be defined later in the conversations. I was grateful. I always think the 1925-35 period in particular is also good for intrigue re class differences or consciousness. Not only in England but especially so. It is one of my favorite times of all for not only fiction reads.
Stereotypes of ethnic or country of origin or vast generalizations to class are made repeatedly upon languages or ancestries. To points that are not at all PC in fiction any longer. All the characters here seemed not to care in the least. In fact, some of the foreign consider it welcome or almost funny.
I enjoyed it overall and the double twist. The long passages upon ships, boats and their speeds will put some eyes to glace. It gets very mechanical/ technical.
August 24, 2021
First published in 1931, this is the seventh book in the Inspector French series. Although I love Golden Age crime, I have to admit I found this deadly dull, despite the promising blurb.
A steamer, travelling to Dieppe, sees a yacht floating with what looks like a body on board. In fact, there are two bodies on the yacht, who turn out to be the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Moxon General Securities. It later turns out that the financial house were on the brink of collapse, a huge amount of money has gone missing and the case is turned over to Scotland Yard.
I would like to say this interesting beginning to a mystery was, well, interesting, but it wasn't. Nor was the rest of the book as French painstakingly investigates every clue and unearths possible motives, proof and suspects. By this time I had, though, lost the will to live and couldn't even raise any enthusiasm for the ending. I know Poirot, and his little grey cells, was less realistic, but he was also a thousand times more entertaining...
A steamer, travelling to Dieppe, sees a yacht floating with what looks like a body on board. In fact, there are two bodies on the yacht, who turn out to be the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Moxon General Securities. It later turns out that the financial house were on the brink of collapse, a huge amount of money has gone missing and the case is turned over to Scotland Yard.
I would like to say this interesting beginning to a mystery was, well, interesting, but it wasn't. Nor was the rest of the book as French painstakingly investigates every clue and unearths possible motives, proof and suspects. By this time I had, though, lost the will to live and couldn't even raise any enthusiasm for the ending. I know Poirot, and his little grey cells, was less realistic, but he was also a thousand times more entertaining...
April 16, 2018
This was my second Inspector French mystery, which I preferred to the first, The Hog’s Back Mystery. My primary complaint about The Hog’s Back Mystery was that it got bogged down in tedious detailing of the clues, and that Crofts skimped on supporting character development, resulting in characters who were difficult to tell apart.
To be quite frank, those complaints remained in this installment, albeit to a lesser degree. The book begins with a bang – a steamer finds a yacht dead in the water, with two dead bodies on board. From there, it is towed back to port, where the dead are speedily identified and the search for the murderer commences.
Thinking back on the book at its conclusion, I do not think that there was a single female character in this book. Inspector French may have spoken to a female shopkeeper at some point during the tale while he was canvassing for information about a suspect, but, if he did, it was in such passing that it didn’t register with me at all. Every character of consequence in this book was a man.
It is quickly established that the two victims were principals in a financial firm which was on the brink of failure. It being 1931, there was no taxpayer funded Troubled Assets Recovery Program available to bail out the firm, or its clients, which resulted in thousands of ordinary Brits losing their fortunes, such as they were. It was also quickly established that someone had looted whatever was left of the money, and that the murders appeared to have something to do with this financial chicanery.
I loved this aspect of the book. It was, in fact, a “strikingly modern subtext.” I, like the Assistant Commissioner quoted below, find the fraudulent machinations of the already wealthy to enrich their already overflowing pockets, disgusting:
“The Assistant Commissioner was a man who, while utterly relentless in his war on crime, not infrequently showed a surprising sympathy with the criminal. He always deplored the punishment of the out-of-work or the poorly paid, who, seeing his family in want, had stolen to relieve their immediate needs. Even on occasion he had surprised French by expressing regret as to the fate of the murderers. Murderers, he held, were by no means necessarily hardened criminals. In their ranks, they numbered some of the most decent and inoffensive of men. But for the wealthy thief who stole by the manipulation of stocks and shares and other less creditable means known to high finance, whether actually within or without the limits of the law, he had only the most profound enmity and contempt.”
Trump University, anyone? To the wealthy of 2018, the poor and middle class are merely marks, and there is a sucker born every minute. How I wonder what Freeman Wills Crofts and the Assistant Commissioner would’ve thought of the band of vulpine thieves in charge of our public treasury?
Anyway, Inspector French is a rather plodding character, but in a good way. He is, perhaps, not given to flashes of insight, but he is thorough, and good police work is its own reward. Through many twists and turns and blind alleys and dead ends, he does arrive at the correct solution.
There was, again, some tedious alibi deconstruction, with time tables and analysis of ocean currents and wind direction. I’ve realized that I do not care about these things – I am not going to pull out a pad of paper and start making a little table of distances and times to see if I, before Inspector French, can bust an alibi. I just want to be entertained to the end of the tale, and this minutiae does not entertain me. This particular book is mentioned in Chapter 13 of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, Scientific Inquiries, on the strength of this element. Apparently Crofts was an engineer, and put that background to work in his fiction.
The problem with characterization persisted in this book and was amplified by the fact that every single character of note, as I stated above, was a middle-aged white guy of moderate wealth and education. There were several occasions where a name came up that I didn’t immediately recognize, but it was clear that this character had been introduced before, so I had to flip backwards in the book to try to identify exactly who it was.
I enjoyed it enough that I will continue to explore Inspector French, but I wish that Crofts would let him off the chain a bit. The man barely has a personal life, and he seems like a decent guy. Give him a vacation, for god’s sake!
To be quite frank, those complaints remained in this installment, albeit to a lesser degree. The book begins with a bang – a steamer finds a yacht dead in the water, with two dead bodies on board. From there, it is towed back to port, where the dead are speedily identified and the search for the murderer commences.
Thinking back on the book at its conclusion, I do not think that there was a single female character in this book. Inspector French may have spoken to a female shopkeeper at some point during the tale while he was canvassing for information about a suspect, but, if he did, it was in such passing that it didn’t register with me at all. Every character of consequence in this book was a man.
It is quickly established that the two victims were principals in a financial firm which was on the brink of failure. It being 1931, there was no taxpayer funded Troubled Assets Recovery Program available to bail out the firm, or its clients, which resulted in thousands of ordinary Brits losing their fortunes, such as they were. It was also quickly established that someone had looted whatever was left of the money, and that the murders appeared to have something to do with this financial chicanery.
I loved this aspect of the book. It was, in fact, a “strikingly modern subtext.” I, like the Assistant Commissioner quoted below, find the fraudulent machinations of the already wealthy to enrich their already overflowing pockets, disgusting:
“The Assistant Commissioner was a man who, while utterly relentless in his war on crime, not infrequently showed a surprising sympathy with the criminal. He always deplored the punishment of the out-of-work or the poorly paid, who, seeing his family in want, had stolen to relieve their immediate needs. Even on occasion he had surprised French by expressing regret as to the fate of the murderers. Murderers, he held, were by no means necessarily hardened criminals. In their ranks, they numbered some of the most decent and inoffensive of men. But for the wealthy thief who stole by the manipulation of stocks and shares and other less creditable means known to high finance, whether actually within or without the limits of the law, he had only the most profound enmity and contempt.”
Trump University, anyone? To the wealthy of 2018, the poor and middle class are merely marks, and there is a sucker born every minute. How I wonder what Freeman Wills Crofts and the Assistant Commissioner would’ve thought of the band of vulpine thieves in charge of our public treasury?
Anyway, Inspector French is a rather plodding character, but in a good way. He is, perhaps, not given to flashes of insight, but he is thorough, and good police work is its own reward. Through many twists and turns and blind alleys and dead ends, he does arrive at the correct solution.
There was, again, some tedious alibi deconstruction, with time tables and analysis of ocean currents and wind direction. I’ve realized that I do not care about these things – I am not going to pull out a pad of paper and start making a little table of distances and times to see if I, before Inspector French, can bust an alibi. I just want to be entertained to the end of the tale, and this minutiae does not entertain me. This particular book is mentioned in Chapter 13 of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, Scientific Inquiries, on the strength of this element. Apparently Crofts was an engineer, and put that background to work in his fiction.
The problem with characterization persisted in this book and was amplified by the fact that every single character of note, as I stated above, was a middle-aged white guy of moderate wealth and education. There were several occasions where a name came up that I didn’t immediately recognize, but it was clear that this character had been introduced before, so I had to flip backwards in the book to try to identify exactly who it was.
I enjoyed it enough that I will continue to explore Inspector French, but I wish that Crofts would let him off the chain a bit. The man barely has a personal life, and he seems like a decent guy. Give him a vacation, for god’s sake!
July 9, 2022
"The little yacht, with its fine lines and finish, its white deck and gleaming brasswork, its fresh paint and brightly coloured club flag, looked what it so obviously was, a rich man's toy, a craft given over to pleasure. On such the tragic and the sordid were out of place. Yet now they reigned supreme. The space which should fittingly have resounded with the laughs of pretty women and the voices of immaculately clad men, was empty, empty save for that hunched figure and that sinister stain with its hideous suggestion."
Two dead men were found on a yacht adrift in the English Channel, and Scotland Yard's Inspector French was assigned to the case. The murdered men were partners in Moxon's General Securities. Rumors were circulating that the financial firm was unstable and about to crash.
Inspector French is a hardworking detective with an eye for details. He works methodically using railroad timetables, shipping patterns, speeds of various types of boats, and other maritime details. There are lots of red herrings as the Inspector investigates in both England and France.
This is a plot-driven 1931 Golden Age Mystery featuring meticulous investigation of a puzzle. There is not much character development of Inspector French or any of the other characters. French is not colorful or a genius, but he is a detective to respect. While "Mystery in the Channel" was a well-written book, I tend to prefer books with more character development. 3.5 stars
Two dead men were found on a yacht adrift in the English Channel, and Scotland Yard's Inspector French was assigned to the case. The murdered men were partners in Moxon's General Securities. Rumors were circulating that the financial firm was unstable and about to crash.
Inspector French is a hardworking detective with an eye for details. He works methodically using railroad timetables, shipping patterns, speeds of various types of boats, and other maritime details. There are lots of red herrings as the Inspector investigates in both England and France.
This is a plot-driven 1931 Golden Age Mystery featuring meticulous investigation of a puzzle. There is not much character development of Inspector French or any of the other characters. French is not colorful or a genius, but he is a detective to respect. While "Mystery in the Channel" was a well-written book, I tend to prefer books with more character development. 3.5 stars
January 10, 2020
Now this is more like it for a mystery. Instead of the 'cozy' type with silly women pretending to be detectives or curmudgeon police officers who have little to recomend them, Inspector French does his job and does it well. I found this 1930s mystery to be refreshing in that it concentrated on the murders, and not on the detective's backstory as so many modern mystery novels do. I will be reading more.
February 4, 2017
Inspector French of Scotland Yard’s C.I.D. isn’t a genius like Dame Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. He’s not flamboyant like Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey or Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion. He’s not colorful and likable like John Bude’s Inspector William Meredith. He’s not a curmudgeon like Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs. Beatrice Bradley, Gil North’s Sergeant Cluff, or Anthony Berkeley’s Roger Sheringham. He’s not debonair like Ngaio Marsh’s Chief Inspector Roderick Allen or Josephine Tey’s Allan Grant. Lastly, he’s not a deceptively timid old lady like Christie’s Miss Jane Marple or Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Maud Silver.
What Inspector French is, is a nondescript but earnest and persistent English policeman from the Golden Age of detective fiction and the hero of a series of cozies penned by the Anglo-Irish author Freeman Wills Crofts. First published in 1931, Mystery in the Channel, the seventh in that series, traces French’s investigation of the murder of two financier scoundrels at sea as they were on their way to absconding with £1.5 million (the equivalent of £92 million or U.S.$113.7 million today). Someone somehow climbed aboard their yacht when the two would-be embezzlers, Paul Moxon and Sydney Deeping, were on the English Channel en route to France and shot both of them dead, making off with the loot. The two-dimensional French, with the help of French police, plods through his investigation and eventually gets his man in this pedestrian mystery.
While I chafe at the realization that Patricia Wentworth, John Bude, and Josephine Tey don’t get the attention they’re due, I fully understand why Freeman Wills Crofts, nearly 60 years after his death in 1957, is all but forgotten. Set this one aside for when you haven’t anything better.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
What Inspector French is, is a nondescript but earnest and persistent English policeman from the Golden Age of detective fiction and the hero of a series of cozies penned by the Anglo-Irish author Freeman Wills Crofts. First published in 1931, Mystery in the Channel, the seventh in that series, traces French’s investigation of the murder of two financier scoundrels at sea as they were on their way to absconding with £1.5 million (the equivalent of £92 million or U.S.$113.7 million today). Someone somehow climbed aboard their yacht when the two would-be embezzlers, Paul Moxon and Sydney Deeping, were on the English Channel en route to France and shot both of them dead, making off with the loot. The two-dimensional French, with the help of French police, plods through his investigation and eventually gets his man in this pedestrian mystery.
While I chafe at the realization that Patricia Wentworth, John Bude, and Josephine Tey don’t get the attention they’re due, I fully understand why Freeman Wills Crofts, nearly 60 years after his death in 1957, is all but forgotten. Set this one aside for when you haven’t anything better.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
August 23, 2021
3.5-4 stars for Inspector French and the excellent narrator. I enjoyed this golden age mystery, very much of it’s time with much tedious police work for French and his fellow officers in England, France and even a side trip to Wales. Written in 1931, there are none of the modern technological timesavers, there are several trips back and forth to check out every detail as French doggedly tries to solve two murders. Timeless, as a financial collapse, embezzlement and greed play a central role.
The ferry between England and France comes across a motionless yacht in the Channel, two men who’ve been shot are found on board, and a trail of blood indicates the murderer may have been injured.
I like French as a detective, and enjoy his low-key style, doggedness, and his banter with his fellow detectives - it both relieves the tedium of their work, and shows the bonds formed amid the routine interlarded with danger.
I zoned out a bit with the descriptions of boats and talk of serial numbers on bills, and the workings of an investment house of the era, but was amazed at the details French had to pursue to build his case. It wasn’t just the feeling one usually gets from a police procedural, of walking into a movie in the middle and trying to grasp the plot - in this case, from two dead bodies on a boat, and the subsequent knowledge the firm they headed was about to crash - but, here, with French, I felt as if he was handed a book with blank pages, and told to figure out the entire plot!
There was a lot going on - why were the men on the yacht, how had the embezzlement been pulled off, where were the other partners, who was the murderer, where was the murderer now? It was fascinating to read along as French painstakingly investigated, interviewed, traveled about, tested his theories, etc. A murder case had to be air tight, as, back then, the killer would hang; the white collar crime and subsequent crash would destroy the financial hopes and plans of so many. I have always understood financial crimes were tedious and complicated to persecute, I can see why, watching French’s efforts!
Very interesting and enjoyable, with an exciting and unexpected finish- just when French feels defeated, thinks every avenue and suspect has been exhausted, he pulls the case out of the fire and triumphs in the end! I definitely want to read more by this author.
The ferry between England and France comes across a motionless yacht in the Channel, two men who’ve been shot are found on board, and a trail of blood indicates the murderer may have been injured.
I like French as a detective, and enjoy his low-key style, doggedness, and his banter with his fellow detectives - it both relieves the tedium of their work, and shows the bonds formed amid the routine interlarded with danger.
I zoned out a bit with the descriptions of boats and talk of serial numbers on bills, and the workings of an investment house of the era, but was amazed at the details French had to pursue to build his case. It wasn’t just the feeling one usually gets from a police procedural, of walking into a movie in the middle and trying to grasp the plot - in this case, from two dead bodies on a boat, and the subsequent knowledge the firm they headed was about to crash - but, here, with French, I felt as if he was handed a book with blank pages, and told to figure out the entire plot!
There was a lot going on - why were the men on the yacht, how had the embezzlement been pulled off, where were the other partners, who was the murderer, where was the murderer now? It was fascinating to read along as French painstakingly investigated, interviewed, traveled about, tested his theories, etc. A murder case had to be air tight, as, back then, the killer would hang; the white collar crime and subsequent crash would destroy the financial hopes and plans of so many. I have always understood financial crimes were tedious and complicated to persecute, I can see why, watching French’s efforts!
Very interesting and enjoyable, with an exciting and unexpected finish- just when French feels defeated, thinks every avenue and suspect has been exhausted, he pulls the case out of the fire and triumphs in the end! I definitely want to read more by this author.
September 17, 2016
A boat is found adrift in the English Channel with two dead bodies on board. How did the murderer escape and who was the murderer? When the two men are identified as being partners in the firm of Moxon Securities which is in a precarious financial state with a large amount of cash missing from its strong room it seems as though they may have been trying to flee the country. There is no trace of the missing £1.5 million.
Inspector French has his work cut out to track down the missing money and the murderer and it will involve him in many trips to France and a nail biting denouement as French puts his own life at risk in the interests of justice. I think this is a well written and well plotted mystery. I didn't work out who the murderer was but I really enjoyed following the detail of French's investigation and the way all the information was pieced together.
This book has many aspects which are relevant to the modern world even though it was written in the early nineteen thirties - big financial institutions going bust and ordinary people losing their life savings and people in positions of trust absconding with money which doesn't belong to them. The details of course would be different today with the advent of computer technology but the principles are very much the same. I thought the details of timetables and the sea faring aspects were reasonably easy to follow even if you don't have much knowledge of the sea and boats.
Inspector French has his work cut out to track down the missing money and the murderer and it will involve him in many trips to France and a nail biting denouement as French puts his own life at risk in the interests of justice. I think this is a well written and well plotted mystery. I didn't work out who the murderer was but I really enjoyed following the detail of French's investigation and the way all the information was pieced together.
This book has many aspects which are relevant to the modern world even though it was written in the early nineteen thirties - big financial institutions going bust and ordinary people losing their life savings and people in positions of trust absconding with money which doesn't belong to them. The details of course would be different today with the advent of computer technology but the principles are very much the same. I thought the details of timetables and the sea faring aspects were reasonably easy to follow even if you don't have much knowledge of the sea and boats.
April 16, 2023
This is a police procedural par excellence. I would have given it five stars but there was one point overlooked by French that I spotted straight away which would have helped him solve the case much more quickly. As always, FWC played fair with the reader by giving access to all French's thoughts and deductions throughout which enabled me to figure out what had happened. I am sure that many readers would find the mass of detail over complicated and possibly even boring but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Goodreads synopsis explains the plot well so I don't need to go into it.
Highly recommended for lovers of classic British crime stories.
Highly recommended for lovers of classic British crime stories.
February 23, 2017
When a book succeeds as spectacularly as Gone Girl, people are eager to replicate the phenomenon. Now we have scores of books with unreliable narrators and plot twists that are supposed to elicit an “I didn’t see that coming” reaction. Of course, now that we know the formula, we always see it coming. The real twist today is no twist. That is why I am glad to see Poisoned Pen Press republishing forgotten mysteries from the Golden Era, when twists were how women wore their hair and unreliable usually referred to the weather. In a surfeit of frying pan to fire personal jeopardy thrillers, these books dedicated to logic and linear reasoning are like as refreshing as a long, tall drink of water.
Mystery in the Channel is just such a classic. It was published in 1931 and written by Freeman Wills Crofts, a member of the famed Detection Club. That means he swore his mysteries would be fair and Mystery in the Channel is just the sort of fair, reliable mystery that is a welcome relief from the sometimes overheated thrillers of today.
The mystery begins when a ship transporting rail passengers from England to France discovers a yacht dead in the water—literally dead as the passengers have been shot. The captain is careful and does his job, noting the yacht’s location and the time. He sends the yacht back along with another ship, one that coincidentally carried one of the partners of the murdered men, financiers who run one of the country’s huge investment firms. His name is Nolan and his lucky presence on the scene helps the police with identifying the victims and understanding the situation.
And it is a sticky situation…the victims seem to be scoundrels themselves. Their firm is foundering and they seem to have planned to take the money and run. Inspector French is assigned to the case, and he quickly runs down the list of suspects, painstakingly eliminating them one by one.
Mystery in the Channel is an excellent procedural that never leaves you in the dark while the Inspector is in the know. It is written with humor and passion, restrained and disciplined passion for justice and duty. French and his police associates were rightly outraged on behalf of the people who were victimized by the dead men. There were no bailouts and seventy year old people found themselves impoverished, forced to look for work instead of enjoying retirement. It is not enough to find the killer, he must find the money to help these people.
I enjoyed Mystery in the Channel. Yes, I solved the crime before the end, but then, that is the point. Crofts was not trying to leave us stunned and surprised. He wanted his readers to feel the satisfaction of following the mystery with Inspector French and leaping or casting forward as he did and figuring it out. Crofts provided all the pieces to fit together and trusts us to enjoy the process. I sure did.
Mystery in the Channel will be released on January 3rd. I received an e-galley through NetGalley.
★★★
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Mystery in the Channel is just such a classic. It was published in 1931 and written by Freeman Wills Crofts, a member of the famed Detection Club. That means he swore his mysteries would be fair and Mystery in the Channel is just the sort of fair, reliable mystery that is a welcome relief from the sometimes overheated thrillers of today.
The mystery begins when a ship transporting rail passengers from England to France discovers a yacht dead in the water—literally dead as the passengers have been shot. The captain is careful and does his job, noting the yacht’s location and the time. He sends the yacht back along with another ship, one that coincidentally carried one of the partners of the murdered men, financiers who run one of the country’s huge investment firms. His name is Nolan and his lucky presence on the scene helps the police with identifying the victims and understanding the situation.
And it is a sticky situation…the victims seem to be scoundrels themselves. Their firm is foundering and they seem to have planned to take the money and run. Inspector French is assigned to the case, and he quickly runs down the list of suspects, painstakingly eliminating them one by one.
Mystery in the Channel is an excellent procedural that never leaves you in the dark while the Inspector is in the know. It is written with humor and passion, restrained and disciplined passion for justice and duty. French and his police associates were rightly outraged on behalf of the people who were victimized by the dead men. There were no bailouts and seventy year old people found themselves impoverished, forced to look for work instead of enjoying retirement. It is not enough to find the killer, he must find the money to help these people.
I enjoyed Mystery in the Channel. Yes, I solved the crime before the end, but then, that is the point. Crofts was not trying to leave us stunned and surprised. He wanted his readers to feel the satisfaction of following the mystery with Inspector French and leaping or casting forward as he did and figuring it out. Crofts provided all the pieces to fit together and trusts us to enjoy the process. I sure did.
Mystery in the Channel will be released on January 3rd. I received an e-galley through NetGalley.
★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...
March 26, 2018
This is a vintage murder mystery, written in 1931. I had never heard of Freeman Wills Croft until he was mentioned in Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading but he wrote 33 novels between 1920 and 1951, the most famous of which included Scotland Yard detective Inspector French.
Murder in the Channel begins with the discovery of a yacht drifting in the English Channel. On board are two dead bodies, with no signs of a struggle, no murder weapon and no other people. The two that have been killed were the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of a investment bank which was on the brink of collapse. Inspector French is charged with solving the case. His approach is slow and methodical but absorbing to read. There are no flashes of Holmes or Poirot brilliance: rather he carefully checks and double checks every theory as he goes.
I throughly enjoyed this vintage police procedural. It was something of a comfort read, but the way that the mystery comes together is also very pleasing.
Murder in the Channel begins with the discovery of a yacht drifting in the English Channel. On board are two dead bodies, with no signs of a struggle, no murder weapon and no other people. The two that have been killed were the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of a investment bank which was on the brink of collapse. Inspector French is charged with solving the case. His approach is slow and methodical but absorbing to read. There are no flashes of Holmes or Poirot brilliance: rather he carefully checks and double checks every theory as he goes.
I throughly enjoyed this vintage police procedural. It was something of a comfort read, but the way that the mystery comes together is also very pleasing.
October 8, 2019
My husband bought me this book to read on holiday. Written in 1932, I thought to myself, really he wants me to read this. But what a great book.
The foreword was an interesting read the author, Freeman Wills Crofts, was a prolific writer of his time.
This was a typical 'Who Dun It', before the era of the internet, mobile phone and DNA, so was old fashioned detective work.
When readers reviews say sometimes, 'the book was well written' I often wonder what they mean. To me it sometimes means well written but rubbish story. However, this book was very well written and a good story.
Highly recommended
I am always reading two books at once, hence, my reviews overlap. I book on my kindle and one actual book.
The foreword was an interesting read the author, Freeman Wills Crofts, was a prolific writer of his time.
This was a typical 'Who Dun It', before the era of the internet, mobile phone and DNA, so was old fashioned detective work.
When readers reviews say sometimes, 'the book was well written' I often wonder what they mean. To me it sometimes means well written but rubbish story. However, this book was very well written and a good story.
Highly recommended
I am always reading two books at once, hence, my reviews overlap. I book on my kindle and one actual book.
September 4, 2021
An abandoned yacht is discovered in the English Channel with two dead bodies on board. The dead men turn out to be directors of a financial company which is rumoured to be in difficulties. Inspector French finds himself travelling between France and England as he investigates a puzzling case.
This was a low key investigation without too many dramatic moments, but the plot was intriguing and the novel convincingly showed the progress of a thorough investigation. French follows up every aspect of the case to eliminate his suspects one by one, with careful checking of times and distances and probing interviews.
Enjoyable and intelligent, I liked this mystery for Crofts’ writing style and the insight into the police investigations.
This was a low key investigation without too many dramatic moments, but the plot was intriguing and the novel convincingly showed the progress of a thorough investigation. French follows up every aspect of the case to eliminate his suspects one by one, with careful checking of times and distances and probing interviews.
Enjoyable and intelligent, I liked this mystery for Crofts’ writing style and the insight into the police investigations.
July 10, 2023
First published in 1931, this is a complicated and meticulously plotted financial mystery with many naval details as well. Although this might make it sound boring, it was anything but.
January 2, 2024
Solid read. I picked it up because it involves ships and finance (thanks mom). It was enjoyable following Inspector French around London and the various coastal towns as he methodically did his job.
September 23, 2025
A yacht is found adrift in the English Channel, the two men aboard it are dead. They turn out to have been involved in some dodgy financial dealings. Inspector French is called in investigate. This is a fairly interesting though slow moving mystery. French is an ordinary detective with no aristocratic connections, painstaking and methodical. I enjoyed the description of his relations with his colleague Willis ‘they were good friends, so they called each other insulting names, and explained how little they thought of each other.”
August 17, 2020
Enjoyable 1930s detective novel. Places are better drawn than the characters.
September 21, 2019
A passing ship spots a body on a yacht deserted in the English Channel, and Inspector French is assigned to the case as the mystery deepens. This is a procedural mystery with a step by step account of the police investigation; it reminded me a bit of the first half of a Law and Order episode that went on a little too long before the final twist.
August 10, 2022
Really enjoying the Crofts stories. While they are police procedurals where French is the lead person it actually feels very human and quite at times. In this mystery- a boat is adrift and murder is discovered then after another crime associated with the two victims. The fact that Crofts was able to compress such a huge undertaking to actually solve both these crimes is truly impressive. (I think if a story like this was written today it would be 500 pages or more.) You get to the points in detail along with French though there are others that are also working on elements and share their finds.
Really enjoyable and of course the end was a bit more dramatic. Also you get to travel about to France and other parts of England to investigate and the various different "police" departments each have their own flavor as well.
If you love puzzle plots with a humanity this is for you.
Really enjoyable and of course the end was a bit more dramatic. Also you get to travel about to France and other parts of England to investigate and the various different "police" departments each have their own flavor as well.
If you love puzzle plots with a humanity this is for you.
April 15, 2018
A good procedural mystery with a clever resolution in a similar vein to The Sea Mystery. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com
October 12, 2016
I would like to thank Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy of Mystery In The Channel, a Golden Age police procedural featuring Inspector French of Scotland Yard.
A passenger boat with two dead bodies is found in the English Channel by the cross channel ferry, The Chichester. The local police don't like the look of the case and feel that as the murder happened at sea it is outwith their jurisdiction so they offload it onto the Yard. It soon turns out that the victims are directors of a failing financial firm, Moxons, and that there is a shortfall of £1.5m in their cash reserves. Inspector French must call on all his ingenuity and patience to solve the crime.
The novel is a variation on the locked room puzzle - two dead bodies shot on a boat in the middle of the channel and no gun so murder/suicide is ruled out. How did the murderer get away, where to and who is he? It's fiendish and I didn't have a clue as I blindly followed the author's suggestions. Mr Crofts does an excellent job of putting forward one theory after another only to demolish them as more information comes to light. It is an extremely addictive read which I found impossible to put down as I just had to know what was coming next.
Obviously, as the novel was written in the 30s, some of the period details are quaint like Moxon's failing spectacularly with debts of over £8,000, 000 (more like a bonus for some bankers nowadays!) or the chief constable of Kent being a fast driver so the speedometer hovered between 30 and 50 mph or the human resources they can devote to shadowing suspects but the theme of greedy bankers and the financial misery their failings bring to ordinary people is as relevant today as ever it was.
I must admit that some of the nautical calculations involved in establishing alibis went over my head as it seemed like too much hard work to follow but it is all logical and clearly thought out so it makes sense. In fact the whole novel is cleverly plotted and extremely logical with a linear timeline which makes it a joy to read.
The characterisation isn't up to much but it doesn't need to be as it is a plot driven novel. Each character is developed as much as the plot requires and no more so there is no extraneous detail about troubled childhoods or adulthoods which is so prevalent in modern fiction.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mystery In The Channel, my first but not last taste of Mr Crofts' work, as it is a good old fashioned puzzle which had me baffled so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a very good read.
A passenger boat with two dead bodies is found in the English Channel by the cross channel ferry, The Chichester. The local police don't like the look of the case and feel that as the murder happened at sea it is outwith their jurisdiction so they offload it onto the Yard. It soon turns out that the victims are directors of a failing financial firm, Moxons, and that there is a shortfall of £1.5m in their cash reserves. Inspector French must call on all his ingenuity and patience to solve the crime.
The novel is a variation on the locked room puzzle - two dead bodies shot on a boat in the middle of the channel and no gun so murder/suicide is ruled out. How did the murderer get away, where to and who is he? It's fiendish and I didn't have a clue as I blindly followed the author's suggestions. Mr Crofts does an excellent job of putting forward one theory after another only to demolish them as more information comes to light. It is an extremely addictive read which I found impossible to put down as I just had to know what was coming next.
Obviously, as the novel was written in the 30s, some of the period details are quaint like Moxon's failing spectacularly with debts of over £8,000, 000 (more like a bonus for some bankers nowadays!) or the chief constable of Kent being a fast driver so the speedometer hovered between 30 and 50 mph or the human resources they can devote to shadowing suspects but the theme of greedy bankers and the financial misery their failings bring to ordinary people is as relevant today as ever it was.
I must admit that some of the nautical calculations involved in establishing alibis went over my head as it seemed like too much hard work to follow but it is all logical and clearly thought out so it makes sense. In fact the whole novel is cleverly plotted and extremely logical with a linear timeline which makes it a joy to read.
The characterisation isn't up to much but it doesn't need to be as it is a plot driven novel. Each character is developed as much as the plot requires and no more so there is no extraneous detail about troubled childhoods or adulthoods which is so prevalent in modern fiction.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mystery In The Channel, my first but not last taste of Mr Crofts' work, as it is a good old fashioned puzzle which had me baffled so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a very good read.
August 3, 2020
I love immersing myself in the first half of the last century so, obviously, if I want to read a murder mystery I generally avoid anything after 1960 and give all CSI stuff a wide berth. Most of us know about a good many of the Agatha Christie novels from the books, TV series or movies so the storylines are very familiar. That’s why I have been searching for different authors who were writing at the same time as the queen of crime. She did really overshadow a lot of authors. One of those was Freeman Wills Crofts who wrote 30 Inspector French mysteries.
“Inspector French always set about unravelling each of the mysteries presented him in a workmanlike, exacting manner - this approach sets him apart from most other fictional sleuths.” We, as readers, always know where he is up to and he doesn’t come to any conclusions without us knowing about them. For me this was very reassuring in these troubling times and when we follow French’s methods you can see the massive amount of work - mainly interviewing and re interviewing and working out scenarios that underlies police work 20th or 21st century.
In Mystery in the Channel, the storyline is completely different from an Agatha Christie. “The cross-channel steamer Chichester stops half way to France. A motionless yacht lies in her path. When a party clambers aboard they find a trail of blood and two dead men. Chief Constable Turnbill has to call on inspector French for help in solving the mystery of the Nymph.”
Later in the novel there are some lovely descriptions of the French countryside at Fecamp and Senneville, I’m sure completely changed after nearly 80 years. Although not a thrilling read I found I enjoyed how French eventually overcame all the twists and turns of thisj murder investigation. 3 and a half stars.
“Inspector French always set about unravelling each of the mysteries presented him in a workmanlike, exacting manner - this approach sets him apart from most other fictional sleuths.” We, as readers, always know where he is up to and he doesn’t come to any conclusions without us knowing about them. For me this was very reassuring in these troubling times and when we follow French’s methods you can see the massive amount of work - mainly interviewing and re interviewing and working out scenarios that underlies police work 20th or 21st century.
In Mystery in the Channel, the storyline is completely different from an Agatha Christie. “The cross-channel steamer Chichester stops half way to France. A motionless yacht lies in her path. When a party clambers aboard they find a trail of blood and two dead men. Chief Constable Turnbill has to call on inspector French for help in solving the mystery of the Nymph.”
Later in the novel there are some lovely descriptions of the French countryside at Fecamp and Senneville, I’m sure completely changed after nearly 80 years. Although not a thrilling read I found I enjoyed how French eventually overcame all the twists and turns of thisj murder investigation. 3 and a half stars.
December 10, 2016
Set in 1931,this is a brilliant and throughly engrossing murder mystery. It shows old fashioned deductive police work, devoid of modern computer calculations, if you want to know how fast a boat travels in a certain time scale, you use maps and replicate the voyage using friendly sailors as experts!!
A boat is found abandoned in the English Channel, with the bodies of two dead men on board. Scotland Yard detective French is on the case and we become immersed in Bank fraud, mis- selling of bank securities and stolen diamonds, which makes you realise that the world of banking has always been suspect and dodgy!! Every time we get close to identifying the murderer - up pops evidence to show how wrong we are and off we go again!!
I loved the period detail and this story makes you realise how foot slogging detective work used to be. Truly those were golden days!! Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy.
A boat is found abandoned in the English Channel, with the bodies of two dead men on board. Scotland Yard detective French is on the case and we become immersed in Bank fraud, mis- selling of bank securities and stolen diamonds, which makes you realise that the world of banking has always been suspect and dodgy!! Every time we get close to identifying the murderer - up pops evidence to show how wrong we are and off we go again!!
I loved the period detail and this story makes you realise how foot slogging detective work used to be. Truly those were golden days!! Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy.
August 18, 2017
Two financiers found dead on a boat heading to France. Investment company going under and money missing. What I liked about this book is that it is different than the Holmes/ Poirot type detective where you don't get to follow their train of thought, know everything they did or even all that they found and then you get this denoument where everything is revealed. Shows the true sometimes plodding and not always exciting police work. I'd give it 3 stars but thought about 4- but unfortunately all the details can get a bit boring.
August 18, 2021
The mere circumstance of a pleasure yacht found floating alone in the middle of the English Channel and bearing such a terrible freight (two men obviously shot), was in itself dramatic.
May 31, 2021
Started off really well but could've done with being about 50 pages less. Still an interesting murder/theft/ mystery. It was ok.
July 18, 2021
Because fiction readers like me have an insatiable appetite for murder mysteries, publishers have been reissuing books that were popular in the early days of the genre.
*Mystery in the Channel* was first published in 1931. If you like novels about wealthy Englishmen who say, "Terrible business, that," his book is for you. And when I say Englishmen, I mean just men. There are no women in the book other than a wife and a "girl stenographer," neither of whom say, think, or do anything. There are a couple Frenchmen thrown in for diversity.
And there are boats. Lots of boats. And lots of research into how fast different ones can travel.
A passenger ship plying between England and France encounters a beautiful, becalmed yacht containing two dead men from a London investment company. As Inspector French of Scotland Yard investigates, it turns out that a million and a half pounds sterling are missing from the company. French (his name is confusing for the reader when he deals with French police) keeps coming up with new theories about what exactly happened and new ideas about the perp's identity. But author Freeman Wills Crofts doesn't provide the kinds of clues that enable a reader to make educated guesses: instead he keeps injecting completely new information. Even Victorians like Dickens and Collins were more adept at our contemporary approach to clue dropping.
We can expect to see more of these sorts of books as copyrights run out, but it would be wise to consider that they may not have endured in the cannon for good reasons.
*Mystery in the Channel* was first published in 1931. If you like novels about wealthy Englishmen who say, "Terrible business, that," his book is for you. And when I say Englishmen, I mean just men. There are no women in the book other than a wife and a "girl stenographer," neither of whom say, think, or do anything. There are a couple Frenchmen thrown in for diversity.
And there are boats. Lots of boats. And lots of research into how fast different ones can travel.
A passenger ship plying between England and France encounters a beautiful, becalmed yacht containing two dead men from a London investment company. As Inspector French of Scotland Yard investigates, it turns out that a million and a half pounds sterling are missing from the company. French (his name is confusing for the reader when he deals with French police) keeps coming up with new theories about what exactly happened and new ideas about the perp's identity. But author Freeman Wills Crofts doesn't provide the kinds of clues that enable a reader to make educated guesses: instead he keeps injecting completely new information. Even Victorians like Dickens and Collins were more adept at our contemporary approach to clue dropping.
We can expect to see more of these sorts of books as copyrights run out, but it would be wise to consider that they may not have endured in the cannon for good reasons.
June 17, 2020
A pair of murdered bodies on a boat in the middle of the English Channel, a case of embezzlement and some rough cut diamonds.
It took me a really long time to get into this book at all. The set up is interesting, but the endless plodding details of the police procedure and the failed leads really just made it boring for me. It felt very much “this happened, then this happened, then this happened...”
Such is the step-by-step nature of the book that you’re pretty sure to get the killer before they’re revealed. I don’t think much of Inspector French - I suspected from the first chapters and was certain of the who and how 2/3 of the way through.
The characters also are pretty weak, French in particular had no appeal for me.
Disappointing read all in all.
It took me a really long time to get into this book at all. The set up is interesting, but the endless plodding details of the police procedure and the failed leads really just made it boring for me. It felt very much “this happened, then this happened, then this happened...”
Such is the step-by-step nature of the book that you’re pretty sure to get the killer before they’re revealed. I don’t think much of Inspector French - I suspected from the first chapters and was certain of the who and how 2/3 of the way through.
The characters also are pretty weak, French in particular had no appeal for me.
Disappointing read all in all.
August 13, 2021
An interesting story of a boat found at sea with two dead bodies, which have obviously been murdered. There is no sign of anyone else in or around the boat. The two dead men are identified as partners in a huge financial securities firm, which is rumoured as being in financial trouble. It is found that the business is in fact missing £1.5 million pounds. Inspector French is given the job of finding out who killed these partners and where has the missing money gone. The Inspector has various suspects to investigate, and this takes him over to France on a few occasions, but it also gives him a lot of painstaking work checking bank accounts and trying to trace banknotes.
I found the plot was well thought out, and highly plausible. It also had a gripping finish where Inspector French's life is put at risk.
I went with the flow as to each suspect French was investigating, and didn't have one that I suspected more than the others. So to me this book was a real "who-dun-it". I was pleased that it was all spelt out in the end.
I found the plot was well thought out, and highly plausible. It also had a gripping finish where Inspector French's life is put at risk.
I went with the flow as to each suspect French was investigating, and didn't have one that I suspected more than the others. So to me this book was a real "who-dun-it". I was pleased that it was all spelt out in the end.
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