CLASSIC CRIME
THE ART SCHOOL MURDERS by Moray Dalton (Dean Street Press, £10.99, 214 pp)
THE ART SCHOOL MURDERS
by Moray Dalton (Dean Street Press, £10.99, 214 pp)
A life-class model, a woman of some notoriety as a sexual predator, is found murdered at her place of work, an art school built on high ideals but down on its luck.
Called in to track down the killer, Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard finds himself with a wide choice of suspects.
These include a past student with a crush on the model, a teacher always in the wrong place at the wrong time and the school’s founder, a famous artist whose mercurial temper is liable to spill over into violence. Written at the height of the war, the author relies on shadowy movements in the blackout to heighten a tantalising mystery that involves two more murders before Collier can bring the perpetrator to book.
Hiding behind a pseudonym that disguises her sex, it’s high time that Moray Dalton took her rightful place as one of the Queens of Crime.
MAIGRET’S MISTAKE by Georges Simenon (Penguin £7.99, 176 pp)
MAIGRET’S MISTAKE
by Georges Simenon (Penguin £7.99, 176 pp)
A young woman is found shot dead at close range. Crimes of passion are routine for Inspector Maigret, but this case is way out of the ordinary.
The victim is the mistress of a high-profile surgeon who lives with his wife in a neighbouring apartment.
Maigret evades a confrontation with the prime suspect, choosing instead to delve into the life of the murdered girl. This brings the surgeon into focus. He is a brilliant and dedicated saver of lives as well as a heartless philanderer who exploits women merely for sexual release.
A battle of wills takes Maigret into uncharted territory, where it is all too easy for him, and for us, to misread the map.
UNRAVELLED KNOTS by Baroness Orczy (Pushkin Press £8.99, 284 pp)
UNRAVELLED KNOTS
by Baroness Orczy (Pushkin Press £8.99, 284 pp)
Baroness Orczy rang the changes on her leading characters. While the Scarlet Pimpernel is a reckless man of action, her Tea House Detective barely exerts himself, except to lift a cup or to engage in the irritating habit of making knots in a bit of string.
Yet his deductive powers are such as to provide a young woman journalist with ingenious solutions to cases that have baffled the police.
Conspiracy looms large in this collection of short stories, part of the Teahouse Detective series, which range from a financial scam of more than usual ingenuity to a plot to commit cold-blooded murder.
At times it is hard to accept that the police are quite so dim-witted, but we can forgive much of an author who probes so astutely into the criminal imagination.