The End Of Andrew Harrison
A review of The End of Andrew Harrison by Freeman Wills Crofts – 250807
Originally published in 1938, the eighteenth novel in Wills Crofts’ Inspector Joseph French series and going by the alternative title of The Futile Alibi, The End of Andrew Harrison is a locked room murder mystery set on a houseboat. The boat seem unfeasibly large to be pootling around the western reaches of the Thames, but, without a plan of its layout, it might just be my misconception of its size, although it has enough space for two rows of five bedrooms and accommodation for crew and staff.
We enter the world of high finance and, in particular, the exploits of a prominent financier, Andrew Harrison, who disappears on the way back from a business trip to France, prompting speculation that his company is in financial difficulties and a plunge in its share price, leading to the ruin of many and the suicide of three poor souls. Without any contact from Harrison, the family contact Scotland Yard and Chief Inspector French is detailed to investigate.
Harrison then reappears, leading to a revival of the share prices, initiating speculation that this was a ruse to manipulate the market, an allegation fuelled by evidence that Harrison had been buying shares to feather his nest. Then the financier takes his family including his two secretaries, Entrican who looks after business affairs and Markham Crewe, the social side, on the houseboat to enjoy Henley. After a house party Harrison cannot be roused the next day, his room is locked from the inside, the portholes closed and there is a distinct smell of gas. French, recalled to investigate, despite the circumstantial evidence, doubts that it is suicide.
The locked room aspect of the story is well done and told with remarkable clarity. French, with his usual dogged determination and minute attention to detail, through a series of experiments and some sound ratiocination develops a plausible explanation for how the murder was committed. He is then free to concentrate upon the culprit.
It is here that the books gets a little bogged down, a long series of investigations, each idea, however remote, tested to destruction, in an attempt to get behind the suspects, to understand their motivations, and to test their movements, and their alibis. And there are a lot of potential suspects, Harrison leading a stormy personal life, at daggers drawn with his wife and thwarting his children’s ambitions, while the field could be open to his enemies in the financial world who have either lost out on the market manipulation or are seeking to put pressure on him.
French is enamoured by the theory that the murderer came from Harrison’s financial background and his extensive investigations seem to have developed a pretty convincing case only to be dashed at the last minute by a key witness identifying in French’s opinion. This forces the sleuth to reevaluate the evidence and to his chagrin he realizes that he had overlooked a couple of key pieces of evidence which, had he realized their importance, would have shortened his investigation considerably.
There are two elements here, a kidnapping from which Harrison seeks to benefit both by market manipulation and blackmail as he realizes who his kidnappers are and a tale of thwarted love and an opportunistic strike to achieve romantic bliss. A Wills Crofts novel is never a page turning thriller. This reads as an elegant exposition of a detailed police investigation of a complex and thorny problem with all the conclusions and ingenious deductions explained with a convincing logic and pleasing clarity. Despite some oversights and many dead ends French is, rightly, pleased with himself.
There is one oddity, though. Our entrée to the Harrison menage comes through Hardwick Crewe who appears extensively in the first part of the book and then completely disappears. Even the final page which explains what happened to some of the characters omits him. Very curious.
