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Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries #24
Il mistero Penrose
Penrose is an eccentric old man in possession of some dazzling gems, which he won't insure. When Dr Thorndyke is alerted to a burglary at his house, a scrap of paper is found with the word 'lobster' on it along with two Latin words. Meanwhile, Penrose has fled in panic after a car accident. The police are clearly mystified, but Thorndyke in his indelible style is on track; hunting down a fugitive, testing a theory, and getting to the bottom of a tantalising, complex mystery.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
13 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
R. Austin Freeman
593 books84 followersRichard Freeman was born in Soho, London on 11 April 1862, the son of Ann Maria (nee Dunn) and Richard Freeman, a tailor. He was originally named Richard, and later added the Austin to his name.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing.
With the publication of 'The Singing Bone' (1912) he invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.
A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing.
With the publication of 'The Singing Bone' (1912) he invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.
A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 1, 2025
Just read again after seven years but my original review still stands.
Four and a half stars.
I thought I had read all the Thorndyke stories but then I happily discovered that I had missed this one. Definitely one of the best of them, I think. Plenty of red herrings, plenty of clues and best of all plenty of Polton. The idea of a set-up of two barristers, who are also doctors plus a fully equipped workshop and laboratory upstairs manned by the multi-talented Polton is a stroke of inventive genius which just oozes potential.
Admittedly, they are a bit formulaic but if you don't read them one after another it's not so much of a problem. Freeman must have had a mind like a computer to be able to figure all this stuff out. I really enjoyed this one.
Four and a half stars.
I thought I had read all the Thorndyke stories but then I happily discovered that I had missed this one. Definitely one of the best of them, I think. Plenty of red herrings, plenty of clues and best of all plenty of Polton. The idea of a set-up of two barristers, who are also doctors plus a fully equipped workshop and laboratory upstairs manned by the multi-talented Polton is a stroke of inventive genius which just oozes potential.
Admittedly, they are a bit formulaic but if you don't read them one after another it's not so much of a problem. Freeman must have had a mind like a computer to be able to figure all this stuff out. I really enjoyed this one.
April 19, 2017
This one was a bit hard to follow because of all the names mentioned, and it was shockingly lacking in any kind of action or confrontation scenes aside from at the end, which seems a bit unusual for most of the Thorndyke books. It's still a very good mystery though, and keeps you waffling over who is guilty right until the very end. Polton was more directly involved in this than most cases because he knew some of the people involved, but I do wish he'd been included in more scenes.
March 23, 2015
One of his shorter novels, with less of the complex science stuff than sometimes, plenty of Polton (though I do feel he's not treated terribly well in this one) and a very amusing central character in Quillflower. You'll have to read the book to understand that reference......
January 30, 2017
Poor Penrose. Another good man gone. The plot's a bit far-flung, yet tighter than many of Freeman's plots, we get a look at the near beginning of the Polton/Thorndyke/Jervis relationship, and there is no tedious romantic entanglement to wade thru. A good read.
December 3, 2012
As with many of the Thorndyke novels this is less about the actual crime and more about the personalities involved. Still, there is a crime and the detective work is very ably carried out.
January 3, 2020
3.5*
Pretty good entry in the Dr. Thorndyke series even if I did spot the solution fairly early on.
Pretty good entry in the Dr. Thorndyke series even if I did spot the solution fairly early on.
May 30, 2021
Mr Daniel Penrose has a vast and expensive collection of items, uninsured. Now he has failed to have returned from a trip and his home burgled. Though he may have been involved in a car accident that killed a female. Dr. Thorndyke is asked to find him, dead or alive, due to complications involving not making wills by the Penrose family.
Originally published in 1936
An entertaining mystery
Originally published in 1936
An entertaining mystery
December 22, 2022
Light, Christie-esque entertainment. My (penguin) edition had a few typos, missing and unbalanced quotation marks. Also, maybe I missed it, but were we told who wrote the forged letter, and why?
August 5, 2023
Clever.
July 12, 2023
After two wonderful examples of Dr Thorndyke at work, in "As a Thief in the Night" and "The D'Arblay Mystery", perhaps it was inevitable that a third would disappoint.
Despite some tremendous feats of deduction and some interesting scientific analysis, there are just too many implausibilities and unlikelihoods here to make the plot convincing. There are, for instance, three characters with the same initials;Thorndyke's assistant, Polton has vital information of great relevence to the solution, but neither does he volunteer it nor is he ever questioned as to his knowledge; and no effort is made to trace the people working in the antique shop with which the disappeared Mr Penrose was very much associated.
Add to this the very juvenile wordplay used by Penrose which has to be interpreted in order to reach parts of the solution eg the cod Latin "hortus petasus" or " garden wearing a hat" as a place connected with jewellery:it all becomes quickly tiresome.
The investigation is dragged out to an inordinate degree and the person responsible is the most likely candidate with the most likely motive.
3.25 stars.
Despite some tremendous feats of deduction and some interesting scientific analysis, there are just too many implausibilities and unlikelihoods here to make the plot convincing. There are, for instance, three characters with the same initials;Thorndyke's assistant, Polton has vital information of great relevence to the solution, but neither does he volunteer it nor is he ever questioned as to his knowledge; and no effort is made to trace the people working in the antique shop with which the disappeared Mr Penrose was very much associated.
Add to this the very juvenile wordplay used by Penrose which has to be interpreted in order to reach parts of the solution eg the cod Latin "hortus petasus" or " garden wearing a hat" as a place connected with jewellery:it all becomes quickly tiresome.
The investigation is dragged out to an inordinate degree and the person responsible is the most likely candidate with the most likely motive.
3.25 stars.
May 3, 2016
read SOMETIME in 1997
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews