The Eames-Erskine Case: A Chief Inspector Pointer Mystery

Chief Inspector Pointer #1

by A.E. Fielding, Dorothy Fielding

When the body of a young man is found in the wardrobe of a London hotel it is at first assumed to be a case of suicide by drug overdose. But Chief Inspector Pointer has his doubts. Why, for instance, would the dead man choose to expire in the rather inconvenient confines of a piece of furniture? And who was the dead man, anyway? Soon these and other questions lead Pointer onto the trail of a completely different crime. Written by an author whose identity is as great a mystery as his/her novels. The Eames-Erskine Case is the first of nearly two dozen mysteries from the 1920’s and 1930’s to feature Chief Inspector Pointer.

Genres: Mystery

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

A. Fielding (also known as Archibald Fielding or A.E. Fielding) was a pseudonym of Dorothy Feilding.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A. E. Fielding was an English mystery writer from the golden age of mysteries. The Eames-Erskine Case is the first in the Chief Inspector Pointer mystery series. Written in 1924, this book is much different from the style of mysteries being written today. The style is even, I will say, somewhat different from contemporary mysteries being written at the time.

The plot deals with Chief Inspector Pointer discovering the murderer of a young man found overdosed on morphine in a wardrobe in a hotel. The paths taken to find answers to Pointer's questions bridge Canada, England, France and Monte Carlo. While not indecipherable, this was a complicated mystery to be unraveled. I found myself concentrating more than is usual on the story due to the vast number of characters and the fact that many characters, for various reasons, used more than one name. Yet, with all the complications of the story - an element of mysteries from this time period - I found The Eames-Erskine Case to be a very enjoyable reading experience.

I bought this book from Amazon for my Kindle. I will be checking out to see if any more books in the series are available through the Gutenberg Project. This first book in the series makes me want to read further in the series. For those readers not glued to only modern mystery books, I can recommend this book with no problems.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A twisty tale of hidden identities and complicated schemes.

Even though the chief inspector isn't described all that much and doesn't have much in the way of personal traits, he still feels significantly more individual than the interchangeable inspectors of Freeman Wills Crofts, showing that it doesn't take very much work to turn a cardboard cutout into something a bit more like a character. He has a flatmate, who he uses as a sounding board, and this alone - the fact that he has a domestic life and talks to someone who isn't a suspect or a witness - goes a long way to humanize him, even though the flatmate isn't anything like a Watson, playing no role in the actual plot.

The unfortunate thing is that we don't get to follow the detective all the way through the case. Partway through, the viewpoint switches to a young woman who is asked to act as an amateur detective/undercover spy to help clear her potential fiancé of the crime, and while we get some exciting action as a result, a lot of the detective's work is done off-screen and then sprung on us (via the woman) as an infodump of sorts. This makes for a less satisfactory ending than if we'd been able to follow along and have some chance of figuring out the solution for ourselves, since, as they say in court, it relies on facts not in evidence.

Still, it's a sound piece of work in other respects, and I'll try to get hold of others in the series. Unfortunately, at time of review this is the only one that's on Project Gutenberg.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chief Inspector Pointer receives a telephone call from the Enterprise Hotel, made by an American Mr Beale that another guest Reginald Eames has committed suicide. On arrival the Scotland Yard detectives realise that it was murder but Mr Beale had vanished and the hotel safe had been robbed. Are the two connect? "The Eames-Erskine Case"is a clever novel which has some nice twists and turns suggesting suspect by arresting them before release. The only weak section came near climax with the story moving to Monte Carlo but came good with a clever twist ending. I rate this 3½ rather than four stars.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

This is quite a good story with plenty of action both in UK and France. Inspector Pointer is very likeable, although I would like to have a bit more personal details about him. Fielding seems to be a bit of a mystery woman with very little known about her and although she was quite prolific her books are difficult to find anywhere other than Kindle and they only seem to have three of them. I will certainly try those and see if I can find some of her others elsewhere.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a page turner, with an intriguing plot and lots of twists and turns. Agatha Christie was a voracious reader of other mystery writers and this book has a few clever plot elements that Christie would make more famous use of later in her career.

Luckily I am in Australia and there is a whole series of Chief Inspector Pointer books available on gutenberg.net.au. I’ll be reading some more of them….

[S Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good.

I liked this book because it is exactly the kind of book that I like best. I would like to reassure Red Kestrel Books that I have never looked at a single review of any book , because mostly they are unrealistic and often untrue.

[Ray Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow starter but builds.

Struggled with the first half (slow pace and characters not sharply drawn) but really enjoyed the second and was kept guessing until the reveal. Off to try the next in the series.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this is a bit of a mystery. Here is a link to Curtis Evans' fascinating blog on the subject.
http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.co.uk...

This was her first and it is a somewhat elaborate police procedural with more than a whiff of Freeman Wills Crofts about it. Chief Inspector Pointer shows dogged determination in reaching a solution to the murder and the underlying mystery. There are trips to France involved too.

An interesting find. I shall read more.

[Ron Kastner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty complicated plot; ingenious.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chief inspector Pointer is called into a hotel when a guest finds a dead body in the wardrobe. The dead man, known in the hotel as Mr. Eames, is thought to be a suicide, but Pointer is not so sure. A tangled trail leads to a plausible murderer--but we're only halfway through the book! Soon an unexpected visitor confronts Pointer with a conviction that the accused is, in fact, guiltless. The scene shifts to France, where there are more charges and more suspicion. This is just excellent, very enjoyable, and surprisingly fresh for something published in 1925.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Click on the link to read my full review:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...