Gold was our grave

Inspector Poole #8

by Henry Wade

Hector Berrenton returns home from hospital after a serious car accident to find a terse note: San Podino. This is yours. Fallon next.

Suspecting Berrenton's car has been tampered with, the North Sussex Police call in Scotland Yard. Chief Inspector John Poole, put in charge of the investigation, quickly discovers that three years earlier Berrenton and his partner, Jocelyn Fallon, had been on trial accused of fraud. The crime they were accused of was in connection with a Bolivian goldmine, San Podino, and though the two men were acquitted, a number of investors suffered considerable financial loss.

Soon Inspector Poole is dealing with attempted murder . . .

Genres: Mystery

311 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Henry Wade was a pen-name of Sir Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher, 6th Baronet. Other authors on Goodreads are also named Henry Wade.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars.

A rather (too) long winded police procedural involving the world of high finance. Not one of Wades' best. Fairly easy to work out who and why and a rather unsatisfactory ending.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dating from 1954, this was the final outing for Chief Inspector John Poole, now in his fifties, and not quite as vigorous in his pursuit of murder as in earlier days.

Although the plot unfolds in a leisurely manner, and there are times when the reader feels like administering a sharp prod to the CI, what one gets is a real sense of how difficult some cases must have been in the pre-digital era and in times when social niceties had to be properly observed.

This is a well-constructed procedural with some subtle characterisation, which, despite a bit of mid-point sag, has some neat misdirection, and produces a late surprise or two.

"Gold Was Our Grave" perhaps suffers in comparison with its successor, the much praised, "A Dying Fall", which I think slightly overrated even given its brilliant conclusion. However, in spite of the mandatory digs at the taxation policies of the post-WW2 Labour government, this is a very worthwhile read provoking a few thoughts on the nature of justice and the workings of the British legal system.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Hector Berrenton's car is sabotaged and he barely escapes with his life, Inspector Poole suspects that it might be an act of vengeance of one of the shareholders who were ruined years before, in the affair of the San Podino goldmine. With the help of the financial fraud division at Scotland Yard, Inspector Poole retraces the flow of money and shares between the various business ventures that Berrenton and Fallon have shared over the years, as well as the story of the ultimately nonprofitable San Podino mine.

I thought this was an OK mystery because I didn't really understand the financial shenanigans very well. I also felt that Berrenton and Fallon were rather bland characters, sharp businessmen but not really wicked enough to be interesting.

[Margaret Suckling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, rather than four. Well-written, but with fewer pieces of sharp social comment than is usual with Wade. I think that the motive and murderer were too obvious too early - I kept hoping for sudden plot twist (I can think of at least three which could have worked), but it didn't come. Not one of Wade's best.