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The Phone Booth Mystery: A Traditional British Mystery
Someone has stolen sensitive government documents from Lord Rawson's study and killed his wife. The main suspect is Roger Carling, Lord Rawson's secretary. Only a few people believe Carling to be innocent, among them his newly-wed wife, Grace, who is doing her utmost to find a real killer...
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1923
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 30, 2019
A mystery that combines elements of espionage (important papers that could lead to the next world war are stolen!), intrigue (what is the mysterious Lady Rawson up to?), mystery (who killed Lady Rawson in the callbox), comedy (the delicious malapropisms of a secondary character), melodrama (three thwarted romances that end well) and the supernatural (a comforting vision of light and brightness ). I found the romance element rather sappy - faithful young bride lays the table for her incarcerated, unjustly accused husband every night, temperamental musician glares at the grave of her love rival, that type of thing. As a mystery, it wasn't particularly convincing - one of the secondary characters is clearly indicated as being implicated right from the start.
February 9, 2025
Reminded me very much of
The Terriford Mystery
, in that rather than being a standard detective story where the focus is on the detective solving the mystery, it focuses on an innocent man accused of murder and his faithful fiancée (Terriford)/wife (this book), who always believes in his innocence. In both cases, the resolution is not brought about by anyone cleverly figuring out who the real killer is, but by the killer confessing. This leaves the main characters without a lot of agency, and the detectives, who aren't the main characters, cease to be relevant well before the end. If you're looking for the experience of a standard detective story, you'll be disappointed (don't believe the "A traditional British mystery" tagline on some editions), though considered on its own terms it's reasonably successful and written fluently and competently.
The author uses a couple of coincidences to tighten up the connections between the cast members. The victim is a friend of the accused's wife's bridesmaid's music teacher, as well as being the accused's boss's wife. The couple, newly married, decide on a whim to stay with a maiden lady who runs basically a B&B, who the wife had stayed with years before, and this lady turns out to be an old flame of the husband's boss's manservant. Neither of these coincidences have much impact on the plot, not least because the resolution of the plot is by no effort of any of the characters (apart from the murderer who confesses), but this kind of coincidence, to me, shows the hand of the author too prominently. I don't like it when it happens in Dracula, and I don't like it when it happens in early Wodehouse; I don't like it here either, though it's relatively harmless.
The other thing I didn't like was that there's a bit of mysticism - a woman with "the gift" who makes an accurate prophecy that everything will turn out all right - dropped in partway through. To me, that makes the wife's simple faith look rather naive, in that she readily believes it and rests her faith on that rather than on her Anglican beliefs, and it again shows the hand of the author too obviously. It doesn't make any difference to the plot either, but it does act as a bit of an internal spoiler.
It's well enough written, and the B&B owner is amusing, though none of the characters have a ton of depth. On consideration, I'm not going to put it on my recommendation list for this year, because although I enjoyed it most of the time I was reading it, I was left discontented at the end.
The author uses a couple of coincidences to tighten up the connections between the cast members. The victim is a friend of the accused's wife's bridesmaid's music teacher, as well as being the accused's boss's wife. The couple, newly married, decide on a whim to stay with a maiden lady who runs basically a B&B, who the wife had stayed with years before, and this lady turns out to be an old flame of the husband's boss's manservant. Neither of these coincidences have much impact on the plot, not least because the resolution of the plot is by no effort of any of the characters (apart from the murderer who confesses), but this kind of coincidence, to me, shows the hand of the author too prominently. I don't like it when it happens in Dracula, and I don't like it when it happens in early Wodehouse; I don't like it here either, though it's relatively harmless.
The other thing I didn't like was that there's a bit of mysticism - a woman with "the gift" who makes an accurate prophecy that everything will turn out all right - dropped in partway through. To me, that makes the wife's simple faith look rather naive, in that she readily believes it and rests her faith on that rather than on her Anglican beliefs, and it again shows the hand of the author too obviously. It doesn't make any difference to the plot either, but it does act as a bit of an internal spoiler.
It's well enough written, and the B&B owner is amusing, though none of the characters have a ton of depth. On consideration, I'm not going to put it on my recommendation list for this year, because although I enjoyed it most of the time I was reading it, I was left discontented at the end.
April 13, 2022
I would rate this book 3.5 stars out of 5.
It starts with a quick sketch of characters and the current situation before quickly moving into theft and murder. Lady Rawson, the wife of a high-ranking member of British Intelligence service (Sir Robert) is murdered.
She has a secret past, mysterious Russian cohorts and was in disguise when she was killed.
Who was she and who did the foul deed?
In traditional thriller-fashion, all clues point to the hero, Roger. He can't be the murderer however, as he is a dedicated and trusted secretary to Sir Robert. Did he actually stop on his way to his own wedding to murder his employers wife? That's what the police think he did.
The villain and his reason for murder is usually easy to detect. This book kept me guessing till almost the last couple of chapters. There were a lot of red herrings and dead ends explored that made the story exciting.
The mystery is resolved finally by the murderer owning up, rather than any brilliant detection on the part of the hero's friends or the police.
There are some interesting characters like the humorous Miss Culpepper, the snooty Mrs Armitage, the bossy lady Maddelena etc. The hero & heroine however aren't fleshed out that well. They appear to be virtuous citizens who bear their troubles with courage and fortitude. Not so interesting after all :)
Still well-worth enjoying for readers of traditional whodunnits.
It starts with a quick sketch of characters and the current situation before quickly moving into theft and murder. Lady Rawson, the wife of a high-ranking member of British Intelligence service (Sir Robert) is murdered.
She has a secret past, mysterious Russian cohorts and was in disguise when she was killed.
Who was she and who did the foul deed?
In traditional thriller-fashion, all clues point to the hero, Roger. He can't be the murderer however, as he is a dedicated and trusted secretary to Sir Robert. Did he actually stop on his way to his own wedding to murder his employers wife? That's what the police think he did.
The villain and his reason for murder is usually easy to detect. This book kept me guessing till almost the last couple of chapters. There were a lot of red herrings and dead ends explored that made the story exciting.
The mystery is resolved finally by the murderer owning up, rather than any brilliant detection on the part of the hero's friends or the police.
There are some interesting characters like the humorous Miss Culpepper, the snooty Mrs Armitage, the bossy lady Maddelena etc. The hero & heroine however aren't fleshed out that well. They appear to be virtuous citizens who bear their troubles with courage and fortitude. Not so interesting after all :)
Still well-worth enjoying for readers of traditional whodunnits.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews