The Moon Rock

by Arthur J. Rees

The Moon Rock (1922) is Australian mystery writer Arthur J. Rees' locked-room conundrum. In fact, the room -- the murder scene -- not only is locked from the inside, but also two hundred feet up the cold wall of Flint House. And the house looms on the edge of a cliff in Cornwall. Slip, and a falling body would strike the pale Moon Rock and its legend of doomed love. "A lonely, weird place," Scotland Yard's Det. Barrant sums it up, and that's even before he finds out what happened. The deceased is Robert Turold, a bitter and silent man obsessed with proving his noble linage and claim to a great estate. At last, he succeeds -- only to be found dead in the locked room, shot in the chest. Suicide? Barrant suspects not. The house is full of servants, relatives, a lovely daughter with a ruinous secret. Rees knew all the conventions of a mystery novel -- he wrote more than twenty -- and how to set the table with plenty of red herrings. But the question is more than who-done-it. Tension builds, too, on the identity of the Moon Rock's next victim.

Genres: Mystery, Ebooks, Fiction, Classics

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Arthur John Rees was an Australian mystery writer.

Born in Melbourne, he was for a short time on the staff of the Melbourne Age and later joined the staff of the New Zealand Herald.

In his early twenties he went to England.

His proficiency as a writer of crime-mystery stories is attested by Dorothy Sayers in the introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 1928. Two of his stories were included in an American world-anthology of detective stories. Some of his works were translated into French and German.

Reviews

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

16 DEC 2014 -- a new-to-me author. The Moon Rock is a mystery from the Golden Age of Detective stories (a few years early). Just a few pages in and I already enjoy this one.

Find your copy here --

Manybooks.net -- http://manybooks.net/titles/reesa1250...

Project Gutenberg -- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12509

Enjoy!

20 DEC 2014 - Smashing! I really had a great time with this one. Filled to bursting with red herrings and ending in a cliffhanger, I will definitely be downloading more by Mr Rees.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Above average murder mystery which makes the most of a broken clock and its desolate setting on the wind-swept Cornish coast.

Robert Turold has spent thirty years set on a single idea, to complete the genealogy of his family that will restore a title which has been in a state of abeyance for centuries. On the day of his wife's funeral he announces that he has finally achieved the last link in the chain, then seemingly comitts suicide.

Detective Brannert of Scotland Yard, however, suspects murder. His young daughter, his long-time, servant, his brother and nephew all have something to gain by his death. So does a figure from his past, whose footsteps come back to haunt him on the night of his death.

What follows is a better than competent locked-room mystery, with the broken clock pointing to the all important time of the murder. It's just a shame that the whole story wasn't confined to Flint House and the surrounding coast and moors because the narrative lost a lot of atmosphere and momentum with some extended scenes in London.

I've read two mysteries by Rees now, this and A Hand in the Dark (1916). Neither could be considered outstanding, but both were comparatively well written and well plotted.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This unremittingly grim tale of greed, vanity, revenge and murder is not for those who like their crime novels to have a happy ending. It is curiously old fashioned for a book first published in 1922, almost like a Victorian "boys' adventure" or a morality tale in parts, yet imbued with that atmospheric eeriness I now associate with this author.

It is too long and, as with others of Rees' works, the balance is all wrong. Acres of description interrupt the flow of the plot and there is almost no detection, while weeks go by with nothing much happening.

The solution comes out of nowhere and is unclued- another one where I felt the author left the plot wide open to any number of possible perpetrators and endings.

The least enjoyable of the four by this author I have read so far.

[Yibbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

At about three-quarters of the way through, there is some strong profanity.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half stars: Originally published in 1922, this is an example of the mystery popular at the time. I found it not that satisfying as a mystery, but the quality of the writing kept me going. (An example: The clock in the study ticked loudly in the perfect stillness and then struck ten as though rejoicing in the theft of an hour from a man who prided himself on knowing the value of time.)

There were two long, drawn out passages I found tedious -- one outlining in much detail one character's wandering in London searching for another character, and one harkening back 30 years that sets up part of the solution. That solution is sort of a let down. One possible murderer is sprung on the reader almost four-fifths of the way through the book; then it's all wrapped up very quickly. And as sometimes happens, a huge coincidence sets up the whole thing.

The Moon Rock in question is just a stone formation at the base of the cliff on which the house sits has no part in the mystery except that characters sit on it sometimes.

Recommended for the writing style, but not the plot so much.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5. The writing of this one was actually pretty good. Although it was probably set some time in the 1920s or 30s, there’s something Gothic about the setting and writing style that I constantly imagined this to be late Victorian and Bronte-esque. That being said, a mystery is probably not the right place for verbose, descriptive writing - it slowed down the pace a lot and I constantly felt impatient to know what happened next and skimmed through some pretty draggy chapters. It would have been far better appreciated if the work had been more introspective, which this wasn’t. Further, Rees certainly has some overtly misogynistic ideas here, although probably not extraordinarily so for his time. The solution of this one was decent, not incredibly mind-blowing but also not a let-down.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved this book when I started it. The author had a way of describing his characters and I enjoyed his turn of phrase. But…(you were waiting for the but), after a couple of chapters, he started losing me. I know this was written in the twenties and I should read it with grace but, my god, did he hate women. Any time he wrote anything about his women characters, they were stupid, emotional, or naive. When any female character came up with a salient point, it was due to happenstance. The plot was okay but not worth the rage I felt reading..

[Barbara Kinney · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Moon Rock (Thriller Novel). Arthur J. Rees

His choice of words and style nourished my reading of his lengthy book, although again and again I tried to connect its title with its storyline. Glad it’s behind me.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Turold is discovered dead, in a locked room jn Flint House with no access from the window. But why, how and by whom. Visiting detective from Scotland Yard Barrant investigates.
An entertining historical mystery

[Tim Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read my review at https://tims-reviews.blogspot.com/202....

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story starts with a locked room mystery but it's much more than that. Just as much a whydunnit as a whodunnit. There is no messing about you are into it right from the start. The reader will be in no doubt as to the nastiness of the obviously intended victim in chapter one. Good descriptions of the Cornish setting and good character descriptions of the participants.

The only thing that goes against the grain a bit is that there are a couple of quite unbelievable coincidences in the plot which I can't go in to as they would give too much away. Notwithstanding those, I really enjoyed this book.

This my first Arthur J Rees book and it has definitely given me the taste for more. There are a few others available for free download.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it's a pretty typical mystery/crime/thriller of the era. It has some locked-room aspects, although I think it's only a small part of the story. This particular (Kindle) edition is very well proofed and edited, I only recall one instance of a broken paragraph.

I'm a fan of GAD (Golden Age Detection) novels, and while this book may be a wee bit chronologically early to actually qualify as GAD, it's a good read. I must admit the ending was a bit abrupt and possibly would be unsatisfactory to some readers.

[Lissa Pelzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just catching up on these as they are being re-released. I've never really been into murder mystery locked room mysteries or any of those but I enjoyed this one and the Hand in the Darkness. They both felt like contemporary novels written in a 1940s style. really good.

[Nev Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated thriller.Not bad.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK thriller from the Golden Age. It kept my interest all the way through, unlike many "thrillers" of today.