From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Mystery in the Channel

Freeman Wills Crofts

Start date: September 1, 2021

Finish date: September 30, 2021

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our September group read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our September group read.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 328 topics — 11,869 comments total

Group reads

* VOTE NOW for November 2025 group read!
By Judy · 19 posts · 21 views

last updated 2 hours, 18 min ago

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 13 posts · 11 views

last updated Sep 03, 2025 12:03PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 24, 2021 Susan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

First published in 1931, this is the seventh book in the Inspector French series. Although I love Golden Age crime, I have to admit I found this deadly dull, despite the promising blurb.

A steamer, travelling to Dieppe, sees a yacht floating with what looks like a body on board. In fact, there are two bodies on the yacht, who turn out to be the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Moxon General Securities. It later turns out that the financial house were on the brink of collapse, a huge amount of money ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2018 Christine PNW rated it liked it

This was my second Inspector French mystery, which I preferred to the first, The Hog’s Back Mystery. My primary complaint about The Hog’s Back Mystery was that it got bogged down in tedious detailing of the clues, and that Crofts skimped on supporting character development, resulting in characters who were difficult to tell apart.

To be quite frank, those complaints remained in this installment, albeit to a lesser degree. The book begins with a bang – a steamer finds a yacht dead in the water, wi This was my second Inspector French mystery, which I preferred to the first, The Hog’s Back Mystery. My primary complaint about The Hog’s Back Mystery was that it got bogged down in tedious detailing of the clues, and that Crofts skimped on supporting character development, resulting in characters who were difficult to tell apart.

To be quite frank, those complaints remained in this installment, albeit to a lesser degree. The book begins with a bang – a steamer finds a yacht dead in the water, with two dead bodies on board. From there, it is towed back to port, where the dead are speedily identified and the search for the murderer commences.

Thinking back on the book at its conclusion, I do not think that there was a single female character in this book. Inspector French may have spoken to a female shopkeeper at some point during the tale while he was canvassing for information about a suspect, but, if he did, it was in such passing that it didn’t register with me at all. Every character of consequence in this book was a man.

It is quickly established that the two victims were principals in a financial firm which was on the brink of failure. It being 1931, there was no taxpayer funded Troubled Assets Recovery Program available to bail out the firm, or its clients, which resulted in thousands of ordinary Brits losing their fortunes, such as they were. It was also quickly established that someone had looted whatever was left of the money, and that the murders appeared to have something to do with this financial chicanery.

I loved this aspect of the book. It was, in fact, a “strikingly modern subtext.” I, like the Assistant Commissioner quoted below, find the fraudulent machinations of the already wealthy to enrich their already overflowing pockets, disgusting:

“The Assistant Commissioner was a man who, while utterly relentless in his war on crime, not infrequently showed a surprising sympathy with the criminal. He always deplored the punishment of the out-of-work or the poorly paid, who, seeing his family in want, had stolen to relieve their immediate needs. Even on occasion he had surprised French by expressing regret as to the fate of the murderers. Murderers, he held, were by no means necessarily hardened criminals. In their ranks, they numbered some of the most decent and inoffensive of men. But for the wealthy thief who stole by the manipulation of stocks and shares and other less creditable means known to high finance, whether actually within or without the limits of the law, he had only the most profound enmity and contempt.”

Trump University, anyone? To the wealthy of 2018, the poor and middle class are merely marks, and there is a sucker born every minute. How I wonder what Freeman Wills Crofts and the Assistant Commissioner would’ve thought of the band of vulpine thieves in charge of our public treasury?

Anyway, Inspector French is a rather plodding character, but in a good way. He is, perhaps, not given to flashes of insight, but he is thorough, and good police work is its own reward. Through many twists and turns and blind alleys and dead ends, he does arrive at the correct solution.

There was, again, some tedious alibi deconstruction, with time tables and analysis of ocean currents and wind direction. I’ve realized that I do not care about these things – I am not going to pull out a pad of paper and start making a little table of distances and times to see if I, before Inspector French, can bust an alibi. I just want to be entertained to the end of the tale, and this minutiae does not entertain me. This particular book is mentioned in Chapter 13 of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, Scientific Inquiries, on the strength of this element. Apparently Crofts was an engineer, and put that background to work in his fiction.

The problem with characterization persisted in this book and was amplified by the fact that every single character of note, as I stated above, was a middle-aged white guy of moderate wealth and education. There were several occasions where a name came up that I didn’t immediately recognize, but it was clear that this character had been introduced before, so I had to flip backwards in the book to try to identify exactly who it was.

I enjoyed it enough that I will continue to explore Inspector French, but I wish that Crofts would let him off the chain a bit. The man barely has a personal life, and he seems like a decent guy. Give him a vacation, for god’s sake! ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Sep 16, 2016 Damaskcat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A boat is found adrift in the English Channel with two dead bodies on board. How did the murderer escape and who was the murderer? When the two men are identified as being partners in the firm of Moxon Securities which is in a precarious financial state with a large amount of cash missing from its strong room it seems as though they may have been trying to flee the country. There is no trace of the missing £1.5 million.

Inspector French has his work cut out to track down the missing money and the ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2021 Susan in NC rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, kindle

3.5-4 stars for Inspector French and the excellent narrator. I enjoyed this golden age mystery, very much of it’s time with much tedious police work for French and his fellow officers in England, France and even a side trip to Wales. Written in 1931, there are none of the modern technological timesavers, there are several trips back and forth to check out every detail as French doggedly tries to solve two murders. Timeless, as a financial collapse, embezzlement and greed play a central role.

The 3.5-4 stars for Inspector French and the excellent narrator. I enjoyed this golden age mystery, very much of it’s time with much tedious police work for French and his fellow officers in England, France and even a side trip to Wales. Written in 1931, there are none of the modern technological timesavers, there are several trips back and forth to check out every detail as French doggedly tries to solve two murders. Timeless, as a financial collapse, embezzlement and greed play a central role.

The ferry between England and France comes across a motionless yacht in the Channel, two men who’ve been shot are found on board, and a trail of blood indicates the murderer may have been injured.

I like French as a detective, and enjoy his low-key style, doggedness, and his banter with his fellow detectives - it both relieves the tedium of their work, and shows the bonds formed amid the routine interlarded with danger.

I zoned out a bit with the descriptions of boats and talk of serial numbers on bills, and the workings of an investment house of the era, but was amazed at the details French had to pursue to build his case. It wasn’t just the feeling one usually gets from a police procedural, of walking into a movie in the middle and trying to grasp the plot - in this case, from two dead bodies on a boat, and the subsequent knowledge the firm they headed was about to crash - but, here, with French, I felt as if he was handed a book with blank pages, and told to figure out the entire plot!

There was a lot going on - why were the men on the yacht, how had the embezzlement been pulled off, where were the other partners, who was the murderer, where was the murderer now? It was fascinating to read along as French painstakingly investigated, interviewed, traveled about, tested his theories, etc. A murder case had to be air tight, as, back then, the killer would hang; the white collar crime and subsequent crash would destroy the financial hopes and plans of so many. I have always understood financial crimes were tedious and complicated to persecute, I can see why, watching French’s efforts!

Very interesting and enjoyable, with an exciting and unexpected finish- just when French feels defeated, thinks every avenue and suspect has been exhausted, he pulls the case out of the fire and triumphs in the end! I definitely want to read more by this author. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2020 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

The mere circumstance of a pleasure yacht found floating alone in the middle of the English Channel and bearing such a terrible freight (two men obviously shot), was in itself dramatic.

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 13, 2021 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: freeman-wills-crofts

An interesting story of a boat found at sea with two dead bodies, which have obviously been murdered. There is no sign of anyone else in or around the boat. The two dead men are identified as partners in a huge financial securities firm, which is rumoured as being in financial trouble. It is found that the business is in fact missing £1.5 million pounds. Inspector French is given the job of finding out who killed these partners and where has the missing money gone. The Inspector has various susp ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2020 Shabbeer Hassan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: whodunit, brit-lit, 2020

A very dear friend of mine has been bitten by the seafaring bug, and discussions with him usually centre around boats/sea currents/wind conditions/sailing world champs etc. With those in mind, I decided to look if there are any murder mysteries set around this theme.

This book by Crofts featuring the stolid Inspector French was one of the best ones which actually relied on the maritime terminology to solve the puzzle. And needless to say, I concur with this popular opinion as this indeed was a r ...more

Like · see review