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The Death of Mr. Lomas (The Inspector Knollis Mysteries #1)

Francis Vivian

Start date: September 1, 2023

Finish date: September 30, 2023

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of our latest monthly poll.
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What Members Thought

Aug 17, 2023 Susan rated it really liked it

First published in 1941, this is the first of the Inspector Knollis Mysteries. It begins when a Mr Lomas, an elderly tobacconist, visits the Chief Constable of Burnham to insist he is being poisoned. The Chief Constable in question, Sir Wilfred Burrows, thinks this is highly likely and tries to tell him so. However, then Mr Lomas is found dead - fished out of Willow Lock, with his beard inexplicably shaved off.

Inspector Knollis is called in to investigate. What emerges is an involved story of dr ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 30, 2021 John Frankham rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-detective

The first of ten Det Insp Knollis whodunnits from 1941 onward.

Told almost exclusively from the point of view of the detective, from his actions, orders, rational analysis, timing lists and character lists, this becomes slightly overwordy and one-dimensional.

Nonetheless, this was well-written, with a good range of police, other characters, and suspects, and a tantalising range of clues, suspicious actions, and a nice dénouement.

A 3.5*, if there were such a ranking!

The GR blurb:

‘When Mr. Lomas vi ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2020 Jan C rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020

Enjoyable police procedural. I was totally confused. I had all the facts but failed to draw the same picture that Inspector Knollis came up with.

I rounded up my ☆☆☆1/2 to 4. For most of the book I was just kind of reading along. But as I rounded the curve into the last quarter of the book yesterday I found it hard to set aside. There were just too many people dressed alike.

And too many people involved in the distribution of snow/cocaine. It turns out that one person introduced the head distrib ...more

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Aug 20, 2023 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is definitely a police procedural. Inspector Knollis walks us through the investigation of the death of a business man who has been found dead in a river. The dead man had that very morning gone to the police, where he had been seen by Sir Wilfred Burrows, Inspector Knollis's superior officer, stating that he was being poisoned. Burrows fobs him off which annoys the man, and left upset. Knollis takes up the investigation and finds it leads to a wide spread drug ring, and so we are introduce ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2023 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery-classic, rread-2023

Started better than it ended as the plot got increasingly complex. I liked the writing, the humor and the characters so intend to continue the series.

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