One by One They Disappeared in Reading the Detectives

Nov 13, 2021 Susan rated it really liked it

This mystery was first published in 1929 and is luckily now back in print. This really is a great time to be a fan of Golden Age mysteries, with so many books being made available again and I really enjoyed this first mystery featuring Inspector Hugh Collier.

Collier meets Mr Pakenham by chance in a London hotel. Every year, the American gives a dinner for survivors of the Coptic, a ship which sunk and of which there were only eight survivors. Mr Pakenham was cared for by the other men in his lif ...more

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Mar 08, 2025 Susan in NC rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle, detbuddy25, my-library, ladiesgrp25

3.5 stars -Fun Golden Age mystery, Dalton’s first starring her likable Scotland Yard inspector, Hugh Collier.

I’ve read a few of her mysteries, and find them entertaining but tainted with the racist and sexist tropes of the 1920s, fair warning to readers. She also has a taste for melodramatic flourishes and evil criminal masterminds, usually revealed at the end - I saw this one coming, and for once I was right!

The story opens with Collier arriving at a hotel to meet friends for dinner, and befri ...more

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Oct 13, 2021 Jan C rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, mystery

Not apparently Moray Dalton's first book, but first mystery. Although I guess Collier's first name gets changed a couple of books in. Not sure if he started this book as an Inspector but he is promised promotion. This was a pretty interesting book - kept me up late several nights.

Detective Collier has a chance meeting at a hotel with a wealthy American and his large cat, Jehoshaphat, on an annual pilgrimage. During WWI he had been on a ship that was bombed and he credits 8 fellow passengers with ...more

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Nov 20, 2021 Carolien rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021, english-mystery

3.5 stars. A chance meeting between Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard and Mr Pakenham of America in a London hotel lobby sets up this intricate crime story. Mr Pakenham hosts an annual dinner in London for 9 men who had found themselves in a lifeboat after a ship was torpedoed in WWI. Days after the meeting, one of the dinner attendees is found dead and Inspector Collier starts investigating what was deemed an accidental death. A solid plot and really interesting group of characters. This is a ...more

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Oct 26, 2021 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: moray-dalton

I really liked this mystery from Moray Dalton. Apparently, this was her first mystery. Inspector Collier has a chance meeting with a Mr Pakenham, a very wealthy American, at a top hotel in London, and learns that this man is a survivor of the ship Coptic, which had been sunk some years earlier. It would seem that there had been 8 survivors in the lifeboat with him. He being very ill, the other 8 had looked after him and he felt he owed them his life. He also had with him a black kitten that he h ...more

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May 18, 2022 Jackie rated it liked it

I want to give it 3.5 stars but rounded down because (view spoiler).

I found this enjoyable enough I will likely try others by this author. ...more

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Mar 02, 2024 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-2019, british-mystery, vintage-mystery, mystery, mount-tbr-2024

Inspector Collier goes to a hotel for dinner with friends a few days before taking off on a holiday to Rapallo in Italy. By chance, he strikes up a conversation with Elbert J. Pakenham, a New York millionaire who is also waiting for dinner companions. Pakenham is one of nine survivors of the Coptic, a vessel sunk during the first World War. Each year he hosts a dinner for his fellow survivors and gives them a small gift--a token of his appreciation for their taking such good care of an old man w Inspector Collier goes to a hotel for dinner with friends a few days before taking off on a holiday to Rapallo in Italy. By chance, he strikes up a conversation with Elbert J. Pakenham, a New York millionaire who is also waiting for dinner companions. Pakenham is one of nine survivors of the Coptic, a vessel sunk during the first World War. Each year he hosts a dinner for his fellow survivors and gives them a small gift--a token of his appreciation for their taking such good care of an old man while they waited rescue. Last year, he made an even bigger gesture--telling them all that since his nephew died he has made them joint beneficiaries of his will. The inspector happens to see the first of the men to arrive, a blind man named Raymond and a Mr. Freyne.

The morning Collier is preparing to leave for Italy, he reads a story in the newspaper with the headline "FATAL ACCIDENT TO BLIND PIANO TUNER." that makes him change his plans. He recognizes the name of the blind man as that of the man on his way to the anniversary dinner with Pakenham. All of his alarm bells are going off and he decides to take a busman's holiday rather than a trip to Italy (though Italy will play its part in the drama to come). His unofficial investigation reveals that several of the Coptic's survivors have met with fatal "accidents" in the past year and he begins to suspect that someone wants to make sure that the lion's share of Pakenham's estate will come to them. And when his bet friend, Inspector Trask, who has been assisting him with his investigation is nearly killed by an accident clearly intended for Collier, he's sure he's right.

Then Mr. Pakenham goes missing--on a trip of his own to Italy where he just might meet with one of those fatal accidents...will the wily old American and the British inspector be able to beat a clever killer at his own game?

This is the first of Dalton's Inspector Collier mysteries and as a first in series, it's pretty good. Collier is not your super detective. He makes lots of mistakes along the way and, honestly, Pakenham seems a bit quicker on the uptake in a few of the situations. But Collier is a likeable detective and one hopes that he will get better at the detecting game as the series goes along. The plot is (now) a well-worn one--a tontine-style will where the portions get bigger as the number of potential heirs decreases. But Dalton does well with it and creates some memorable moments along the way. The two things which would have made this better: a stronger detective and a less obvious suspect. (view spoiler) All that said--an entertaining beginning in a book that was a quick read. I plan to read more by Dalton.

Curtis Evans provides a great introduction to this reprint edition which contains much background information on Dalton. He says: "Only now coming back into print, Moray Dalton (really Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir) resembles the Crime Queens in many ways, having a decided knack for narrative and characterization. Yet for me she is a bit less “posh” (there’s that word again) of a writer than Sayers, Allingham and Marsh and explores sexual and class dynamics in Thirties and Forties Britain in more original ways. See, for example, Death in the Cup and The Strange Case of Harriet Hall, which have some truly striking and refreshing situations. I think that Dalton, who seems to have lived life as something of a privileged outsider, may have been more of a forerunner of the modern crime novel than these other, more famous women, estimable as they are. Her primary sleuth, Hugh Collier, is an appealing young police detective."
★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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