ABANDONED. Man and woman (historians?) with identical names, double-booked in train

[Dave1955]

Novel written maybe 1920s-1950s, probably a crime mystery. Two rival British researchers or academics happen to have identical names and the train company mistakenly books them into the same sleeper compartment thinking they are just one person.

The catch is that one is male, the other female, so their first names are something like Leslie or Hilary. I think they're historians of some obscure subject. The train might be going from London to Scotland (or somewhere for which a sleeper train is the only practical option).

[Cheryl]

Or Robin or Terry or... Interesting... Is the double-booking a major plot structure, or just an incident in a book that's about something else (like the crime mystery) - ?

[Dave1955]

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Or Robin or Terry or... Interesting... Is the double-booking a major plot structure, or just an incident in a book that's about something else (like the crime mystery) - ?"

Thanks. The double-booking is very early on, mainly serving to introduce the characters.

[Cheryl]

Gotcha. Well, this one might take awhile. But if you bump this thread every month or two (simply type bump, or additional details you remember, into the comment box below) someone will know it eventually! And when it's identified, I want to read it.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Hum, possibly something by Richard Lockridge, Frances Louise Davis Lockridge perhaps? They did a lot of mysteries in that time period, and they weren't the hard-boiled gumshoe type but rather the intellectual type mystery.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Bump, curious what this is.

[Cheryl]

i'm curious, too, but since the OP is not responding, we have to consider it abandoned

[Michele]

What if someone else wants to claim a post that's been abandoned, so as to keep it alive? Can we do that?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Michele wrote: "What if someone else wants to claim a post that's been abandoned, so as to keep it alive? Can we do that?"

You can definitely keep posting in an Abandoned thread, but it needs to stay Abandoned until the OP returns and makes a comment. The OP is King.

So yes, if you might know what this person's book is, by all means you are free to post.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

You can also feel free to message the OP about the thread.

[Kajehas]

Sounds to me like "The Case of the Constant Suicides" by John Dickson Carr. The characters mentioned are history professors who are assigned the same compartment on the train. First names are different, but same last name.

Set in Scotland and published in 1949.

[Sophie]

The Case of the Constant Suicides for click.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I'd like to read that.

[Sophie]

LG, I just clicked on the link and went to the librarian logs and it says you're the source for that cover. Is the cover really just a dude's face?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Seems unlikely...I have no memory of sourcing that cover.

Here's the cover that corresponds to that ISBN, at least according to ebay, but we can't use ebay as a source so no-go...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Case-of-t...

[Sophie]

Amazon's "customer images" section has the same cover, but I don't know if that's an accurate source.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I'm not seeing it there. If it's good quality, we can upload it. I would tend to trust the ebay profile that says that ISBN goes with that cover.