The Spirit Murder Mystery: An Algernon Vereker Mystery: 4 (The "Algernon Vereker" Mysteries) Paperback – 1 February 2016

How well J B Priestley talked of the " brilliant yet flippant " style. There are some passages of clever detection here yet all done with a hint of tongue in cheek . Having found the first Forsythe book to be over wordy ,I was pleasantly surprised by this one.The Suffolk settings are very well done and the cryptic church parts are suitably spooky . I am not a big fan of Ricardo but the by play wasn't too extended here . A satisfying yet slightly enigmatic ending . An enjoyable read and as ever with Dean Street Press very good value. If new readers like Alan Melville/ George Bellairs/Clifford Witting then I think this would be a good one to try.

Un libro de lectura fácil, para desconectar, muy entretenido y bien ambientado, con todos los ingredientes de una novela policiaca clásica.

The central female character in this 1936 mystery is an attractive young woman fascinated by spiritualism. Eileen Thurlow considers herself psychic. But Eileen is sensible, as well as a "sensitive,” and when her uncle John and another local man are found murdered, she goes out of her way to help Scotland Yard and Algernon Vereker solve the mystery.Inspector Heath gathers hard facts, while amateur sleuth Vereker follows the trail of peculiar clues and outré happenings. Vereker takes a serious interest in the spirit music, ghostly apparitions and other supernatural phenomena that afflict Old Hall Farm, a venerable residence that no doubt bears the imprint of many generations of country gentry long dead and forgotten.This delightful mystery is rich in atmosphere and depicts the craze for spiritualism that was still a factor in the nineteen thirties, despite the debunking of many famous mediums. Besides ghosts, and secret passages and the possibility of hidden treasure, the multi-layered plot offers an interesting array of lawbreakers and several budding romances. The clues are fun, and the puzzle well wrought. The crime has elements of absurdity, while the solution is satisfying and very credible.The whole slightly mad ambiance is enriched by the humorous repartee between Vereker and his flighty, fast-living sidekick Manuel Ricardo, and between the imaginative Vereker and his down-to-earth detective pal Heather, solemn worshipper of beer.A perfect representative of the flippant school of Golden Age Crime fiction, The Spirit Mystery is the last of the five Algernon Vereker mysteries, and one of the best.

Knew the how in two chapters. The who took four,and the why six. The rest is just fill in of Agatha.

Only came upon this author recently but was very impressed by what I read. Lovely to read of people who actually used their brains as they were intended. I will definitely read the rest of his stuff. Pity he didn't write as many as my own personal hero; J S Fletcher, but then then I guess you can't have everything.