4 out of 5 stars
I received this book free from NetGalley.
Seven people might have
murdered Eric Crowther, the mysterious recluse who lived in the gaunt house
whose shadow fell across the White Cottage. Seven people had good cause. It was
not lack of evidence that sent Detective Chief Inspector Challenor and his son
Jerry half across Europe to unravel a chaos of clues.
Not long ago, I found a few podcasts that play those old
time radio mystery theater shows. Since then I have listened to quite a few and
really enjoy them. This book kind of reminds me of those. Margery Allingham is
known as one of the truly great mystery writers of the Golden Age and it is
easy to see why.
The White Cottage is a short story. It was a little slow
in the beginning and I will admit that it didn’t initially draw me in. After the
first two chapters though, I couldn’t stop and finished it in just a couple
hours. Once I was able to establish who all the characters were (there were
quite a few) it was easy for me to get lost in the story. The thing I
especially liked about this book is how Inspector Challenor focused on each
character, went over their motive and probability of having committed the
crime, and then ruled them out one by one. There were definitely enough
suspects to keep you guessing and right up until the reveal, I had not been
able to figure out who it was.
The one thing that was bothersome for me was the Inspectors
son, Jerry. An ok character for the most part, he would annoy me at times with
his insistence that the killer couldn’t be the girl he was smitten with,
because, well, he liked her. A girl he barely knew and had just recently met.
It also bothered me that he wanted his dad to give up the case and not bother
finding out who did it all because there is a point when his dad suspects the
woman of the murder. Luckily this wasn’t annoying enough to kill the story
though. Just something I found slightly irritating.
Because it is a short story, character development is
lacking. Something to be aware of if you are big on that. Personally it didn’t
bother me too much since there really isn’t time to develop them completely. This
is actually the first book of Allingham’s I had ever read, but I will
definitely be reading more from this author.
Available on Amazon at the link below:
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