Harriet Rutland (1901–1962)

Well, this was very middle of the road and the weakest of Rutland's three books. However, the ending - if you can call it that - made me laugh.
I had issues with this book from very early on, which started with the description of Mrs Mumsby: while she was a deeply unpleasant and greedy a.f. character, this was very often described in terms of her being fond of food and fat. So, much so that it seemed like a necessary correlation.

Of course, I'm reading this in a different time and can say show more that - on behalf of those of us who are fond of food and fat - corpulence does not mean that a character is a horrible person.

There was also the use of the "Chinaman" or person with "foreign" looks as the exotic, but I glanced over this as this was a Golden Age mystery and it was not actually used (that I noticed) as a derogatory feature.

What I did like about the story was that it was unusual in telling of a father who single-handedly raised his son from 6 months of age. That's not something that happens often in a GA mystery, especially in that it even mentions that he resisted the recommendations of giving the boy into care.
I liked that.

What really made me laugh and annoyed me in both measures, however, was the ending. Was this really an ending?

I won't say more about it but it turned a 2* read into a 3* read for me.
Overall, tho, it is very sad that Rutland never wrote any more books and we only get to see her wicked sense of humour in the three books that are left to us and that, thankfully, Dean Street Press have taken the trouble to bring back into print. show less