Dead Man's Shoes

This is my second Leo Bruce, and my first read in the Carolus Deene series.
Here, a man is murdered (off stage) in England. Another man apparently confesses to the crime and jumps overboard from a boat traveling from Tangier to Britain. Case closed.
But of course it isn’t. When a friend from childhood tells Deene that it’s murder instead of suicide, he enters into the investigation. When he finds an over abundance of evidence in one direction, he realizes that it is in fact misdirection, and sets about solving a fairly complicated case.
Bruce writes well; the plot is tight and the characters are well-developed without too much of the caricature. Subtle and obvious humor is scattered throughout the book. The author lived in Tangier for show more a time, and his picture of it is fascinating.
There’s a tiny subplot inserted, I think, as a sly yet sad commentary on events from the author’s life.
Highly recommended to those who like private detectives in the Golden Age manner. I really enjoyed this one. show less

It’s summer break and Carolus Deene finds himself saddled with the precocious schoolboy, Rupert Priggley.

Carolus gets a phone call from an old student. She’s just arrived home from a trip on the ship Saragossa. Seems one of the passengers, a Wilbury Larkin, was “lost overboard”. The interesting thing is that he was a suspect in the murder of Gregory Willick. She feels it’s murder and not accidental or suicide.

Carolus takes on investigating, with Priggley as his Watson. The case takes the pair to Tangier and Spain, via the ship Saragossa, as they retrace the most recent travels of Larkin, looking for clues and background information. Larkin was a large and obnoxious personality, which made for a good number of possible show more murderers in his life and during his journey on the Saragossa.

There are also some strange clues found at the site of Willick, back in the UK. Strange clues on board the Saragossa and strange clues/behaviour in Tangier where Larkin lived. Carolus has a real challenge piecing them together.

It was a good read. I took my time and came up with the right answer! Seems some things click and some didn’t. Over all an enjoyable book. show less