Forgotten Book - Mediterranean Murder

Anne Hocking (1889-1966) was a prolific crime writer who came from a talented literary family. Her father Joseph wrote many Cornish novels, while her uncle Silas (now there's a literary name with echoes of Le Fanu...) was best-known for Her Benny, a book about Liverpudlian waifs which was later successfully republished through a small press by a crime writing friend of mine, Jim Parkinson. Her sisters Joan Shill and Elizabeth Nisot were also published novelists who dabbled in crime.

I've never got round to reading Hocking until now, partly because her books don't seem easy to find. But I came across a copy of Mediterranean Murder on a pub shelf full of old books and a donation to charity was enough to make it mine, thanks to the landlord's kindness. The copy in poor condition, with a ripped spine and no jacket, but apparently it's a scarce book, so I was glad to lay my hands on it.

I'm sure that this is one of those detective novels where the author has been inspired by a trip to foreign parts to write a story with a 'different' setting. In the austere years that followed the Second World War, there was a vogue for Euro-mysteries, which John Bude among others took full advantage of. Much of the story is set either in Spain or on ship bound for Britain, so the title is slightly misleading, but no matter. It's another case for Hocking's usual sleuth, DCI William Austen - a Scotland Yard man with his own manservant!

Austen is persuaded by his mate Crosby to go on a restorative trip abroad, but when they encounter a family called the Benthams, mysterious events begin to occur. Wealthy Mary Bentham has a suspicious accident, and then a fatal fall downstairs, and her hypochondriac son Donald suspects foul play. What follows is a conventional story, but it's written competently. Hocking was a second-tier crime writer, but I'd be happy to read more of her books.