Forgotten Book - Crime Wave at Little Cornford

Herbert Adams (1874-1958) published more than fifty mysteries between 1924 and the year of his death; a couple of books appeared under the name Jonathan Gray and for more than a decade his stories were a staple of the prestigious Collins Crime Club list. He wasn't a Premier League author, but it seems fair to say that he was a reliable second-tier storyteller, with a specialism in golfing mysteries that has helped to make his books collectible to this day.

Crime Wave at Little Cornford, published in 1948, is a novel I enjoyed. My copy is inscribed by him: 'The First Copy, as always to my Wife with all my love.' Rather charming, I think. By that time he was in his mid-seventies, but although this story is essentially a Golden Age village mystery, there are some contemporary trimmings which are quite intriguing. The back cover of the jacket, done in the style of a Golden Age map, illustrates various crime titles published by Macdonald - a nice idea.

The 'crime wave' comprises three incidents of escalating gravity - the defacement of a war memorial; an armed robbbery at a party; and a murder during a village fete. Roger Bennion, Adams' principal series sleuth, is holidaying in the area and naturally solves all three puzzles. The plot is sound, even if one culprit is inadequately presented, and the romantic elements of the story (Adams was evidently quite keen on romantic sub-plots) are well-handled and by no means tedious.

Adams seems to have felt it desirable to include observations, mainly through his characters, on the state of the world after the war. So we get some discussion of socialism (one character gloomily predicts no end to the Labour government, a mere three years before the party lost power) and also a strange and to my mind unsatisfactory discussion of the Jewish-Arab situation at the time. There is also a likeable vicar who insists that the end of the world is nigh; an attempt to comment, I imagine, on the impact of nuclear warfare. These ingredients didn't work particularly well, as far as I was concerned, but they reflect an attempt to update the traditional mystery and they also cast some light on the way some people were thinking at the time. Overall, though, and despite some flaws, the story is entertaining enough for me to be happy to recommend it.