Forgotten Book - The Tremayne Case

Before I move on to today's Forgotten Book, can I thank everyone who has subscribed to The Life of Crime Premium, my new monthly Substack newsletter, the first issue of which came out last weekend. The response, and the comments from subscribers who have signed up, have been very motivating. The first supplementary newsletter will come out in the next few days and I'm already working on next month's main newsletter, which will give exclusive insights into and info about the British Library's Crime Classsics. If you're interested, you can check it out here. 

Alan Thomas made a strong impression with his first novel, The Death of Laurence Vining, and he followed it up in 1929 with The Tremayne Case. I have a copy that he inscribed to Lady Gladstone, which has a facsimile dust jacket. I was amused to note that the front cover has the title and the publisher's name, but not the author's name, which is confined to the spine. But as you can see, on the front cover is the phrase 'a murder mystery'. Since the death in question is deemed by an inquest to be a case of suicide, this amounts to a bit of a spoiler, I'd have thought, even if the vast majority of readers will figure out that there's more to the death of the victim than meets the eye.

One extremely interesting facet of the story is that the plot involves a fake telephone call to lure someone out of the way and I'll be discussing this type of story element further in a future supplement to The Life of Crime Premium.

We see events from the point of view of a young chap called Jimmy Thurston. He falls in love with a young woman he sees at the opera and shows characteristic determination in tracking her down. He becomes friendly with her and her father, but has a rival in a man called Darcy, and also in an acquaintance called Tremayne. 

Suffice to say that this is an 'impossible crime' mystery, and the central trick is a good one in my opinion. The dust jacket blurb describes the story as 'quite definitely a masterpiece'. I wouldn't go that far, but I enjoyed reading it, even if the relentless xenophobia displayed by numerous characters including Jimmy was a bit much. Alan Thomas wrote readably and had some good ideas, making it a surprise that he's faded so far out of sight. I've now read three of his novels and I'd be glad to read more.