V.C. Clinton-Baddeley: No Case for the Police

London: Gollancz, 1970 ISBN: 0575004045 (first edition)

Dell paperback, 1982 ISBN: 0-440-16424-9

(Other editions available)

Reviewed by Lee Kirk of The Prints & The Paper

This delightful little mystery has stood the test of time as a mild English whodunit.

Professor Davies, a distinguished Cambridge professor of somewhat advanced years, returns to his old hometown to attend the funeral services of his childhood friend, Sir Robert Casillis and to assist Robert’s young widow by sorting and preparing for publication the autobiography and other papers that Robert has left. But during this chore Davie discovers a small notebook that Robert had been keeping, notes that express Robert’s doubt that a recent death in the little village of Tidwell St. Peters had been accidental as the police assumed; and a cryptic reference that makes Davie think that Irene Casillis, Robert’s widow, may have been involved in some manner.

As the story evolves the genteel lid of Tidwell St. Peters is lifted to reveal an assortment of extra-marital affairs, possible smuggling rings, disreputable dealings, mysterious meanderings, and a host of other improprieties that seem to be connected to the suspicious death. Davie putters about through this maze of misdeeds, trying to find the thread to solve the murder.

Anglophiles will love this one. It’s so steeped in Britishness that I found myself drinking tea (instead of my usual coffee) while I was reading it.