While I have been waiting for a Detective Galileo book to arrive (apparently on a slow boat from China) I have dipped into my Kindle stash of easy reads at $0.99.

This book was published in 1931 relating a story set in 1930. It should not surprise that the plot involves the failure of a large company in London. Two of the partners of the company are discovered murdered on a yacht with no one else on board.

Inspector French is put in charge of the case and proceeds to unravel the complex plot. This book is the very definition of police procedural. Crofts’ books were all in this style and if you like it you will like Crofts work.

I enjoyed the read more than I expected. His stories are not flashy but they ring true. Crofts was a railroad engineer supervising the construction of bridges, etc. He was a detail man and that is true of his novels. All the nuts and bolts are in place.

This is book 7 in the Inspector French series of 30 total. Crofts wrote 4 other novels before the first French book.

Mike Lawrence