Dean Street December: Death In The Forest

Death in the ForestDeath in the Forest
by Moray Dalton
Rating: ★★★
Series: Inspector Hugh Collier #9
Publication Date: January 1, 1939
Genre: mystery: golden age (1920-1949)
Pages: 338
Project: 2024 read my hoard, a century of crime

"The man's heart was dicky. It couldn't stand a shock. The question is-what shock?" Roger Frere is delighted to meet the lovely Celia Holland. But Celia is leaving for the South American republic of San Rinaldo, taking a post as governess. When Celia gets accidentally mixed up in a bloody San Rinaldo revolution, she manages to return to England . . . and finds herself plunged into murderous local mysteries. A stranger has been discovered in the forest, having apparently died of sheer fright. Roger, now married, lives at Frere Court, with his bride Nina, plus a grasping stepmother and a theatrical half-brother. Also in the neighbourhood is Major Enderby, a solitary individual, retired after service in India.

The Major seems to knowing more than he lets on about strange events in the area. These now include creepy nocturnal prowlings by a creature unknown; the poisoning murder of a housemaid; and an attempt to dispose of Celia Holland using a gift of dates-sprinkled with ground glass.

Inspector Collier comes down from Scotland Yard to learn what's going on. He is presented with a truly extraordinary problem, one which should baffle and enthrall the devoted Dalton reader. Death in the Forest was first published in 1939. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.


Dean Street December is hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home. You can find her main post here.

This was a very weird golden age mystery by an author with whom I have very limited familiarity. I read her Christmas mystery, The Night of Fear, back in 2021, and liked it, although I remember only the barest outlines of the plot.

It’s hard to discuss this book without spoiling it, because what makes it weird would be a spoiler. Let’s just say that I wasn’t expecting one of its plot points in a mystery published in 1939. The Forward by Curtis Evans very carefully doesn’t spoil the book, and he continues the Forward into an Afterward, where he does delve into the rather unique plot device that Dalton employs here.

There’s also a fairly long section of the book that occurs outside of England, in “San Rinaldo,” a made up South American country described as “one of the smaller and more backward of the South American republics,” where the main character, Celia, has taken a post as a governess to two young girls. There is an uprising in San Rinaldo, and Celia barely escapes with her life and returns to England.

All in all, I think that the book was just too strange for me and I didn’t really connect with it. I didn’t not like it, but it also wasn’t really my jam.

I have at least one more book by Dalton, One by One They Disappeared, on my kindle, but I’m unlikely to get to it before the end of the month. I’m planning to try to read one more Furrowed Middlebrow book, Murder While You Work, by Susan Scarlett this year.

One comment

  1. Sorry that didn’t hit the spot: thank you for contributing it still! I hope you have better luck with the Scarlett, one of hers I haven’t yet read but do want to.

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