One by One They Disappearedby Moray Dalton
Rating: ★★★★
Series: Inspector Hugh Collier #1
Publication Date: January 1, 1928
Genre: mystery: golden age (1920-1949)
Pages: 180
ReRead?: No
Project: dean street december
Elbert J. Pakenham of New York City is among just nine survivors of the sinking of the Coptic - not counting his black cat Jehosaphat. The benevolent Mr. Pakenham has made his fellow survivors joint beneficiaries in his will, his nephew having recently passed away. But it seems that someone is unwilling to share the fortune, as the heirs start to die under mysterious circumstances . . .
Then Mr. Pakenham himself disappears, and Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard suspects dirty work. When a trap is laid that seriously wounds his best friend at the Yard, Superintendent Trask, Collier is certain his suspicions are correct. Into his net are drawn a charming young woman, Corinna Lacy, and her cousin and trustee, Wilfred Stark; a landed gentleman of dubious reputation, Gilbert Freyne, and his sister-in-law, Gladys; an Italian nobleman of ancient lineage and depleted estate, Count Olivieri; and a Bohemian English artist, Edgar Mallory. But Collier will need some unexpected feline assistance before the case is solved.
Dean Street December is hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home. You can find her main post here.
I didn’t think that I would get to this one before the end of the year, but I decided that I didn’t want to leave Inspector Hugh Collier and Moray Dalton on the low note of Death in the Forest, so I downloaded this one, which had been on my kindle account since April of 2019. I’m really glad that I did, because I enjoyed this one a lot more than Death in the Forest! It’s a much more traditional golden age murder mystery.
According to Goodreads, this is the first of Dalton’s Hugh Collier mysteries. I enjoyed the mystery a lot – I had an inkling of the villain, but wasn’t at all sure of the motive. The murders themselves were quite ingeniously plotted, and weren’t so convoluted that they were unbelievable.
There was also a large black cat named Jehosephat who plays a critical role in the unmasking of the murderer, which was a lot of fun for me as an animal lover.
I have two more mysteries by Dalton on my kindle, both of which I bought from Spitfire Publishing: The Black Wings, published in 1927, and The Shadow on the Wall, which was her second mystery published in 1926. Neither of them feature Inspector Collier, who seems to be her primary sleuth.