Foul Play Suspected

English language

(2 reviews)

Foul Play Suspected is a 1935 crime novel by British writer John Wyndham. It was published by Newnes under the pen name of John Beynon. The novel's protagonist, Detective-Inspector Jordon, also appears in two other 1930s novels by Wyndham, which remain unpublished: Murder Means Murder and Death Upon Death.

1 edition

Winfred reviewed Foul Play Suspected by John Wyndham

None

3 stars

I would actually give this a 3 1/2 if it were possible. The book is well-written, with some nice characters and a reasonable plot-line. Halfway the book turns grim, and the heroine, who was active and investigative in the first half of the book, turns into a damsel in distress which I find a pity. The book has bleaker and more outspoken political views than many of its contemporary golden age thrillers/detectives. I read somewhere Wyndham wrote two more thrillers which remain unpublished, and although they may not be the absolute highest quality thrillers (he excelled in another genre) it would be nice to have a glance at these..

ceoln reviewed Foul Play Suspected by John Wyndham

A solid comfy British mystery, but also beyond the genre.

5 stars

The author of "Day of the Triffids", but no aliens here. In form and basic setup it's a well-crafted comfy British mystery: plucky girl returns from India to find that her brilliant eccentric scientist father has disappeared, she appeals to her two somewhat ne'er do well witty young male friends who have a housemaid named Mrs. Roberts, eventually Constable Pennywise is involved, and ultimately the sharp-minded Inspector Jordan of Scotland Yard, we have a side-plot about which of the young men if any may be in love with the girl, and so on. Quite nice!

But also we get some rather weighty addresses from more than one of the characters about how there are bad trends in the world and people are just hiding their heads in the sand, about how war is bad and (private, capitalist) weapons makers are very bad, and ultimately the message of the book is …

The author of "Day of the Triffids", but no aliens here. In form and basic setup it's a well-crafted comfy British mystery: plucky girl returns from India to find that her brilliant eccentric scientist father has disappeared, she appeals to her two somewhat ne'er do well witty young male friends who have a housemaid named Mrs. Roberts, eventually Constable Pennywise is involved, and ultimately the sharp-minded Inspector Jordan of Scotland Yard, we have a side-plot about which of the young men if any may be in love with the girl, and so on. Quite nice!

But also we get some rather weighty addresses from more than one of the characters about how there are bad trends in the world and people are just hiding their heads in the sand, about how war is bad and (private, capitalist) weapons makers are very bad, and ultimately the message of the book is that sometimes a desperate character has to take things into their own hands, and do illegal and even violent things.

Which is rather outside of what we expect from the genre. But (or therefore) it works, and works well. A fast, but memorable and worthwhile, read.