Reviews

The Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts

bookwormbev17's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

beckmank's review against another edition

4.0

First published in 1933, The Hog’s Back Mystery is a traditional crime story written during Britain’s Golden Age of Crime Fiction. It offers the reader a complex mystery puzzle. What has happened to Dr. Earle? Did he vanish on his own accord? Was he kidnapped? Or could it be murder? Scotland Yard’s Inspector French is brought in to solve the case.

The Hog’s Back Mystery is a slow and steady book. It does not begin with Dr. Earle’s disappearance; Mr. Crofts takes time to introduce us to his characters first. When French hits the scene, he is a methodical investigator.

The mystery was complex, and I personally was unable to fully solve it, there were so many pieces. I enjoyed following French’s investigation and his line of thought, and his full explanation was welcome in the end. A fun classic whodunit.

From my review at Hidden Staircase.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

girlvsbookshelf's review against another edition

3.0

This was good, though “procedural” in the extreme, bogged down at times by excessive hypothesising and French fretting that he hasn’t found the answer yet. I loved the use of references in the final two chapters, allowing the reader to look back at all the clues they’ve had at their disposal all along to work out the solution.

christopherborum's review against another edition

2.0

Look up police procedural in the encyclopedia and you'll find a picture of this book. French spends a lot of time interviewing various actors, both suspects and possible witnesses, and then spends some time cogitating about their answers in his hotel room, and then spends some time discussing his thoughts with Superintendent Sheaf, and then goes out for more interviews. The only scene that doesn't take place at one of the homes, the Super's office, or in Town (where French lives and returns periodically to conduct interviews) takes place when he follows up the clue of what was found in Mrs Earle's erstwhile boyfriend's car. That was a creative way of doing what was done there, but it was merely a brief interlude between interviews and cogitations.

I figured out most of the solution about halfway through which meant pushing on to see if I was right. I missed a few details, but got the actor or actors right and most of what they did. That's not to pat myself on the back (although, en passant, I figured out The Sixth Sense about halfway through as well), but rather to lead into the final chapters, in which French lays out his solution. It was a little tedious, and if we're being honest, and it would be an affront to French and the entire Yard if we weren't, it's a strain to find plausibility in the sequence of events through which the crime(s?) was/were carried out. So many details had to fall just right, e.g.

Reggie being at the golf club at exactly the moment Campion needed a car, Campion planning in advance by purchasing three of the same dollhouse so he could establish an elaborate alibi, etc. BTW, that's what clued me in to Campion, the fact that he offered the dollhouse at all and then insisted on building it then and there and then coming back and forth while he was doing it. Really had the stench of a structured alibi)

.

Anyway, it wasn't terrible, but not the best French story in the oeuvre.