A review by robinwalter
The Case of the Missing Men by Christopher Bush

lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

This was book 11 in my Dean Street December. Book 10 had been a celebration of savagery, feudalism and honour killing, which quite literally ended with a  murderer smugly smiling & accepting plaudits  for his courage and cleverness in shooting a man in the back as he tried to run away. That meant I was pretty much certain to enjoy this one a whole lot more. Which I did. 

Ludovic Travers is something of a Wimsey-esque character, but with MUCH more whimsy, which is what makes his adventures fun. Not for him an entire page of untranslated French, or a couple of paragraphs of conversation in Latin (again untranslated). Instead we get passages like this 

“Yes,” he said importantly. “I’ve had one or two ideas. I don’t know how it struck you, sir, but I think that volume of mine might be on the short side. Perhaps another half-dozen poems might give it just the length.”

I agreed hypocritically enough. I didn’t care how many of those damn poems he added provided I didn’t have to read them first.

I don't think Bush's Travers stories can be called  Fair Play, because there is almost invariably key information not shared with the reader. That said, looking back on this one, it could be possible to deduce one of the key elements: The identity of the first of the title's "Missing Men". Travers' description of the mechanics of the second murder make me think it unlikely that "how" of that crime could be easily worked out by most readers, especially if like me they don't pay RIGOROUS attention to descriptions of  the layout of the house.  In that regard, I'm not sure if it is simply a quirk of the ebook edition I have, but Travers specifically mentioned including a diagram of the house, which my copy did not have. He said:

One other thing remains to do—to show you the lay-out of some of the upstair rooms. The sketch is a very rough one made for my own use, and, I should guess, considerably out of plan. But good enough for its purpose, which is to show you where various people slept, or where they happened to be spending their time that vital afternoon.

but there was no subsequent diagram or drawing of any sort in my ebook edition. 

It is just possible that I would have been less surprised by the 'how' of the second murder if I'd seen that diagram, but the beautiful thing about this story is that none of that matters.  Because it's a fun and interesting journey. The second murder has echoes of Rube Goldberg about it and as always the interactions between Travers and Wharton are priceless. This was typical, and typically amusing:

I said he was begging the question, and he was. That’s the worst of George. When I initiate a theory—and Heaven knows I’m apt enough at that—George treats it with either contempt or complete disregard. But he keeps it well in mind, and if it turns out a winner, then in less than no time the theory has become his own, and himself the only begetter.

All in all, another clear winner - clever construction, especially of the first murder and its link to the first missing man, and great fun along the way. This is the 30th Travers story, and my 18th — all Dean Street Press editions. With more than 30  Travers books to go in the series, on the strength of this one Dean Street Press will continue to make a killing from me. #TooEasy #SorryNotSorry