Dover One

Dover Is Annoying And Lovable At The Same Time

In this first adventure Scotland Yard is called to search for Julia Rugg, a companion to Sir John Counter and mistress of seemingly every man in town. She has been missing for several days but the circumstances of her disappearance are baffling. She arrives home in a gated community at 11:00 PM and simply disappears. At 5’3” and 16 stone (224 pounds) she is, not surprisingly, hard to hide. So where is she?

Chief Inspector Dover is assigned to the case, more to get rid of him than because he is their best. In summary, Dover is a corpulent, lazy, rude, impatient, sloppily dressed Chief Inspector. He’s more comfortable taking naps, whenever and wherever, than he is chasing bad guys (or girls). But he will capture your imagination and worm his way into your heart. He dishes out orders to his partner, the fastidious Sergeant MacGregor, on a whim but never gives him credit for the work. You will find yourself exasperated, annoyed, cringing and then laughing, as Dover muddles his way through the case. And his penchant for stopping at the door and asking one more question, will remind some of you of the old Columbo series of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Thank You, Farrago and Net Galley for offering me a free advance copy of this novel for my honest review.

Bumbling police detective Chief Inspector Dover is investigating his latest case – the disappearance of a rather large young lady, Juliet Rugg.

Dover is lazy, disinterested and often apoplectic, which all makes for an amusing character and a great read.

Originally published in the 1960s, the story is rather politically incorrect, but if you try not to take offence at this, it’s a light, fun and uncomplicated read.

This book was set in the 60’s. I loved the sarcasm dripping through it.Dover is a sloppy chief Inspector sent to investigate the disappearance of a rather large girl, Julia Rugg.He has to deal with the imbeciles that live around where Miss Rugg lived as he interviews them about the disappearance.The book has slight shades of dark humor.
#netgalley #doverone #joyceporter #doveroneadovermystery1

In this wildly politically-incorrect investigation into the disappearance of Juliet Rugg, Joyce Porter neatly contrasts her bumbling, but ultimately successful, Inspector with his reluctant sidekick, the stunningly handsome Sergeant MacGregor. Dover is the true antithesis of Inspector Purbright in Colin Wilson’s Flaxborough series. Purbright is the very pillar of decency in a corrupt world, whereas Dover is is the lazy and corrupt mirror of a rotten society.

Like Wilson, Porter depends a lot on farce, caricature and stereotype, but can also be slyly subversive. The reader is carried along by the extravagance of the awfulness of Dover, safe in the certainty that a real policeman would not act thus…or, perhaps, not so certain.

Having enjoyed the BBC dramatisations of some of the Dover and MacGregor stories, I was delighted to have my first read of them in their full glory.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrago for the digital review copy.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. It probably isn't the usual type of book I would choose but I liked it, Inspector Dover is a great character and I would read more in the series.

I loved it!

DCI Wilfred Dover is not your usual Scotland Yard detective - he is not exactly likeable; he is described as tall, fat, unkempt, lewd, obnoxious; and never without his trademark bowler hat. His Sergeant, Charles MacGregor, is the total opposite - and like Nero Wolfe's Archie Goodwin, does all the leg work for Dover.

For reasons known only to the Scotland Yard hierarchy, Dover & MacGregor are sent to the investigate the seemingly innocuous disappearance of a local girl, Juliet Rigg, from Creedshire. Upon arriving in the village, Dover finds the eccentric inhabitants all had good reason to do away with the victim - for as Dover announces, murder it is.

I am really enjoying discovering some of these lost gems of British crime. This title originally was published back in the early 1960s - so to the modern senses, it may appear to be slightly un-PC - but get over it, afterall what is PC today may not be in 40 years time!

I am certainly interested in following up with the rest of the books in the 15 book series.

Thinking that since this book written back 50 years ago, that it would have a simple plot with familiar characters. Wow was I wrong to misjudge the author! After reading the first book in her Inspector Dove series, I want to read the rest of the series to partake in her humor and surprising endings.


I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrago books for an advance ecopy of this book.

I really enjoyed this - Dover seems initially unsympathetic, but I warmed to him and was hugely amused.

Ebook was well laid out, without formatting issues (bonus!)

An interesting book, full of all that is different in a detective mystery. No body, unpleasant main detective and characters, and a predictable to unusual ending. Kept me on the edge waiting to see what happened next, a very different book. I would certainly read more fro Joyce Porter.

First written in 1964, some might find Dover to be an annoying unsympathetic detective. Others may find him humorous and fun. As always your mileage may vary.

A delightful glimpse into 1960’s Britain. Humorously written with a cast of eccentric villagers. Chief Inspector Dover is out of London into the country to investigate the disappearance of a rather large missing young woman. Woefully he leaves London and begins (between naps) canvassing the village for witnesses and evidence. He meets a motley crew of locals who have plenty of peculiarities and opinions, but few helpful facts. His sidekick, Sergeant MacGregor is not especially happy to be lumbered with the cigarette cadging Dover for several reasons.
The pace is slow, but the characters are lively and it is a pleasure to investigate village life and crime as it was 50 years ago.
Thank you Farrago books and Netgalley for an advance copy, I look forward to reading more in the series.

I absolutely loved this old fashioned, slightly ridiculous whodunnit featuring chief inspector Dover of the yard and his sidekick sergeant Macgregor. Dover is a fantastic character in that he is a hopeless detective, very lazy, partial to his sergeants cigarettes, the total opposite of politically correct and presumably can only solve crimes by sheer luck! With his sergeant providing the brains, these two make a wonderful partnership. The hilarious and inept Dover is immensely lovable so I was engrossed with the storyline from the first few pages. Sent to investigate the disappearance of a young woman from an exclusive estate in the town of Creedon, Dover and Macgregor find the locals a strange bunch but these quirky characters help make this gentle mystery a great read. The setting for this novel is spot on, and the idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of Old Irlam Hall acutely observed. Well written, paced just right and often very funny (episode in ladies public convenience springs to mind) this is the first in a series that offers a perfect antidote to all those tense psychological thrillers. I can’t wait to read the next one!! Thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fantastic comedy with out of the world characters and a most interesting and clever mystery to solve. I enjoyed every word and was carried back to the delightful British comedies I so enjoyed in the 1960s. I set the book back on my shelf to read again for the fun of it.

Inspector Dover is sent from Scotland Yard to the provinces to solve the mystery of a missing servant. Pointlessly, he feels - he's sure sh'es disappeared with a boyfriend. But things are not all they appear, especially among the community of Irlam Old Hall

This was an extremely funny book which stayed short of ridiculous and was therefore a very enjoyable read. I found the grumpy old Dover to be delightful and believable whilst not detracting from a very good mystery. It shows how much I liked it _ I'm going to search out the next Dover mystery.

*3.5 stars rounded up. An oldie but a goodie: a British police procedural which first appeared in 1964, being offered once again by Farrago Press. It features the irascible Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover of Scotland Yard. In this first book in the series, Dover and Sergeant Charles MacGregor are assigned to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who is the companion of an elderly man in Creedon. Was she kidnapped or murdered? Without a corpus delicti, what do Dover and MacGregor have to go on but interview after interview, making Dover even grumpier.

I thought the characters in the story were hilarious; the mystery, intriguing. I did guess the 'who' but not 'how' or 'why'. I'm not even sure the police can agree on that last one. Ok, it's somewhat dated, but still a gem of a mystery. I would like to read more of this series, if only to see if poor Sergeant MacGregor ever gets out from under the thumb of Dover.

Many thanks to Pete at Farrago Books for offering me a copy of the book via NetGalley. I think I enjoyed this one even more than the Colin Watson's Flaxborough series you lead me to read, Pete! Very enjoyable!

When Chief Inspector Dover andf Sergeant MacGregor are sent to Irlam Old Hall to investigate the disappearance of Juliet Rugg employed as a maid to Sir John they are not happy. There is no body and it is a friend of the Chief Constable that has requested they investigate.
As they reluctantly enquire without any hope of success questions and the private lives of the people on Irlam Old Hall Estate now deepen the investigation.
This is a book that shows not only the characters of the officers involved but their personalities told rather tongue in cheek. An enjoyable read that keeps you guessing until the end

This book is such fun! Chief Inspector Dover, is annoying, opinionated, bone idle, irritable, lacks patience,is badly dressed and is full of bluster!. He states he does cerebral work, ( usually with his eyes closed!) alas for his superiors at Scotland Yard, Dover has loads of lucky guesses, that means he hangs on to his job, whilst letting his assistant do all the leg work!
Dover has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of Juliet Rugg, the young companion/ mistress of Sir John Counter. Juliet is also generous in her favours to most of the men in the small town of Creedon, and has a baby, whom she leaves with her mother whilst working.
Where did Juliet go?. At 5 foot 3 ins, and weighing 16 stones, she cannot be easy to hide, yet is proving surprisingly elusive. The Police have performed searches and done interviews, with no results, step forward, Dover!!
The story is written with the language of the 1950s / 1960s. Full of eccentric villagers, prejudices against unmarried mothers, Germans, although the drug element is surprisingly tolerated in this book, but perhaps access to hard drugs then, was more difficult, and misogynistic views , especially regarding the value of female Police officers!! The atmosphere is concerned with social status, and these dated views are humorous today. Although written in the 1960s, this style of writing harks back to the Golden Age of classic British Books. Was life simpler then? Careful interview techniques don't seem to work for Dover, they just serve to raise his blood pressure!
A murder mystery, that all boils down to red or green nail polish. The clues are all there, the conclusion is certainally not run of the mill. Happy deducing, my fellow readers!!

I so enjoyed this one! I love British mysteries and even though this one was a bit ‘out there’, it was funny and filled with eccentric characters. Scotland Yard sends Wilfred Dover and Sgt. MacGregor to investigate a missing girl. Dover is arrogant, a slob, loves to eat, is lazy and does not care who he upsets. The characters are thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to reading the next in the series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm happy I got this ARC because I discovered a new to me humorous and entertaining series.
Dover is the perfect anti-hero, he will make you laugh and you end loving him for all his imperfections.
The story is engrossing and entertaining, it aged well and it's an interesting depiction of an era.
I loved the quirky cast of characters and the plot.
Looking forward to reading the next instalment, it's highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This was a farcical detective story with the main character who is the most unlikeable police Inspector you could ever imagine. Regardless of this it was an entertaining story where the hapless sergeant, who does most of the work and the inspector finally solve the murder and trot off back to Scotland Yard.

What a waste of time Mr Dover is. But what fun! He lets others do all the work, takes the credit for things he did not do, but still somehow manages to solve the crime. I loved reading this and figuring out how he was going to "solve" the crime!

In this day and age of social and political unrest in so many places in the world, it is a bit difficult to put DOVER ONE into its proper place in history. Let's start out with the fact the overweight and poorly groomed Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover is not a very nice man. Then let's add a case in which he has no interest that centers around Juliet Rugg who is described as standing 5 feet, 3 inches tall in stiletto heels, and weighs in at 16 stone (that's 224 pounds in American - yes, I googled it). So we start out with an unattractive police inspector with a misogynistic attitude toward a potential victim. All of this would seem to place the action in the mid-twentieth century before the words 'political correctness' were ever spoken.

However, a thoroughly boorish and unlikeable protagonist does not necessarily make a book unreadable. In fact, once you wrinkle your nose at his characteristics several times, you will find that he is surrounded by the very essence of BBC mystery suspects.

First published over fifty years ago, DOVER ONE is a book of its time. The 1960s was a time of change, not all of which was acceptable to the post-WWII generation. Bits and pieces of the time are interspersed quite subtly throughout the novel. This subtlety makes the book somewhat timeless. Young, modern readers may have difficulty with concepts of being "on the phone" indicating whether or not one had landline in their home, but older folks, like myself will see this as a sign of those times.

The first half of DOVER ONE is pretty much dedicated to making you thoroughly dislike Wilfred Dover while introducing his sergeant, Charles Edward MacGregor, almost as a minor character hardly worth mentioning. Detective Sergeant MacGregor lives in the background but does all the actual work. The residents of Irlam Old Hall are a colorful lot; just the sort you would expect to find in an English village where class structure runs rampant.

I have always enjoyed reading books where inuendo rather than blatant four-letter words are used in delicate situations. The nod to human nature and frailty is given in this way here.

Overall, DOVER ONE is a throwback to an earlier time. Once that is discerned, the case moves on apace. If I had thoughts of stopping this series at book one, I have certainly changed my mind.

The end of the book is priceless!

If you want a book with a thoroughly disagreeable, lazy and rude main character then this is for you. Fans of Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb will instantly relate to the antihero of these books who you cannot help but enjoy for all his less savoury elements. Together with his long-suffering sidekick and colleague, the two provide a quick and enjoyable light read that makes you both smile and enjoy the clever unfolding of the solution to the crime.

Meet Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover - the gloriously unconventional anti-hero of Joyce Porter's Dover series and probably Scotland Yard's most problematic Detective. Dover is everything he shouldn't be and more, he is also unappealing in every way possible. The thing is - Dover gets the job done, by whatever means necessary, even though often by simply passing the buck. He is, quite simply, rather magnificent and this reader cannot help but have a very big soft spot for him. Here Scotland Yard have sent him, together with the long suffering Sergeant MacGregor, on the trail of a missing housemaid, Humorous - often very darkly so -, witty, satirical and hugely entertaining and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Very enjoyable for its witty characterizations and slothful detective with sterling assistant who does all the heavy lifting and brain work. An unattractive girl goes missing and the detective reluctantly goes about finding her .. this involves very entertaining and sometimes contradictory quizzing of locals. Great fun .. and it gets solved! Undemanding good fun ..

If you like your crime novels to have a distinctly 60s feel, with a touch of almost P G Wodehouse humour then Joyce Porter’s bumbling, pompous and semi-competent DCI Dover could be up your street. The plots will not trouble your intellect too much and the narrative is somewhat littered with cliches, but - and this is perhaps a bit weird - it really doesn't matter. There is plenty of light-hearted humour to brighten up the depressing news, or a bad day at the office! Recommended.

What was at first for me a slow(ish) read developed into a most delightful and entertaining book which kept me amused and interested until the end. Only when I found out it was from a long series of books written some years back did I regret that I had not come across them before.

What one might describe as a light read but none the worse for that. Sit back, laugh and enjoy - Chief Inspector Dover is on the case!

Thank you to Farrago for permission to read and give an unbiased review.

I hadn't encountered this author before so I was surprised to find out the books were written 50 years ago and there is a whole series of them waiting to be enjoyed.I loved it-it's like a cross between an Ealing comedy and an Agatha Christie murder mystery,with Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover,one of the most unlikeable detectives ever ,and his long suffering assistant,Sergeant MacGregor.
It was written long before the days of political correctness and the remarks and dialogue are a delight-it made me laugh out loud several times.But it's not all comedy-it's tightly plotted and there are several twists and turns before it reaches a satisfying conclusion.Perfect reading for a miserable day-I read it in a couple of days and enjoyed every line.I can't wait to read the rest!

The 'hero' of our narrative is Dover, a Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard who is sent to a remote location on an odd case that the local police were unable to think of anything to do. 

In Dover one: There is a woman who is missing. Her defining characteristic is her weight and the repetitive mention of her size or all the misbehaviours and icky(ish) mindsets of everyone in the vicinity should have put me off. It is a police procedural with the procedure being a key factor. We are walked through every interview and thought process that Dover and his suffering subordinate, Macgregor. For all intents and purposes, my concentration should have veered off at some point in the telling of this story but it did not. I am trying to unravel the ideas I have for identifying the root cause of such an occurrence.

Dover is sent on this mission understandably to relieve his London colleagues of his presence. He is described as a slob who has an inflated opinion of his own prowess, but the latter part is not completely true. He deflects the truth to make himself look and sound more intelligent but he does it knowingly. He knows that he is taking a shortcut but is impatient to get going and refuses to let others know he is wrong even if he does admit it to himself (in a fashion). This plot has a group of unsavoury characters. None of the people are likable and are described in very vividly prejudiced terms but it suits the storyline because I do not think we are meant to like anyone in the story. The unexpected turns that the investigation takes and the way that Dover manages to come out on top (at least in the public eye) was fascinating in an odd way. The ending and the actual perpetrators of the crime in some ways show us why the missing woman was predominantly described by her appearance! I do not know if I have clarified the meandering path that my thoughts took to ultimately being satisfied with this book and getting a chance to see yet another aspect of how people's minds worked in post-war England, but I did try.
Overall I am pleased to make an acquaintance of this author, and a whole new style of mystery narration. Although I do not think the content would be everyone's cup of tea, if one can get past the (graphic) negative caricatures of people and look at it only as part of the story itself, it is more palatable.I say this as someone who is usually very sensitive to the background portrayal of any story, and someone who actually (surprisingly) enjoyed both the stories I have read of this series so far.
I received an ARC of the reprint thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is completely based on my own reading experience.

Detective Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover is not like any detective you have every heard of before.
I cannot compare Dover to any detective story i have read before.
This however is why it makes this book so enjoyable.
Dover is clearly no Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple.
Dover is a so so detective who relies on luck and the help of his seargent.
Although written in 1964 this story would make a superb tv programme.
Joyce Porter managed to create a character you can't like but you can enjoy.
Bumbling along and somehow getting there in the end.
Most enjoyable read and hopefully more to come!

Great fun. How could it be that such a great comic character as Inspector Dover ha been hidden for so many years. Joyce Porter is a wonderfully inventive writer and the book is full of the atmosphere of the early 1950's. The story has all the twists and turns of a satisfying whodunit.

Joyce Porter created a character of his time, mind in a time warp of pre-war ideas. Wilfred Dover is a man you can dislike easily but by the end of the book you just have a little thought and hope that he might succeed. Written with tongue firmly in cheek at times the humour doesn’t miss a beat. The story though is a true who-dun-it with twists and turns not helped by the inept Dover, but is he that inept? Or is it all a game by the author to mislead us? Some comments and thoughts of Wilfred Dover appear to be very anti-social but don’t forget the book was written in early 1960s so he is just reflecting the thoughts of that type of man at that time.
All in all a good read and looking forward to Number 2

A real treat and joy to read. Entertaining detective fiction at its best. Dover is an bumbling oaf, who is like a bull in a china shop when he has theories with no proof to back them up. With a trusty, put upon Sergeant in tow, he goes along to solve the mystery. Not one of Scotland Yard's finest, but you won't be able to put the book down once you start, until you reach the end. Will definitely red the other Dover books in series.

I thank NetGalley and Farrago for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review. Let me clarify that this novel was first published in 1964 by Cape, and Farrago is now republishing all the books in the series.
In brief, this book is a blast. I hadn’t heard of the Dover series and had never read any of Joyce Porter’s books before (more fool me!), but I’m pleased to have discovered both, the character and the author. While the character is truly dislikeable, the author had a talent for creating solid and engaging mysteries inhabited by a fantastic array of characters, and her observational skills and her comedic timing turn her books into a peculiar creation, somewhere between the satire and the farce.
I’ve been trying to find a way to describe this book. It is clearly a mystery and as I said above, it is a good, solid mystery, with red herrings, twists, turns and enough clues to make most lovers of the genre enjoy the putting together of the puzzle. You even have the mandatory summing up at the end, by Detective Chief Inspector Dover, but like everything else in the book, any similarity with what would happen in a true golden age mystery (yes, Agatha Christie comes to mind) is pure coincidence. You’ll have to read the book to judge by yourselves what you think of the ending, but it made me chuckle. I guess I would call it a vintage cozy mystery (if such a thing exists). It is not a standard modern cozy mystery, because although we do have some of the typical elements of those (a peculiar investigator, a strange crime, and a weird assortment of characters), the investigator here is a professional of law enforcement (to call him something) from Scotland Yard and all (the fact that the Yard are keen on sending him as far away as possible notwithstanding), and rather than being engaging and likeable, he is quite the opposite. In some ways, the novel has element of the police procedural, of the period, of course, and the mystery plays a more important part than it does in some of the modern cozy mysteries, where the main character is usually an amateur and his personality, her relationships, her business/profession, and her adventures can take up much of the novel.
Dover is a great creation. He is terrific and horrible all at the same time. He is lazy. He will go to any extents not to make any effort, either mental or physical. He is completely self-centred and totally uninterested in his job. There is no rule he won’t break in order to make his life easier and get a quick result. He exploits Sergeant MacGregor, making him do all the donkey work, and scrounging his cigarettes; there isn’t an invitation to food or drink he ever turns down; he is prejudiced, short-tempered and blows his top at the drop of a hat; he is pompous and never listens to anybody… As the back matter of the book says: “Detective Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover is arguably the most idle and avaricious hero of any novel, mystery or otherwise. Why should he even be bothered to solve the case?” This is not a novel for those who are looking for a character to root for. Although his sergeant is the total opposite, when it comes to solving crimes, he is methodical but not a great asset, either. The mystery takes place in a small town, mostly around what would nowadays be called a luxury housing state, and we come across a fantastic catalogue of characters and suspects, from the slightly odd to the wildly eccentric, and every shade in between. The local law enforcement sounds pretty normal in comparison, although the police women we meet are something else as well. Sorry, I’d rather not spoil it for readers.
The story is narrated in the third person, and although we mostly follow Dover’s adventures, we are clearly outside observers, rather than seeing things from his point of view. We might be privy to some of his thoughts and those of the other characters, but always as spectators. People who read the novel and feel disgusted by the lack of political correctness and the character’s flaws miss the distance between the narrative’s perspective and the character, in my opinion. We are not meant to like him or agree with his approach, quite the opposite. Of course, the novel is of its time, and that’s another one of the joys of it. I loved the language, the references to popular culture, the snippets of information about clothing, habits, social mores… It occurred to me that people researching the era (writers, designers, scholars…) would have a field day with this book.
I don’t want to go into too many details about the plot, but we have a pretty special victim, a bunch of characters from the ridiculous to the more ridiculous (dope fiends, yapping dogs, leery aristocrats, amateur detectives, defrocked priests (well, sort of), a writer interested in little known tribes…), blackmail, a ransom note, a missing body, adultery… and more. Take your pick.
Although I know comedy and sense of humour are very personal, and many of the references in the book are very British, I found it really funny and witty. The book is eminently quotable, but I had to try to offer you at least a few snippets, so you can get an idea:
I was nearly fifty when I married. Up till then I had always avoided matrimony like the plague, going on the principle that there is no need to throw yourself into the river to get a drink of water.
Dover didn’t approve of foreigners, mainly on the irrefutable grounds that they were un-English, and he was looking forwards to giving Boris Bogolepov, guilty or not, a rough old time just for the sheer hell of it.
It’s no good going round with an open mind like a vacuum cleaner because all you’ll finish up with is…’ Dover paused to work this one out ‘… is fluff!’ he concluded triumphantly.
I recommend this book to people who love cozy mysteries but are looking for something leaning more towards the police procedural side, and who prefer their humour rather sharp and British. Although I’ve read far worse, and there is only limited violence (fairly slapstick), the novel is non-PC (not that it condones the points of view exposed, but…) so it could be offensive to people reading it as a straight narrative. On the plus side, royalties from the book got to the work of the Friends of Friendless Churches (yes, they do exist, and do a great job as well). Go on, try it. You know you want to!

Very enjoyable story about another time. Very well written. I enjoyed the silliness as well as the mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

A ‘fun' crime story, from a writer I had surprisingly never heard of before. Like the humour and the twentieth century setting. A great discovery and I will certainly track down her other books.

This was a truly delightful find. In fact, I am ready to start Dover Two!

Dover is from Scotland Yard and is called on to investigate the disappearance of a young woman from a village. She is the companion of an elderly man and lives in the mansion with him and his daughter. The estate has some cottages and apartments where others also live. The drive has a large gate which is closed and locked at night. Juliet was last seen on Tuesday, her day off. Wednesday she was reported missing.

As Dover and his police sergeant MacGregor investigate it becomes quite clear that Dover as the mentor is slightly inept and that MacGregor the student is the sharper of the two. Never-the-less, it takes the two of them to solve the case.

There are twists and turns and plenty of suspects. The interaction among the characters is amusing and at times are laugh out loud funny.

The climax is surprising. There is an accounting to the Chief Inspector when everything is laid out and it is clear that had the reader been paying close attention, everything was there to solve the case. But, like Dover, the reader does not recognize the importance of many of the clues and just reads right over them.

Well written. A fun book! As I said, I look forward to Dover's future cases.