Death At Crane’s Court

An Inspector Kenny Mystery, Book 1

By: Eilis Dillon

Narrated by: Roger Clark

Death is inevitable, or is it....

George Arrow, a good-looking, independently wealthym and single man of 36, has just been diagnosed with a weak heart.

A heart so weak, his doctor tells him, he must go to extraordinary lengths to avoid putting the slightest strain upon it.

On his doctor's advice, George packs up his life in Dublin and boards a train to the Bay of Galway where he intends to live quietly in a hotel and await the inevitable end.

On the train, he meets John Burden, and as they chat, George realizes that his new acquaintance is an odious man.

So, it is with some alarm that he realizes the very unpleasant John Burden is, just like George himself, about to start a new chapter of his life at Crane's Court.

As that new life progresses, George realizes that all of his first impressions of Burden-that he is a selfish, nasty man-are entirely correct. And George is not the only person who thinks so.

So, when Burden is found dead, stabbed through the heart with a kitchen knife, it's not a matter of finding out why he was killed but of narrowing down the field of people who wanted him gone.

Inspector Mike Kenny must identify the killer, but where to start?

©1953 Eilís Dillon (P)2019 Tantor

Contrast as a frame for an exciting mystery story

Having older people around and as the central characters gives this mystery its unique flavour. I enjoyed getting to know the individuals and their closely knit social network in this idyllic setting . Exciting events happen everywhere and will penetrate the imagined heaven of retirees nonewithstanding their assumed declining faculties . We all are young until we actually leave this life. A quietly philosophical, well written mystery .
The reader's voice seemed to labour a bit which I had to get accustomed to .

This Is a Classic Whodunit!!

I had never even heard of this author much less read anything by her. She wrote many books but apparently only three detective stories, of which this was the first. It is a true classic whodunit from start to finish. Numerous likely suspects but with no clear cut favorite. Had no idea who, why, or what. Narration at the end explaining all the possible scenarios fleshed it out nicely. Plan to read more by the author, especially her other two detective novels.

A pearl of classical crime

If you like classical British crime, here is an Irish on par. And very competently narrated.

Quite the slog

The storyline, such as it was, remained unfocused.
The characters, sketched incompletely as they were, remained unpleasant and hard to like.
If subsequent authors were influenced by this book, I can only imagine that it would be to learn how not to write a mystery

Monotonous

Not even a small spark of excitement to brighten an absolutely boring presentation.
In the introduction it was mentioned that Eilís had no interest in Agatha Christie’s style ... too bad ... only Agatha Christie’s wit, humor and style could’ve saved this stunningly banal writing exercise.(It would allow too much credit to refer to it as a ‘story’.). I had thought I might have found my next detective hero but sadly I will be looking elsewhere.