Inspector French and the Box Office Murders

This is my sixth review of a Freeman Wills Crofts book. This novel is written in a fluid style making it an easy read. It benefits from being much shorter than the other novels that I have read (by at least 50-70 pages) so that Crofts doesn't fall into his usual reiteration of the facts over the las......more

This pre-WWII mystery is a classic police procedural. Inspector French of the Yard starts to suspect that cinema box office girls are falling prey to a gang, with murder - usually disguised as suicide- sometimes resulting. But what is the gang up to ? By laborious police work of the tedious kind (sh......more

There's a crime ring in London targeting the girls who work in cinema box-offices. Inspector French knows that, because one of the girls was desperate enough to come to him for help before she was kidnapped and murdered. But he and his staff can't figure out what the purpose of the ring is--how they......more

A superb police procedural featuring Inspector French at his best. Really unusual plot which would be difficult to review without spoiling. Lots of very detailed detection detail which I find very enjoyable. Crofts ratchets up the tension really well as the story unfolds. I would have given it five s......more

I'm still dipping into the "Golden Age" mysteries which have been republished and are appearing regularly on library shelves. This was originally published in 1929 and is #5 in the Insp. French series. It shows, unfortunately, in the plodding dialogue and prose. It's all Miss So-and-so and Mister Wh......more