Invisible Weapons

by John Rhode

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 288
Rating:

Synopsis:

A classic crime novel by one of the most highly regarded exponents of the genre.

The murder of old Mr Fransham while washing his hands in his niece's cloakroom was one of the most astounding problems that ever confronted Scotland Yard. Not only was there a policeman in the house at the time, but there was an ugly wound in the victim's forehead and nothing in the locked room that could have inflicted it.

The combined efforts of Superintendent Hanslet and Inspector Waghorn brought no answer and the case was dropped. It was only after another equally baffling murder had been committed that Dr Lancelot Priestley's orderly and imaginative deductions began to make the connections that would solve this extraordinary case.

John Rhode’s Invisible Weapons is a fairly passionless mystery story, and I don’t actually mean that in a bad way. It’s a conventional classic crime story, with fairly low stakes (there’s no real suspense element, aside from the suspicion of murder, no straight-up serial killer stuff, etc) and the traditional ending in which order is restored and the culprits arrested. It’s more of a puzzle than anything, calmly putting piece by piece of the evidence in front of the reader.

I found it to be a pretty fair-play mystery, substantially helped by Dr Priestley’s hints and line of inquiry; by the time the story got there and nailed the criminal, so had I — not because it was too easy, either, but in a satisfying sort of way. As ever, it’s a bit overly engineered, but sometimes that’s the joy of it.

It made me remember I want to read more of Rhode’s work, and have some on hand for reading slumps, because I think there’s nothing quite like these chill classic mysteries. You get what you expect, and sometimes that’s excellent.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)