Book Review : The Cornish Coast Murder

Another wonderful mystery from the British Library Crime Classics series.

This story is set near a fishing village called Boscawen on Cornwall’s Atlantic coast. An unpopular magistrate is shot dead in his own sitting-room from outside via the French windows. The police find three bullet holes in the window suggesting a certain variability in accuracy and this is the biggest clue of the lot…and there are many clues. This makes for a very entertaining thriller especially when most of the suspects are incapable of telling the truth and act in a suspicious manner.

Luckily for the local police, the vicar of Boscawen Reverend Dodd spends his evenings reading detective stories by his fireside, and is able to provide help at critical times of the investigation.

This book has recently been republished for the first time since the 1930s and it makes me wonder how many more of these classic mysteries remain to be republished.