“Antidote to Venom” by Freeman Wills Crofts

George Surridge has a problem; actually, he has several. He’s the director of the Birmington Zoo, the most prestigious zoo in the U.K. outside London. It’s an enviable position. But his marriage is increasingly unhappy, he has a small gambling problem, and then he meets Nancy Weymore, a widow whom he finds extremely attractive. All of these things are straining his finances.

And then he has a bit of good fortune. An elderly aunt dies, leaving him her heir. The influx of funds will mean the end of his financial problems and his ability to buy a cottage for Nancy. He encounters only one problem: after starting the expenditures for the cottage, he learns that his aunt’s attorney has embezzled all of the anticipated funds. But the lawyer has a plan, and he convinces George to go along. Unfortunately, the plan involves murder of a most unusual kind – using the venom of a snake.

Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957) was first published in 1938 and has been republished as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. Crofts in his day was more popular than Agatha Christie; T.S. Eliot and Raymond Chandler were among his admiring readers, says mystery writer Martin Edwards in the introduction to the book, one of many Crofts wrote in the Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard series.

Freeman Wills Crofts

Most of the story is told from Surridge’s point-of-view. After a coroner’s jury returns a verdict of accidental death, Sturridge believes he and the lawyer have gotten away with the crime, the murder of the lawyer’s uncle using the venom of a viper. But criminal success brings no relief; Sturridge finds himself increasingly afflicted by guilt. The feelings increase as Inspector French, troubled by the verdict of accident, arrives to take the case apart. And he finds something very different has gone on. Edwards points out a fact about Crofts life that shows up in Antidote to Venom. Crofts was deeply religious, and it is religious faith that ultimately plays a critical role in the outcome. 

Antidote to Venom is not a classic “whodunit.” The reader knows what’s happened. Instead, it represents one of better examples of the psychological mystery that was beginning to become popular in Britain in the late 1930s. And it remains a fascinating story.

Related:

My review of The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts.

My review of The 12:30 from Croydonby Freeman Wills Crofts.

Top photograph: A scene from the London Zoo in the 1930s.

“The 12:30 From Croydon” by Freeman Wills Crofts

Andrew Crowther, an elderly, retired manufacturer, is flying from Croydon in the U.K. to an airfield near Paris with a few members of his family. It’s a commercial flight, and Crowther’s granddaughter is thrilled and terrified to be traveling in a plane. We see the flight largely through her eyes, until the plane lands. Everyone has assumed that Crowther had fallen asleep. Actually, he’s dead.

A French doctor suspects the cause of death isn’t natural. The post-mortem, undertaken back in England, finds potassium cyanide in the body. The assumption is suicide – Crowther had been ailing and becoming increasingly frail. But the assumption is eventually laid aside; the police begin a murder investigation.

First published in 1934, The 12:30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts has very little to do with aviation; The murder takes place aboard a plane but that’s the only connection. The mystery novel was written at what was likely the peak of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (1920s-1940s), and it was unusual in that it was not a classic whodunit, which Crofts had been known for and was indeed acknowledged a master at writing. It was one of the early psychological mystery novels; it explores the why and how. From very early on, the reader knows who the killer is. The only question becomes whether the killer will get away with the crime.

It says much about Crofts skill that, as the story continues, the reader wants the killer to get away with it. The crime is reprehensible, and the killer is not particularly likeable. But the killer becomes something of the hero of the story.

Freeman Wills Crofts

Crofts (1879-1957) was considered one of the master writers of the period. His mysteries ranked with those of Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, R. Austin Freeman, Josephine Tey, and Ngaio Marsh in the U.K. and with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in the United States. Crofts wrote some 33 novels, several short story collections, and stage and radio plays. 

The 12:30 from Croydon goes far beyond the classic mystery story. Crofts’ ability to get the reader inside of the mind of the killer and gain the reader’s sympathy is flat-out remarkable. The story is a terrific read, and has lost none of its appeal after more than 80 years.

Related:

My review of The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts.

Top photograph: Airline travel in the 1930s.

“The Hog’s Back Mystery” by Freeman Wills Crofts

Hog’s Back is an actual place – it’s part of the North Downs in Surrey in the United Kingdom, lying between the towns of Guildford and Farnham. It’s not far from London. And it is the area, in The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts, with its small and large country homes, winding lanes, walking paths, farms, woods, where a series of suspected murders is committed.

The key phrase here is “suspected murders.” A semi-retired doctor has simply disappeared. One minute he is reading the newspaper after dinner, and the next minute he is gone. At first thinking he has gone for a walk, his wife, sister-in-law and a house guest aren’t that concerned. But time passes, and concern gives way to fear that something has happened.

The local police call in New Scotland Yard, personified by Inspector Joseph French (who stars in a number of Crofts mystery stories). Once French is on the case, he’s like a terrier who keeps digging and digging until the dirt and dust are cleared away and a crime lies open to the naked eye.

The Hog’s Back Mystery was first published in 1933, and has been republished in the British Library Crime Classics series. It’s a fascinating story; the reader, like Inspector French, doesn’t know for the longest time whether a crime has actually been committed. When a nurse the doctor worked with is also reported missing, it begins to look like two lovers have run away.

That is, until a third person goes missing.

Crofts (1879-1957) was considered one of the master writers in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, roughly covering the 1920s and 1930s. His name and his stories ranked with Agatha Christie, Margarey Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, R. Austin Freeman, Josephine Tey, Ngaio Mars among others, in the United Kingdom, and with the somewhat more hardboiled school writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in the United States. Crofts wrote some 33 novels, several short story collections, and stage and radio plays. The Hog’s Back Mystery is one of two by Crofts republished by the British Library in its series, the other being Antidote to Venom.

Freeman Wills Crofts

Crofts only turning to full-time mystery writing in his late 40s. Prior to that, he was involved with railways. In his late teens, was apprenticed to an uncle involved with railroad construction (and a railway project plays a key role in The Hog’s Back Mystery.) It’s no coincidence that the story has a “construction engineering” feel to it.

Once Inspector French determines a crime has indeed been committed, his focus becomes the how instead of the who. All of the possible suspects (six of them) have cast-iron alibis. Slowly and methodically, French unravels what has happened.

The Hog’s Back Mystery is an entertaining story, offering a deep glimpse into the kind of mysteries that were so popular 80 and 90 years ago – and by author who deserves to be better known than he is.

Related: My reviews of other British Library Crime Classics

J. Jefferson Farfeon’s Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Death on the Cherwell.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s The Santa Klaus Murder.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Murder Underground.

John Bude’s The Lake District Murder.

John Bude’s The Cornish Coast Murder.

Charles Warren Adams’s The Notting Hill Mystery.

Photograph: A view of Hog’s Back in the North Downs of Surrey, via Wikimedia Commons.