The Cornish Coast Murder

November 3, 2014
Ernest Elmore (1901â57), under the pseudonym John Bude, takes readers to the Cornish village of Boscawen where the vicar, Reverend Dodd, a reader and fan of mystery stories, finds himself in the middle of an actual mystery. When Julius Tregarthan is found shot in the head, the local police are completely puzzled and are unable to find any clues in his house. Fortunately, they have Reverend Dodd to help them solve the mystery. Vivid descriptions of the Cornish coast, a realistic cast of characters, and a mesmerizing plot make this a timeless story that exhibits all the characteristics of a cozy mystery as appealing today as it was when originally published in 1935.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
This reissue of a work by one of the most popular (but now largely forgotten) writers of the golden age of British crime fiction has a spectacularly cozy opening: as rain patters and a wind off the Atlantic moans around the windows of a vicar's snug, fire-lit study, he waits for his weekly guest, the village doctor. Their meeting centers on opening a crate from the local lending library. The books the vicar has chosen for his friend are an index to popular mystery writers of the time: Dorothy L. Sayers, J. Jefferson Farjeon, Agatha Christie, and Freeman Wills Crofts. The vicar and doctor serving the tiny village of Boscawen, in Cornwall, are avid detective-story fans. That very night, the doctor is called out to the neighboring cliffside home of a wealthy magistrate found with a bullet in his head. The vicar, steeped in procedure from his reading, joins forces with the police to solve a crime that hinges on the timing of curtains being pulled, high-heeled footprints, and varieties of gravel, along with the motives of the many who hated the magistrate. The combination of bracing Cornish cliffs and seascapes with cozy interiors and a cerebral mystery makes this one of the most deservedly resurrected titles in the British Library Crime Classics series. With an introduction by modern British crime writer Martin Edwards.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)