A Question of Proof (1935)
Blurb:
My review:
Strangeways, who reasons from psychological rather than physical clues, is called in to investigate the murder of a schoolboy at a minor public school, a crime of which a friend of his, Michael Evans, a master at the school, is suspected. The characters are very well drawn, although, with the exception of Evans, his friend Griffin, and the schoolboys, all very unpleasant. Easily the best-drawn character is the murderer, whose motive is unusual but convincing. Although the murderer is so inevitable, his identity is very well hidden, and the murders are both recklessly and ingeniously committed, the last relying on a fine Chestertonian hiding-place. This excellent debut is how the psychological detective story ought to be written, following Anthony Berkeley's rules laid down in the introduction to The Second Shot (1930), instead of being an inverted look at the perversions of an improbable psychopath.