There's Trouble Brewing (1937)
Blurb:
My review:
'It's been a dirty, untidy case in most ways, even though it does add force to a certain well-worn phrase.'
'Namely?'
'There's trouble brewing.'
This—Blake's third novel—is a much more rewarding read second time round—have I matured, or is it the book? The book's merits lie chiefly in three things: the memorably insane / vindictively evil victim, Eustace Bunnett, whose tyrannical behaviour at the brewery he controls allows Blake to express Socialist ideas, chiefly through the mouth of Nigel's friend and host, Dr. Herbert Cammison; the brewery setting, which Nigel believes "seemed a series of temptations to anyone murderously inclined" (sure enough, murder is done at the brewery; in a particularly macabre scene, a skeleton is found in a copper); and the strong plot and solution, hinging on the very gruesome clue of false teeth, recalling Sayers' "In the Teeth of the Evidence", a story which shares a family resemblance with Blake's novel. Despite (somewhat unnecessary) antagonism between Nigel and the bullying local Insp. Tyler, the detection is solid and straightforward, with much investigation into alibis (much better handled than the egregiously dull Crofts), serial interviewing of suspects, and attempts to prove Eustace's brother Joe guilty of the crime. Although it seems that "from fair beginnings the case is falling away to foul routine", the detection process is wholly satisfying, supported by several bizarre and macabre murders (a sheet-covered armchair containing a battered corpse à la Peacock Feather Murders; the death of a ship, "a tortured corpse of metal"), and a good pace, although the book is perhaps too episodic, before the explosive climax at the brewery.