It’s time for a summer holiday for Detective Inspector Cheviot Burmann, his wife Kathleen and their new-born son John Arthur, so where better to go than Devon, a stone’s throw from Dartmoor. On the one hand, there’s beautiful countryside, the ideal place for picnics. On the other hand, there’s also a whacking great prison, just ripe for a prisoner to escape from…
On the way to their guest house, Cheviot and family encounters Jenny, a young woman who coincidentally is heading for a job at the same place. She has come down from London to be meet up again with her boyfriend Joe. It soon becomes clear that Joe is a guest at His Majesty’s pleasure but before she can arrange an official meeting, two minor problems get in the way. Number one, Joe escapes from Dartmoor and vanishes without trace. And number two, Jenny collapses and dies from a stomach complaint…
It’s been a while since I dived back into my Belton Cobb collection – almost a year in fact. After a few too many duffers, I was starting to realise that perhaps he wasn’t an author to obsess over. Of course this came too late after buying a daft amount of his books, so I figured it really should be time to read another one.
You may recall, but probably won’t, that some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most were the three making up Burmann’s courtship to honeymoon with Kathleen – The Willing Witness, Drink Alone And Die, Corpse In Casablanca – in part due to the narration coming mostly from Kathleen herself. When she disappeared into the background in the next book – Doubly Dead – I figured this was the last we’d see of her, so I was surprised with this one, the next in the series, that she reappears, narrating the whole thing. And she’s turned into a bit of a judgmental so-and-so, based on the first chapter.
As Cheviot inevitably gets drawn into the investigation, Cobb does a good job of balancing Kathleen’s voice of being cheesed off with him and understanding that he needs to do his job – it probably helps that she rather liked Jenny so once it becomes clear that she was poisoned, she does want her killer caught and Burmann does seem to solve a lot of poisonings…
And this is one of the better ones. The method (which doesn’t get much of a look-in until the reveal) is good and does provide a clear clue as to the murderer. The escape plan from the prison is good, although it does involve every policeman in the area to be a moron for it to work – almost as if the villains know they’re in a mystery novel – and I’d have preferred to have seen some of the non-murderous villains react to Jenny’s death a bit more.
Add in a bucketload of coincidences, and you have a pretty decent entry into the Cheviot Burmann series. Still not the great novel that I’d expected to find after reading a few good ones initially, but one that is basically on a par with those early good one. Don’t break the bank trying to find a copy though…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
I’ve only read three of Cobb’s, from different periods, but they’re all poisonings – I assume he did occasionally dabble in other methods. I like the fact that Cheviot Burmann, a man with an archetypal Golden Age amateur sleuth’s name, is a Scotland Yard man. I’d like to read some more but prices seem to have crept up a bit of late. I’ve enjoyed the three I’ve read but not so much as to make me want to spend loads of money (even if I could afford to do that). I’ll happily pick him up when and if I find him at a reasonable cost. He’s good but he’s probably not going to become an all-time favourite.
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Oh, it’s probably me again (as with Flynn) driving up the prices by all the reviewing.
Which three have you read? As I’ve said, I went over the top getting loads of these (when they were cheap) after reading a few good ones – Double Detection, Fatal Dose and Corpse At Casablanca. I assumed these were strong tier two titles – hence the mad collecting – but it does seem that these are as good as it gets…
And yes, almost all of them were poisonings…
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The Poisoner’s Mistake, Death in the Thirteenth Dose and Don’t Lie to the Police (all entitled on Streetian principles), in that order. Really liked Mistake – although the solution is very obvious I don’t mind that, it’s rare enough that I spot one. Wasn’t so sure about Dose, then again I quite enjoyed Police but didn’t love it. Prices aren’t insane (yet) but have definitely gone up. I tried Mistake having seen you reviewing Cobb and coming across a cheap one. Trouble is that funds are limited and Cobbs tend to start at “have to think about it” pricing now.
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I’ve only read the second of those two but have copies of the others. Been saving Mistake as I’ve heard it’s one of his best, but good to know Police is worth it. Didn’t think much of Thirteenth Dose myself although the other Sgt Ross books are better.
Looks like you haven’t ventured into the last tranche of his writing, where things get really weird…
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I enjoyed Mistake – though, as I say, it’s not the most baffling puzzle – I’ll be interested to hear what you make of it. Thirteenth Dose was a bit of a disappointment as my second and as a result I didn’t buy more until I found a very cheap Police fairly recently. I read that a few weeks ago. Really it’s a bit of a rerun of Mistake (poison en famille, with the Chevster dancing attendance) but I rather enjoyed it. I’ll happily pick up more if I can get them cheaply but, with funds being limited, I’m not going to pay silly prices, I like them, but not that much and there are things I want more (hint: a certain mountaineering-based series).
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