Martin Scudamore was in the cinema when he overheard the two men’s conversation. A conversation about the importance of the four rings – green, blue, red and yellow. And that if a certain Mr Lovelace was to stand in the way of the elder man – “I’ll slit his throat – without the slightest compunction or hesitation”.

As Scudamore has a friend by the name of Lovelace, he relates the story to a young woman he likes who happens to work at Scotland Yard, one Helen Repton. And, because Helen Repton is no idiot, she hightails it to a man whom she likes – Anthony Bathurst.

Racing to the residence of Lovelace, Bathurst finds himself too late, but while he is contemplating the victim’s last words – “innocent” and “teaspoon” – the killer’s plan is far from over…

Yes, it’s another re-read of an Anthony Bathurst mystery, from the author that I helped reintroduce to the masses, Brian Flynn. If you’re new to the blog because you’ve discovered me over on Blue Sky – my handle is puzzledoctor.bsky.social – then the story of the reprints is here. At the moment, I’m taking time to explore the titles that we didn’t get round to reprinting, hence this one, the fortieth title.

What is interesting, having read this and two others – Where There Was Smoke and And Cauldron Bubble – I’ve started to notice a change of style in Brian’s work. Where the earlier books focus on the traditional mystery structure, as we get to some of the later titles, Flynn seems interested in the methods of investigation, following Bathurst, and to a lesser extent Inspector MacMorran. The stories still have a whodunnit element to them, with a couple of exceptions – The Grim Maiden, for example – but we follow our hero as he wanders down dead ends in his investigations, or roams at random until he stumbles upon a lead. Structurally some of these stories resemble some of the earlier Freeman Wills Crofts Inspector French stories, not a bad thing at all.

This story is a fun one, as Bathurst deciphers the cryptic final words quite quickly but trying to work out exactly who did what to who, and why takes a lot more time and effort. What is slightly surprising is how quickly Scudamore vanishes from the action – Flynn sort of sets up a love triangle between Bathurst, Scudamore and Helen Repton, but never really commits to it. He never really commits to the Helen-Bathurst relationship. She keeps saying that she’s head over heels in love with him, but he never really admits anything, as far as we see. There’s a little something in the final pages of this one, but it’s about as romantic as Bathurst gets, Fear and Trembling excepted.

There’s a nice sting in the reveal – I’m not convinced this is a fairly-clued mystery, but it is a whodunnit, and there’s a decent last-minute misdirection. But more importantly, it’s another 250 pages in the company of a most charming sleuth. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to read it one day…

And if you think the cover looks familiar, Dean Street Press used it for The Triple Bite a few years ago. So why not read that one while you hunt for a copy of this one?