Flamande is a legendary French thief, determined to get his hands on the mysterious “unicorn”, being carried by the diplomat Sir George Ramsden on a flight from France to Britain. Gasquet, the head of the Sûreté, has announced that he will also be on the plane to thwart his arch-nemesis. But as the plane take flight, Ken Blake, an acquaintance of Sir Henry Merrivale, has other plans. In Paris on holiday, he runs into the charming agent Evelyn Cheyne and decides it would be a good idea to pretend to be the agent she is going to meet…

Soon Ken and Evelyn end up at the Chateau d’Ille, along with the passengers from the plane which has made a forced landing nearby. Add in Sir Henry Merrivale appearing as if out of nowhere, and Flamande surely doesn’t stand a chance. He certainly wouldn’t be capable of murdering someone in full view of everyone as if they were killed by an invisible unicorn – right down to the massive hole in the victim’s forehead.

So, first of all, congratulations to the British Library. This is the 150^th title in the Crime Classics range (don’t mention The Woman In The Wardrobe, anyone) and I think it is safe to say that without this range, and the jump-start that Mystery In White gave the series in particular, the revival in classic crime might well not have happened. I know a number of other companies have helped as well, but in the UK certainly, it is the British Library range that you can find in most bookshops, bringing authors such as Christianna Brand, John Dickson Carr and E C R Lorac to the masses, along with some authors who even the best-read of us crime fiction aficionados haven’t heard of. And while there may have been some titles that are weaker than others – the ironically titled The Incredible Crime for example – the strong books outnumber those by quite some distance. So a big thanks to everyone behind the series.

Right, so The Unicorn Murders. Hmm… There has to be quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. It’s the fourth Merrivale novel, following The Plague Court Murders, The White Priory Murders and The Red Widow Murders, and it’s a slight change of tone as Carr perhaps finds the confidence to veer away from the traditional settings. The opening chapters read like something out of a farce as Ken blunders his way into Evelyn’s affections (which aren’t dampened at all when it becomes clear that he has been lying to her about who he is). Carr doubles down on this sort of thing in the following book, The Magic Lantern Murders, where almost all of the book is Blake running around as the stakes rise and rise until H.M. sorts it all out.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t the strongest Merrivale title. The plot is amazingly convoluted – while Merrivale explains everything and how he solved it, I do recommend making notes so you understand it. There’s also the central nonsense that you have to swallow that not only does nobody know what Flamande looks like – which is just about plausible I suppose – but nobody knows what the head of the Sûreté looks like? Seriously? And while there is an element of Flamande’s plan being so complex because he has to make it up as he goes along, it does seem that he has the grand plan to steal the “unicorn” without really knowing what it is…

But it’s still a lot of fun. The hapless Ken is a good focus – his sarcastic responses at the point (avoiding spoilers here) things look bad for him are genuinely funny – and the Ken/Evelyn thing is fun too. Evelyn doesn’t get enough to do once they get to the chateau, but she’ll be back in the next book and The Judas Window.

Personally, I hope that the BL bring The Reader Is Warned, Murder In The Submarine Zone, He Wouldn’t Kill Patience, My Late Wives and And So To Murder to the masses soon – the best Merrivales that haven’t seen a reprint here or elsewhere – loads of Merrivale madness and better than the unreprinted Fell books, in my opinion. Fingers crossed.

Many thanks for the review copy, complete with the usual excellent introduction by Martin Edwards.