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    Calamity in Kent
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    Calamity in Kent
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    Calamity in Kent
    Ebook293 pages4 hours

    Calamity in Kent

    By John Rowland

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In the peaceful seaside town of Broadgate, an impossible crime occurs. The operator of the cliff railway locks the empty carriage one evening; when he returns to work next morning, a dead body is locked inside – a man who has been stabbed in the back.

    Jimmy London, a newspaper reporter, is first on the scene. He is quick on the trail for clues – and agrees to pool his knowledge with Inspector Shelley of Scotland Yard, who is holidaying in the area. Mistrustful of the plodding local policeman, Inspector Beech, the two men launch their own investigation into the most baffling locked-room mystery – a case that could reignite Jimmy’s flagging career, but one that exposes him to great danger.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPoisoned Pen Press
    Release dateApr 5, 2016
    ISBN9781464205781
    Author

    John Rowland

    JOHN ROWLAND (1907-1984) was a publisher, journalist, civil servant, and Unitarian minister whose detective novels have long been neglected.

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    Reviews for Calamity in Kent

    3.5/5

    16 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a perfectly competent mystery in which a London newsman taking a rest cure at a small seaside resort is drawn into investigating a dead body (eventually two dead bodies) found successively in the lift going up the seaside cliff. He shares the investigation with Inspector Shelley of Scotland Yard, who in fact successfully completes the investigation after the journalist makes a fool of himself and is captured by the villain. The ending is artificial and abrupt,but the rest of it is fairly good. The solution turns out to involve yet another unduy involved plot to snuggle and distribute cocaine. The author seems to lose track of the fact that the inn where the journalist goes is supposed to be where the cocaine is distributed wholesale to the retal pushers, instead of where the addicts themselves pick it up.
    • 5/5
      A body found in a previously locked, empty rail carriage, a newspaper reporter and a Scotland Yard inspector join forces to solve the murder.Another great novel from John Rowland and a welcome story from the British Library.Very highly recommended.I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      Convalescing after an operation in the small town Broadgate reporter Jimmy London stumbles on a dead body inside a locked carriage. Who is the man and how was the crime committed? While waiting for the police London searches the victim’s pockets and comes upon some important information which enables him to help his friend, Inspector Shelley from Scotland Yard. The two decide to investigate the case together. Soon they find out that the victim might have had ties to organised crime. There are plenty of suspects to question, but it’s not before long, that another dead body appears, putting pressure on the sleuths, to get to the bottom of this baffling case.John Rowland was one of those obscure Golden Age writers the British Library Crime Classics specialises in. Even though this book was published in 1950, with its impossible mystery and amateur sleuth it seems like a throwback to pre-war times. On the surface this is an easy, undemanding read. However the narrator has a tendency to overexplain things and repeat certain perfectly obvious facts ad nauseam. With good editing the book could have easily been shortened by about 30-40 pages. This could explain why it took me about three weeks to finish this novel.This is a solid example of a whodunit, but did not necessarily make me want to read more by this author.