The Ponson Case. Freeman Wills CroftsЧитать онлайн книгу.
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First published in Great Britain by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1921
Published by The Detective Story Club Ltd 1932
Copyright © Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts 1921
Introduction © Dolores Gordon-Smith 2016
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1932, 2020
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008159290
Ebook Edition © January 2016 ISBN: 9780008159306
Version: 2020-01-17
Contents
Chapter I: MYSTERY AT LUCE MANOR
Chapter II: A SINISTER SUGGESTION
Chapter IV: INSPECTOR TANNER GROWS SUSPICIOUS
Chapter V: INSPECTOR TANNER BECOMES CONVINCED
Chapter VI: WHAT COSGROVE HAD TO TELL
Chapter VII: COSGROVE’S TRIP NORTH
Chapter VIII: TANNER FINDS HIMSELF DUPED
Chapter IX: LOIS DREW TAKES A HAND
Chapter XIV: A DRAMATIC DISCOVERY
Chapter XV: IN THE LUCE MANOR BOATHOUSE
THE PONSON CASE, first published in 1921, is Freeman Wills Crofts’ second book. Crofts had blazed onto the scene the previous year with his debut novel, The Cask. Far outselling Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in the same year, Crofts went on to become a cornerstone of what we now regard as the Golden Age of detective fiction, the period between the two world wars.
Together with his great contemporaries, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Crofts could not only tell an engaging and entertaining story, but paid the reader the compliment of assuming they were intelligent enough to engage with the logical working out of the mystery.
Crofts respected his readers; he always plays fair (an important quality in Golden Age crime) so that the reader has the same information as the detective. We, the reader, along with the detective, are invited to find a solution to the mystery. An important point, which demonstrates the quality of Crofts’ writing, is that the solution is always credible. Not for Crofts, the ‘infernal ingenuity’ that P. G. Wodehouse, a devoted mystery reader, complains of in his excellent essay, ‘Thrillers’. Instead the criminal, although ingenious, always acts in a way which makes perfect sense
His meticulous approach to plotting is recalled in a letter written by F. T. Smith, Crofts’ editor at Collins in the 1920s, to the Chairman of the company, Billy Collins. Although the letter was written in 1973, Crofts evidently made a lasting impression on Fred. The book in question isn’t named, but it’s a fair assumption that he is discussing The Ponson Case:
‘In Crofts’ case he loved criticism. He always wanted to come in and devote about three hours to a detailed discussion. How could he possibly require this? Well, I remember one case in which the body of the victim was discovered washed ashore on the banks of a river. I innocently had queried the time of the discovery and made a pencilled note on the margin. Crofts arrived with a suitcase for a discussion. He produced three large