MURDER IN THE BASEMENT

A newlywed’s hunch that a treasure is hidden in the Middlesex house he’s rented leads to an unwelcome discovery in this forgotten golden age gem first published in 1932.

The corpse buried beneath Reginald and Molly Dane’s basement is too decomposed for Chief Inspector Moresby to identify by any of the usually obvious ways, but it’s clear that the remains are those of a woman in her 20s with perfect dentition and a baby sadly no longer on the way. Doggedly pursuing the slim leads he unearths, Moresby eventually traces the woman to Roland House, a boys boarding school in Allingford. When he shares the news with his friend Roger Sheringham, he’s surprised to learn that Roger, after spending some time a few years ago at Roland House, started a novel about the people running the place. So Moresby’s announcement of the victim’s identity is delayed for 60 pages while the author provides what amounts to an extended flashback of the events leading up to her death. Sheringham’s tale of petty rivalries, affairs, and revenge plots is so deliciously entertaining that many readers will forget that they’re supposed to be keeping an eagle eye out for the future victim and will be surprised when her name is finally revealed. Moresby and Sheringham soon zero in on an obvious suspect who all but admits his guilt but sneers that there’s no evidence against him. But those familiar with the peerlessly tricky mysteries A.B. Cox (1893-1971) published as Anthony Berkeley and Francis Iles, from The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) to Trial and Error (1937), will know enough to keep an open mind.

A pioneering example of the “whowasdunin” that, like that corpse in the basement, richly deserves exhumation.