Review: The Copper Box

The Copper Box by J.S. Fletcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An unusual mystery story from 1923; there's no murder, and, indeed, no crime at all, and the viewpoint character doesn't solve the mystery that there is, and yet I found it a satisfying journey. There's a romance thread that doesn't get enough development to rise to the level of a subplot, even though it's important to the conclusion, but it's no less developed than plenty of romances in books of this period, and at least the couple spend enough time together to make it somewhat plausible that they know each other well enough for a successful relationship.

There are a few chance meetings between the viewpoint character and several other characters that serve to facilitate the progress of the plot, but it's reasonably credible that they would happen to be in the same place at the same time, so I haven't given it the "plot relies on coincidence" tag; and while the hero doesn't solve the mystery, he does protagonize, so I'm not going to tag it as a "main character lacks agency" story either.

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