Review: The Pit-Prop Syndicate

The Pit-Prop Syndicate by Freeman Wills Crofts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A clever mystery, with an unusual kick-off: A young Englishman, travelling on business across France, notices a lorry-driver surreptitiously changing the number on his lorry. Intrigued, and also needing petrol for his motorcycle, he approaches the mill from which the driver had come, and meets an attractive young woman. On his return to London, he tells the story in his club, and one of his friends, suspecting there's more to the story, suggests they investigate. For the sake of the young woman, who he's fallen in love with, the original young Englishman is reluctant to involve the police, but when there's a murder they have to call in Scotland Yard and put their investigations to date in the hands of the inspector in charge.

The first half is the two friends investigating in a kind of Boy's Own Paper way, while the second half is the professional investigation led by the Scotland Yard inspector in a straight police procedural. There's still plenty of suspense and mystery left, though; exactly what crime the Syndicate of the title is committing isn't clear until late in the book, and the reason for the changing of the number plate isn't explained until even later, so that kept me, as a reader, on the hook. The romance subplot and the character of the love interest are severely underdeveloped, as was the style at the time, but the fascination of the mystery makes up for any flaws, and it's a solid, entertaining book of the period (about a century ago).

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