“Anthony Gilbert” (aka, Lucy Beatrice Malleson) presents readers with a famous British art collector, Sampson Rubenstein, found murdered in a locked room in his country house. The millionaire was supposed to have taken a young adventuress, Fanny Price, to the train station yet his car is found smashed at the bottom of a cliff. The police expect to find Rubenstein’s body there as well, but it’s missing. A week or more later Rubenstein is found stabbed to death in the treasure room in his own house.
The mystery is narrated by Simon Curteis, an adventurer who has fallen in love with Fanny Price who has been charged with Rubenstein’s murder. Curtis enlists lawyer Arthur G. Crook to help him find the real murder. Anthony Gilbert delivers a twisty plot and a double surprise ending. If you’re looking for a classic mystery from 1936, Murder By Experts will leave you with your head spinning! GRADE: A
MURDER BY EXPERTS was the first Arthur Crook novel. I’ve never read one, though I have read several short stories in different anthologies that featured the character, and found all of them well written. I’m glad these publishers are making these mostly forgotten Golden Age writers available again – not only Gilbert but people like E. C. R. Lorac and George Bellairs, for example.
Jeff, I have a couple E.C.R. Lorac and George Bellairs mysteries in my Read Real Soon stack. I like to read these Golden Age mystery writers. But, I have to be in the mood for the much slower pace of these books.
I have no idea how common my experience is, but in a period of 3-4 years in the Seventies I blew through the writers I thought to be the Big Three of Golden Age mystery novels: Carr, Christie, and Queen. After that I’d try another writer now and then but never really latched on to any of them. This is not to say that these others were inferior to the Big Three, but that my appetite for books of this kind had been sated. I did continue reading mystery novels, but my emphasis had moved from Golden Age to (mostly) noirish private eye novels and (mostly British) spy novels. I’m still moved to try the Golden Age stuff occasionally, either one of the actual Golden Age writers or a modern example like Anthony Horowitz, but I just can’t seem to get into them.
Michael, my reading trajectory followed yours. I read a lot of Christie and Ellery Queen in the Sixties. I read a lot of Carr in the Seventies. But, I drifted into private eye novels, police procedurals, and thriller after that. But, from time to time, I’m in the mood for one of those Golden Age mysteries.
I enjoyed Gilbert’s WOMAN IN RED (which became the film MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS) despite the fact that Arthur Crook seemed to intrude on a story that would have been fine without him.
Yes.!I loved this sort of novel in the sixties and seventies. But now I have trouble with the sort of Midsommer Murders plot. Did the world change and they began to seem to too tame? Did they too often feature the British upper class. I am not sure. But I also drifted into police procedurals and P.I. And not the sort of police procedurals where the plot is just interviewing suspects, my problem with Midsmmer and Poirot. I love a puzzle but it is hard to combine that with realism although Sjowal and Wahloo can do it.
Patti, I agree with you on MIDSUMMER and Poirot. I’ll have to reread Sjowal and Wahloo.
I started with Christie, Sayers, and Marsh, plus Queen and Carr, and Erle Stanley Gardner, added Simenon, next procedurals like McBain and Sjowall/Wahloo, then went to Hammett, Ross Macdonald and Chandler, went through a big first person PI phase, then went to British authors like Reginald Hill and Peter Robinson. Also American regional writers – Archer Mayor, Steven F. Havill, Dana Stabenow, and the like. Since 1995 I’ve read at least one short story every day, and a lot of them are mysteries. Short stories are where I am most likely to read not only Golden Age mysteries, but older works going back to Doyle and others from his era – Freeman, Bramah, Futrelle, Orczy, and the like.
Jeff, I want to thank you again for motivating me to read a short story per day! In the early 1960s, I went on the binge of private eye novels: Carter Brown, Mike Shayne, Shell Scott, etc. Now I try to pace myself and vary my reading with occasional non-fiction books.
WoW! A locked room puzzle from Gilbert, who is one of my favourites! When she gets it right, she is better than all the Crime Queens. I have to get this book. Thanks George.
neeru, I promised you I would finally get to Anthony Gilbert! The cover artwork is dull, but this is a LARGE PRINT edition of MURDER BY EXPERTS so that might explain it. LARGE PRINT publishers tend to go with bland, nondescript covers for some reason.
Large Print publishers don’t want to pay for cover art or design, if they can help it. As such things go, this is better than most.
What a boring cover though!
I missed this series (51 books!) somehow in the late 50s/early 60s when I read so many “Krimis” as they are called in German. Maybe they were translated and published later?
Now I’m happy to read SF – there’s too much stuff around anyway
Wolf, I try to keep up, but there are so many books and so little time.
Never read Anthony Gilbert although I have read Michael Gilbert. Read a lot of Christie in my teens, but got bored with the focus on the upper classes. The only lower class people were the servants. Read and like Carr but always thought Queen a subpar writer. I much preferred Eric Ambler, Chandler, Hammett, Jim Thompson, Ross and John D. MacDonald. They just seemed much more realistic to me.
Steve, I’m with you on Hammett, Chandler, Thompson, JDM, and Ross Macdonald. I put Ambler in a separate category with Le Carre and the other spy novel writers I enjoy.
Sounds interesting, though I don’t have room for it now. I’ll put it on a list…
Rick, I always find room for Good Books.
I read some anthony gilbert, but don’t recall this one I love the golden age books, started with gothics like victoria holt and mary stewart and went to Christie, Marsh, Sayers. Never read Carr much and didn’t like simenon (at the least the one I tried). Also liked Michael Innes and may still have a box full of them. I have read a few perry masons (my mom’s favorite) and all the Ellery Queens.
Rue Morgue press introduced me to many many writers (Constance and Gwenyth Little for example) but probably my favorite American writer of that era is Phoebe Atwood Taylor writing as Alice Tilton. They are hysterical.
Maggie, I remember Ellen Nehr raving about Phoebe Atwood Taylor (aka, Alice Tilton). I read a couple and enjoyed them.
Well, at least one decent radio show swiped that title. She (Malleson) is much-loved by Classic Detection fans, generally, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read (spottily) of her work.
Todd, same here. I’ll be reading more of Anthony Gilbert’s work in the coming months.