Ronald A. Knox
3 books
- If you like your mysteries as fair-play puzzles, this is a good one: two unlikable cousins canoe up the Thames, one vanishes near a lock, and Miles Bredon works it out over games of patience. Knox's dry donnish wit carries it; don't expect thrills, expect chess.
- A man is found gassed, and whether it was suicide or murder decides who collects the insurance, so the investigator works for the payout rather than justice. Knox runs it with donnish wit; mild, clever, a puzzle built for a fireside.
- Four golfers find a body under a viaduct and detect it half to death, each theory more ingenious and more wrong. Knox is gently mocking the detective story from inside it; funniest if you already love the genre's rules.