Murder In The Basement by Anthony Berkeley

Anthony Berkeley was one of the most important figures in British crime writing and the founder of the prestigious Detection Club in 1930. This features the unusual structure of who-was-done-in rather than who-done-it, when a body is found buried under a brick floor.

Newlyweds move into a semi-detached villa in Lewisham to discover a body in the cellar too decomposed to identify. The previous long-term renter was an elderly spinster who only left once a year for a holiday. Chief Inspector Moresby and Sergeant Afford investigate—someone had a key, knew the home was empty, and lured the victim without force. With over 6,000 women reported missing to Scotland Yard each year, forensics work hard to discover it was once a young woman—five months pregnant, and a teacher at Roland House preparatory school. Moresby consults his writer friend and amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, who once spent a fortnight teaching at the school. Sheringham began a novel with characters based on the staff, which should shed light on who the murderer could be.

The next 60 pages are the actual manuscript featuring the headmaster, his daughter and wife, and the three men and three women who form the teaching staff—uncovering affairs, adultery, pregnancy, blackmail, and of course, murder. When Moresby's investigations reach a dead end, he asks Sheringham to return to the school as a "spy within the gates." Roger accepts—after all, "Murder is my hobby."

An unknown victim, a different mystery, ending in a whodunit. The unusual structure and an entertaining detective in Moresby kept this going. Reading the manuscript did not enlighten me, and I felt it left the original mystery behind. Roger Sheringham first appeared in The Layton Court Mystery, and although this is #8 in the series, he is not really involved until the last 50 pages. Anthony Berkeley wrote Before the Fact under the pseudonym Frances Iles, famously filmed as Suspicion by Alfred Hitchcock in 1941.

Republished by the British Library Crime Classics series, this is widely available in all formats, including eBook.

1932 / Tradeback / 271 pages

My other review of Anthony Berkeley:

Trial And Error