THE SMARTEST GRAVE

Sparked by an actual case in the early 1000's, this novel, of a murderer and his victim, by a Cambridge don is a winner of the Collins' Crime Club competition and a good bet for fanciers here. The recently married Dugdales leave their lodgings to establish themselves at Coldharbour, change its name to Moat House, and give rise to much speculation among the local people; when his wife leaves suddenly Dugdale imports his ""daughter"", makes a mock of the parson, and continues to create further scandals with other women. The questions on the part of the missing Mrs. Dugdale's bankers bring Detective Inspector Brock into the case and it is his careful, watchful waiting that permits him to reveal his man not only as a persuasive fraud but as a murderer and the embodiment of the ""Clever Fool"". This competent account gives a period and factual atmosphere to an English crime and all those involved and is handled with a definite sense of character and style.