The Mayfair Mystery

Some of my favourite novels these days are the detective and mystery stories from the first half of the twentieth century (mostly between the two world wars), known as "Golden Age of Detective" fiction. Stereotypically these stories are thought to always involve mysteries in country houses investigated by keen amateurs. Though there was a lot more to these stories that that.

The Mayfair Mystery, also known as 2835 Mayfair, to be honest it does not sit that comfortably in the genre at all. It was written by Frank Collins Richardson before the First World War and later reissued as part of the Collins Detective Club.

Although an enjoyable and witty read, as the book progresses you are not sure what kind of story it is, is it a crime novel or something else a little more esoteric? It is something else but you arn't really sure what that something is until the ending.

The story actually is pretty preposterous and only a skilled author could get away with it, luckily this is the case here. The characters are well drawn and you do care about them in the end which is always a hallmark of a good story. The best thing about it though is the reproduction Collins Detective Club cover.