The Three Taps - Book 39

Somebody needs to republish this book!

The Three Taps is a mystery novel published in 1927 by Father Ronald Knox.  He wrote several popular mysteries back in the day and even was included in some collaborative detective novels written by many popular authors at the time, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The Three Taps is oop except you can get in on Kindle.  But if you want a real book, you have to buy it used somewhere.  This mystery introduced Father Knox's recurring detective, Miles Bredon of the Indescribable Insurance Company.  In this case a wealthy man name Mottram dies at an inn out in the country where he liked to stay on fishing holidays.  The man died of asphyxiation from a gas tap left on in his room.  Suicide by gas, or accidental death because of gas had become a trope.  I didn't really understand everything about the three taps in the room and quite how they worked.  Another trope is the locked room mystery.  The room was locked so it must be a suicide except somehow the tap got turned off in the locked room, yet the man still died?  Neither suicide nor murder seem to fit.  And with each uncovered clue, things get even murkier.

Converging at this Inn is an old war colleague of Miles', now Scotland Yard detective, Leyland (can't remember his first name).  Miles wants to find the death a suicide so his company doesn't have to pay out, but Leyland thinks it's a murder.  We also get to know Miles' wife Angela.  Miles and Angela have lots of witty repartee.  Angela is a hoot.  We also have another witty gentleman in Mr. Pulteney, an older man who frequently stays at the Inn to fish in the river gorge nearby and knew Mottram.  And we have the two main suspects, Mottram's alienated nephew who runs a shop in the town and Mottran's secretary, Brinkman. 

Lots of twists and turns and very British all around.  An enjoyable mystery with lots of clever charm.

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