Here in one volume are ten of the best of Roy Vickers celebrated Department of Dead Ends detective stories. These are detective stories with a difference; the `inverted’ type of detective story. Knowing from the start who the murderer is, the reader is presented with the motive, the workings of the criminal’s mind, the crime itself, and all the clues.
The `surprise’ in Mr Vickers’s stories is, of course, supplied by the way in which his murderers are detected; and this is where the Department of Dead Ends comes in – that repository of files which were never completed, of investigations without a clue and clues which led nowhere. From time to time, quite illogically, Inspector Rason finds a connection between happenings in the outside world and the objects in his Scotland Yard museum, a rubber trumpet, maybe, or a bunch of red carnations. Then events move inexorably to their appointed end.
`One of the half-dozen successful books of detective short stories published since the days of Sherlock Holmes.’ Manchester Evening News
I should say that the quality of the collection is generally strong and I think there are some excellent stories on offer here. The Henpecked Murderer, The Rubber Trumpet, Little Things Like That and The Man Who Murdered in Public are all very strong stories and each are worth a look.
Read my full review on Mysteries Ahoy!