A most enjoyable crime novel first published in 1929. The true interest of the story lies in the fact that it points up the problems with much Golden Age crime literature, which are puzzles more than anything else, with the ingenious solutions often not standing up to close examination.

The crime at the centre of the mystery is the poisoning of a young wife via the medium of a box of chocolates which appears to have been intended for somone else entirely. The police are apparently baffled, as per normal, and a Crime Club consisting of six people who have an interest in true crime deciding they can solve the problem. The members consist of Roger Sheringham (Berkeleys usual detective) a less serious Wimsey-type who is Chairman of the group, a male barrister, a female playwright, a female writer of 'serious' novels', a male detective story writer and a nervous little chap who seems to be a hanger on of sorts (but who does appear in other Berkeley novels). Each in turn produces a solution, based on their own outlook and experiences of life, and each in turn completely convinces the others that they are correct only to be shot down in turn by the next, equally convincing, answer. I have to say the one slight drawback I found in this book is

Spoiler

there is no definitive solution - the reader is left thinking that the final solution must be the correct one but that has been true of all the solutions. Basically, the story just ends with no answer

.

The original novel is expanded here by two extra chapters. The first, written by author Christianna Brand in 1979, is very short and (IMO) simply extends the issue I have with the ending as per the spoiler. The final chapter was written by Martin Edwards, the editor of many of the British Library titles, especially for this volume. I would say it offers a more usual and, probably, a more likely solution to the puzzle.

I enjoyed this immensely and would recommend it with no reservations