A Case for Mr. Crook: Anthony Gilbert

To be honest, I bought this book for the cover. It is a Green Door mystery published by Pyramid Books and it has a skeleton's hand on the cover (and a tiny skull on the door).

Anthony Gilbert is one of the pseudonyms used by Lucy Beatrice Malleson. She was a prolific author, writing from the mid-1920's into the early 1970's. Her first mysteries featured Scott Egerton, a British political leader. Later she started a long series featuring Arthur C. Crook, a Cockney solicitor.

Here is a description of Crook at Thrilling Detective:

Part of Crook's appeal is surely that he's so much clearly not just one of the people, and so for the people. No snooty Lord Mucky-muck pretensions here -- he's a lower-class Cockney, with questionable taste in clothing, and a weakness for vulgar, gaudy cars and beer. He's loud, obnoxious (and cheerfully sexist), but clearly devoted to his clients. One wag describes him as "a bright red face, bright red hair and a bright red car," and that about sums him up.

The original title of this book was Miss Pinnegar Disappears. Miss Pinnegar is an elderly nurse living with another retired nurse. She runs into Arthur Crook on the way home on a Sunday morning. He offers her a ride, and it turns out she knows of him and his work in helping the less fortunate who have problems with the law. Weeks later, she gets involved in a situation where she needs his advice. The wife of her nephew. thought to have died during an air raid in World War II, turns up at her doorstep out of the blue seeking help. 

There is not much of a mystery in this book. It seems pretty clear who the villains are; the story is more about whether Miss Pinnegar will be found, and there are no twists. There is much quirky humor in this book, a lot of which I did not fully understand, and one does have to suspend disbelief. I guess I would call this a light entertainment. On the plus side, one of the joys of this book is the characterizations. Both Miss Pinnegar and her nephew are entertaining. All of the characters seem a bit eccentric.

I read a  couple of reviews of other books featuring Arthur Crook in 1001 Midnights by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller. In at least one (Mr. Crook Lifts the Mask), the plot and characters sounded very similar to the one I read. The person in peril is an elderly spinster, and Mr. Crook calls her "Sugar".

Several other bloggers have reviewed mysteries by Anthony Gilbert and really liked them, so I think I just ran into one with less substance. I will try more of Anthony Gilbert's books.

• See a review of The Musical Comedy Crime at a hot cup of pleasure. That posts includes links to other reviews.
• Also this overview of the author at The Passing Tramp.