Inspector French’s Greatest Case

Freeman Wills Crofts introduced his most famous detective in this 1924 mystery, the first of more than thirty cases for the patient, unglamorous Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard. It opens in the diamond district of Hatton Garden, where a merchant’s safe has been emptied and a clerk lies dead. There is no flash of genius here, only French’s steady legwork, which carries him from London to the Continent as he checks timetables, tests alibis, and follows the money. Crofts helped define the police procedural, and readers who enjoy watching a case built fact by patient fact will find the method absorbing. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.