The Footsteps at the Lock

Two cousins who cannot stand each other set off on a canoe trip down the upper Thames, and only one of them is seen alive again after a night at a riverside lock. Since both stood to inherit a fortune, the missing man’s disappearance looks less like an accident with every mile. Enter Miles Bredon, the phlegmatic investigator for the Indescribable Insurance Company, who must work out whether he is chasing a runaway, a corpse, or a very clever fraud. Ronald Knox, a priest who helped write the rules of fair-play detection, plays scrupulously by them here, planting every clue in plain sight. First published in 1928, this Golden Age mystery is available free as a PDF and EPUB.