The Beast Must Die (1938)

Blurb:

The motorist who killed Martin Cairnes did not stop. The police were unable to trace him.

Alone, Martin’s father continues the search.

‘I am going to kill a man. I don’t know his name, I don’t know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him…’

My review:

The best known of Blake's books, although not his best, this is the classic example of a book adored by the critics for its psychology, when largely lacking in merit. Although the characters are well drawn to begin with, if dwindling into ciphers towards the end, the plot is quite poor, for it is borrowed from Anthony Berkeley's Second Shot (1930) and Henry Wade's Mist on the Saltings (1933). Nigel Strangeways does not shine as detective, for his investigations merely go over ground we have been over already traversed, and the result is boredom.

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