The Curse of the Bronze Lamp (1945)
Blurb:
My review:
The last classic H.M. before an appreciable decline sets in, H.M. becoming a buffoon, shows the old man near the top of his form, conducting the investigation in a sane and sober manner, and, despite making his entrance bashing up an Egyptian taxi-driver, the humour provided by his scrap-book is vintage Dickson, not overshadowing the story, but there as a minor delight—and to provide a central clue. The business is a parody of Egyptian curses—the bronze lamp found in the tomb of Herihor seems to be responsible for two impossible disappearances. The mystery of whether Lady Helen Loring and her father are dead (as Masters, eagerly searching for red herrings, suspects, most likely bumped off by the butler) or alive (as H.M. believes) is sustained until the end. Further mystification is caused by missing antiques; a portrait of Augusta, Countess of Severn; two seers, one Egyptian, one American, both cranks; and the significance of planting daffodils on Thursday. The motive for and method of Lady Helen's disappearance are convincing and original (although similar to The Reader is Warned), relying on simplicity above all; and the murderer's plot is ingeniously interwoven with the previous disappearance. One flaw: the murderer does not receive his comeuppance but the girl.