Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg was originally published in 1934 and is one of those classic crime novels recently reprinted by the British Library. I am so glad that it is now available in print again because I really enjoyed this story.
The setting is a private airfield where the flying instructor crashes his plane into the ground and is killed. It looks like an accident – these are the days of fragile aircraft and many fatalities. It so happens, however, that the Bishop of Cootamundra, from Australia, is also at the airfield learning how to fly so that he can better serve his rural diocese. The Bishop has overheard a conversation that has made him suspicious that the accident may actually have been murder. He works with Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard to try and find out what has been going on.
This isn’t the fastest paced book I have ever read but the mystery unfolds slowly and coherently while we have the pleasure of spending time with the Bishop, the Inspector and other assorted characters. The book moves around from one point of view to another, and the reader begins to understand what has been going on and why the instructor has to die.
The book is well plotted but the pleasure in the reading is in the characters and the witty way in which the book is written. The Bishop, especially, is an unusual and engaging person with an interesting take on life. There are plenty of women characters too, and they are not just wives and mothers. The ending seems inevitable when it arrives but the author ties everything up neatly and in a satisfying way.
Anne Is Reading 