okumak The Grell Mystery internet üzerinden

Early British police procedural with Edwardian flavor In the twenty-first century, detectives have DNA, Internet research and profiling. In 1913, when The Grell Mystery was published, Scotland Yard had fingerprints, sleazy informers, extensive records on known criminals, experts on cipher decoding, and a vast network of policemen to trail suspects, block off roads and watch stations and ports. Author Frank Froest, retired chief inspector of Scotland Yard, was proud of the Yard's abilities, and this novel fairly glows with his pride. It's fun to see how the Yard solved a tough case in the early nineteen hundreds. Froest is eager to credit the Yard's teamwork, but Chief Inspector Heldon Foyle has a forceful and appealing personality. He has great physical strength and a subtle sense of humor -- traits the author was also known to possess. Doyle is dealing with the perplexing murder of the daring explorer Robert Grell. Everything about this murder is odd, starting with the peculiar murder weapon. Foyle has quite a time hunting down the chief suspect who has fled. The suspect has a great flair for hiding out. There are two beautiful women in the plot, one a society lady and the other an adventuress. Both do their best to foil Foyle. Foyle is a wonderfully tricky interrogator, but clever as he is in general, he sometimes makes mistakes, which add interest to the investigation. Foyle goes in for disguises, as does his chief suspect, which is amusing. It's true that the story goes on a bit too long, but rehashing the case wass a tradition of early crime writing. There is also some anti-Semitic stereotyping. Modern readers of vintage fiction will inevitably encounter these relics of a bigoted age. Overall, The Grell Mystery is an absorbing crime novel, and totally authentic because of Froest's long career in the CID. Like all Collins Crime Club classics, The Grell Mystery is beautifully produced, with an informative, well-written introduction.

Aaaaasrgh! It looks unreadable. It has just arrived (together with another Froest book printed by amazon) and on opening I can see that they are both printed in some weird, tiny typeface and laid out on the page in a way that will make reading very difficult. One also prints very close into the binding and the other, on a larger page, has great long lines which will make it difficult to track back to the beginning of the next line. Who on earth at amazon presses the 'print' button before reviewing whether the book will be legible? I don't expect to get round to attempting to read them until after Christmas, and will comment further then. I wonder whether I should send them back and wait until I can get old, used, legible copies of what are supposed to be wonderful novels?

Five Stars Very good