The Silent House of Sleep (The Dr Jack Cuthbert Mysteries)
Allan Gaw is a pathologist who had a string of medical non-fiction books to his credit before this, his first venture into crime fiction. Not surprisingly, his central character is a forensic pathologist, Dr Jack Cuthbert, who easily outshines his Detective Inspector as a sleuth.
The story is told in two time streams; the main narrative about the police investigation into a double murder in London in 1929 and a series of flashbacks to Cuthbert’s career as a medical student and a soldier in WW1. At first this annoyed me; just as I was getting into the murder/mystery, I was catapulted back a dozen years into an apparently unrelated personal history. I was tempted to skip the flashbacks, but they ultimately proved to be the most interesting and insightful parts of the book.
The book is well-written and well-researched, but I felt rather cheated when the murderer confessed so readily, even before we knew his motives. Sleuths should have a harder time with more red herrings to tease the readers. Even so, I am looking forward to the next four Jack Cuthbert books which are due to appear over the coming year.
