The Riddle of the Ravens (2024) by J.S. Savage

J.S. Savage debuted two years ago with The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023), a historical locked room mystery, which introduced his two series-characters, Inspector Graves and Constable Carver – an experienced, older detective and his young protege. A debut full of a promise and an outstanding homage to the great detective stories and writers of yesteryear. I wasn't as enthusiastic about the debut of Savage's contemporary mystery series, Sun, Sea and Murder (2024), introducing the ex-Secret Service agent Penny Haylestone, but I'm confident the next one will improve on the first. I already enjoy the idea of Savage alternating between a historical and contemporary series of locked room mysteries and impossible crimes.

That brings us to the second entry in the Graves and Carver series, The Riddle of the Ravens (2024), which is set in November 1926 during the run-up to Guy Fawkes Night.

Graves and Carver are sent to the Tower of London on a not quite routine assignment. Peter Standford, Constable of the Tower of London, turned to Scotland Yard when three of the six ravens died. All three ravens died over the span of a week under mysterious circumstances. There's an old legend "which says that if there are no ravens at the Tower of London, the kingdom will fall," but the ravens also happen to be the property of the King. Graves and Carver have to find out if someone's targeting the feathered custodians of the Tower.

When they arrive, Graves and Carver find the closed community residing within the high, thick walls and battlements of the Tower "practically a ghost town" as everyone else is up in Scotland to attend a funeral – leaving behind a small, tidy and tight-knit group of people. Firstly, there's Peter Standford, his devoted wife Joyce and their rebellious daughter, Emma. Dr. Colin Gibson, Tower doctor, who's an amateur historian greatly interested in the Tower's history and the hidden treasure of John Barkstead ("this is no bedtime fairytale, gentlemen"). Nurse Bess Trent assists him at the hospital block. Sergeant Madan Gurung, a Gurkha, is their only patient recovering from the lingering effects of scarlet fever. Further more, there's the Tower's schoolteacher, Anna Bower, and the one-armed Ravenmaster, Len Kittle. In addition to three Beefeaters (Yeoman Warders), James Burroughs, Bob Cooper and Philip Davies. So, "if there is foul play going on," the mostly deserted Tower provides Graves and Carver with neat, trimmed down list of potential suspects.

Before they can give the riddle of the ravens their full attention, Warder James Burroughs is shot and killed, while tied to a chair, at the Tower's firing range. So the two detectives have to extend their stay at the Tower to hunt for a murderer who gone from killing ravens to shooting warders. More bodies, cadavers, clues and red herrings will litter the grounds of the Tower of London before they're done. Another murder brings an impossible element to the case, but I'll get back to the plot in a moment. There are a few other things other than the puzzle.

Except for the morning briefing at Scotland Yard, The Riddle of the Ravens entirely takes place within the walls of the Tower ("...holding them prisoner") with it ancient traditions and a bloody, thousand year history "where queens and spies were executed, where a king was murdered and princes disappeared" – "where treasure is still buried, hidden to this day." So the book read like a "modern" rendition of one of Paul Doherty's historical locked room mystery novels like The House of the Red Slayer (1992), which also takes place at the Tower of London in December, 1377. I personally enjoyed that unintended effect. Needless to say, the historical setting, color and atmosphere was not wasted on The Riddle of the Ravens. Something I can always appreciate. What's perhaps more important than my personal enjoyment, storywise, is how the classic detectives were subtly updated for this retro-GAD series. Savage evidently wants Graves and Carver to have some depth and backstory, which carefully intertwined into the story when and where it was needed or mattered. So no needlessly long mini-biographies taking big chunks out of the story to dwell on the character's depressing back stories. I really like Graves is actually mentoring the younger, green-as-grass Carver to become the best detective he can be. That might prove an interesting investment into the future of the series. Back to the plot.

The Riddle of the Ravens is, as to be expected even after only two previous novels, an impossible crime and centers on the murder weapon: how can the gun have been used when Graves and Carver observed it hanging on the wall at the time it fired the fatal shots? A murder weapon under lock and key or observation is a rarity of the impossible crime with a pleasingly elaborate solution to match, but the impossibility is not central focus of the investigation. Just another part of an increasingly complicated puzzle for Graves and Carver. There are "many people with secrets" that need to be pried loose, movements to be tracked, alibis to be scrutinized, motives to be found and a piece of doggerel to be deciphered. And not to be forgotten the riddle of the dead ravens. Best of all, Savage appears to be determined to restore the fair play principles of the Golden Age detective story and planted a fair amount of clues among the red herrings and potential suspects. Sometimes the clues were a little too subtle, but that's really looking for faults where none exist. It's just nice to see properly clued, cleverly plotted detective fiction being written and published again.

Savage's The Riddle of the Ravens is a pleasingly elaborate, well-constructed and fairly clued detective novel representing another step towards that second Golden Age. It's coming! So look forward to the third title in the series, which, if I correctly interpreted the foreshadowing, is going to be set during Christmas, but expect the second Penny Haylestone novel to be next. Until then, The Riddle of the Ravens comes recommended as a solid retro-GAD novel.

Sun, Sea and Murder (2024) by J.S. Savage

In March, I reviewed J.S. Savage's fantastic debut, The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023), patterned after the great detective novelists and locked room mysteries of old – a high spot of the new crop of impossible crime novels and short stories. So looked forward to the second appearance of Inspector Graves and Constable Carver in Sun, Sea and Murder (2024), which was released last April. However, the book does not feature Graves and Carver.

The Mystery of Treefall Manor is a historical locked room mystery, set in 1926, plotted like a 1936 Golden Age detective novel. Sun, Sea and Murder has the appearance of a contemporary cozy, but a cozy with a plot, multiple narrators and a seemingly impossible murder. Well, my expectations were successfully subverted. So off to a good start, I suppose.

The backdrop of Sun, Sea and Murder is Russell Aspell's sunny resort, The Orange Tree Hotel, on the Spanish coast where the four different narrators come together on holiday. Firstly, there's Russell's niece, Sally, who's on a cut-price holiday with her childhood friend, Jasmine. Secondly, Marley and her mother, Agathe, whose painful joints keeps her in a wheelchair most of the time. Thirdly, the boorish Terry and his wife, Marjorie. Lastly, the journalist Sanjay and his boyfriend, Luke, who's a solicitor on a busman's holiday to go over the hotel accounts. Sally, Marley, Terry and Sanjay decide to keep a holiday diary, some written on their phones, which means every chapter is from a different view – what they record are not lazy, uneventful days under the Spanish sun. Jasmine's ex-boyfriend, Dylan, is staying at their hotel with his new girlfriend, Elle, killing her mood ("Jasmine has spat venom about Dylan every time he is in sight"). Terry has some longstanding grudge against Russell ("...dream about strangling Russell bloody Aspell"), Luke uncovers irregularities in the hotel accounts ("... it's an off-the-books transaction") and past incidents come bubbling to the surface. So nothing too seriously, or so it seems, but several days later, Marley and Marjorie find Russell's body in the hotel gym.

Russell had been struck over the head several times, presumably with a metal bar, but the door to gym is opened and closed with registered key-cards. Every time a card is used, it's logged on the hotel computer and the logs show nobody else had entered while Russell was in the gym doing his morning routine ("in the books they call it a locked-room mystery"). So who killed him, why and how was it done?

The task of answering those questions falls on the shoulders of the inspector de policia, Moreno, but Russell's long-time friend, Penny Haylestone, decided to run her own private little investigation – much to the chagrin and annoyance of Moreno. Penny Haylestone is not merely a meddlesome, self-appointed amateur detective trying to find the killer of her friend. She's an ex-Secret Service member, "recruitment and interrogation were my specialities," who recruits Marley as her Watson. Moreno is not the only obstacle in their way, "old grievances, false confessions, and improbable love triangles all helped to obscure." Not to mention a second, rather gruesome murder muddying the water even further.

So everything looked promising and the whole setup from the four narrators to the locked room murder had me genuinely puzzled, but unfortunately, Sun, Sea and Murder is a marked stepped down from The Mystery of Treefall Manor. That has several reasons. First of all, Savage plays only marginally fair with the reader this time as the clues are thinly spread around with the clues to the motives being extremely obscure, which made them feel like it came out of nowhere. Not really a fair play mystery novel that allows the reader to put all or most of the pieces together before the detective. In that regard, it reads much more like a first novel in which the author is afraid of giving away too much, too early, and holds his cards too close to his chest. That was not an issue at all with the previous novel. Secondly, (SPOILER/ROT13) jung, rknpgyl, jnf gur cbvag bs univat sbhe qvssrerag aneengbef? Va n ybpxrq ebbz zlfgrel, ribxvat gur Tbyqra Ntr qrgrpgvir fgbel, lbh jbhyq guvax gur qvssrerag aneengvir ivrj cbvagf vf tbvat gb cynl n ebyr va gur fbyhgvba. Fbzr aneengvir gevpxrel zhfg or nsbbg, fbzrjurer. Vf vg n fgenatref-ba-n-genva fvghngvba jvgu gjb xvyyref gnxvat pner bs rnpu bgure'f ivpgvzf naq gur qvnevrf vf gb xrrc gurve fgbevrf fgenvtug? Vf bar bs gur aneengbef npghnyyl fbzrbar ryfr sbe fbzr ernfba? Abcr. Vg'f whfg gb gvr gurve crefbany ceboyrzf gvtugre gb gur znva cybg. That came at the cost of everything the story did, or tried to do, right.

The link between the first and second murder is brilliant with the motive to the first murder bordering on being original, if they had been presented, and clued, more fairly – which is sadly even more true for the locked room murder. The locked room-trick could have worked had Savage not so jealously guarded certain key details. How can you expect (SPOILER/ROT13) nalbar gb fbyir gur ybpxrq ebbz-chmmyr jura gur qhzooryy vf abg zragvbarq hagvy Unlyrfgbar'f rkcynangvba? Jul rira jvguubyq gung qrgnvy? Gung guveq urnq jbhaq jbhyq unir nebhfrq Unlyrfgbar'f fhfcvpvba ertneqyrff, abe jbhyq vg unir qrfgeblrq gur ybpxrq ebbz vyyhfvba. There's another thing that baffled me a little. The Mystery of Treefall Manor not only is an outstanding historical locked room mystery, but one that feels like the genuine article without having to constantly remind you of the time period. It's honestly one of the most elegantly written and plotted pastiches of a Golden Age detective novel. By comparison, Sun, Sea and Murder seems to be written with a checklist in hand to remind you it's set in today's world. Maybe it's just me, but it just felt odd.

I still enjoyed reading Sun, Sea and Murder and futilely trying to piece together the solution, which is always half the fun of detective stories, but expected so much more from Savage after his excellent debut. So, hopefully, Savage returns to the retro-Golden Age (locked room) mysteries of Graves and Carver in his third novel or applies the same plotting standards for Penny Haylestone's second outing.

The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023) by J.S. Savage

Recently, I reviewed two novels from the current crop of locked room revivalists, Gigi Pandian's Under Lock & Skeleton Key (2022) and J.L. Blackhurst's Three Card Murder (2023), which both made me realize I should have waited with "The Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century" until 2025 – things began to take a more definite shape right after it was posted. Under Lock & Skeleton Key and Three Card Murder also continued the tradition of having a very mixed reactions to this new generation of locked room magicians. I either love them on first sight or leave me hoping the series improves in future installments, which in case of the latter tends to produce not the most enthusiastic reviews. And those are not among the popular reviews on this blog.

So let me put those at ease who saw the title of this blog-post and feared another one of my lukewarm "hot takes," because today's subject is the genuine article!

J.S. Savage is a London-based mystery writer "who specializes in impossible crimes" and launched historical Inspector Graves series last year with The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023). For someone who has been prophesying a second Golden Age for years now, I feel not entirely up-to-date of what's currently being produced towards that end. Savage and The Mystery of Treefall Manor are among the many authors and novels slipping pass me unnoticed. Fortunately, the GP of the mystery sphere, Steve the Puzzle Doctor, remedied that oversight with an enticing review ("this is an outstanding book") and making it a contender for his "Grand Puzzly" award in "Review of the Year – 2023." I also added Dolores Gordon-Smith's The Chapel in the Woods (2021) and Victoria Dowd's Murder Most Cold (2023) on the strength of Doc's reviews. After all, D.L. Marshall's Anthrax Island (2021) was a real winner! So lets dissect this newest arrival to the locked room revival.

The Mystery of Treefall Manor takes place in October, 1926, at the titular manor of the widowed Alexander Grimbourne in Swinbridge, Rockinghamshire, which is soon to hosting the wedding party of daughter, Ruth – who's going to be married to their young neighbor, Lord Frederick "Freddie" Taylor. A joyous occasion, to be sure, but not all is well at Treefall Manor. Alexander Grimbourne is the typical, storybook patriarch who's "quite the historian when it comes to the family roots" and their achievements ("my ancestors supplied the wood that was used to build the ships that saw off the Spanish Armada"). However, "the Grimbourne heritage is not made of wood as some people think," but "the Grimbourne men themselves, the men who cut the deals, undercut the competition, it is the name Grimbourne itself." So it was a disappointment to Grimbourne when his only son, John, was born with a withered leg and developed a love for "writing dreary, awful poetry." And their relation was never good. While he loves his daughter, Grimbourne believes she doesn't know what's best for her.

Is this why her engagement to Lord Freddie came out of nowhere or why the wedding is so hastily rushed through? Or why Grimbourne took it upon himself to invite two old friends of the bride and groom? What's on going between him and his private secretary, George Campbell? And who took the antique dagger from the library? This culminated with Grimbourne casually announcing he's going to change his will the next day with predictable results.

Alexander Grimbourne is found murdered in his study, "from his chest protruded the handle of the missing dagger," clutching a dying message plucked from the bookcase, but the door and barred windows are securely locked from the inside – confronting the local police with an impossible crime. So they immediately dispatch their top guy, Detective Inspector Graves, to the scene of the crime together with a recent addition to their ranks, Detective Constable James Carver. A young, eager and promising policeman who's still somewhat rough around the edges.

So, as you can probably gather by now, Savage hits on some of the most familiar notes and themes of the Golden Age detective story, but appearing like a Golden Age-style mystery is not always a guarantee it works like one. Often lacking good plots, fair play or simply not getting the difference between a "closed circle" and "locked room" mystery. I think we have all burned ourselves, once or twice, on such cases of false advertisements, but, as said before, Savage and The Mystery of Treefall Manor is the genuine article. A tight, cleverly-plotted and fairly clued locked room mystery that pleasantly kept me puzzling along with Graves and Carter. And, for the most part, the story felt as if it could have been published nearly a century ago. However, Savage is not merely a Han van Meegeren of detective fiction who created a nigh perfect copy of a Golden Age mystery. Savage used the same techniques as the masters from the past, but went to work fresh, new paints of his own.

Firstly, The Mystery of Treefall Manor takes place in the 1926, but is plotted like a locked room mystery from 1936. A trope of the pre-1930s detective story is that the crime scene often resembled a busy, crowded thoroughfare – littered with monogrammed handkerchiefs, cigarette buds and train tickets. Just to muddy the waters by casting suspicion on as many of the characters as possible. Graves and Carver find some litter in the locked study, but they're not red herrings. They're full-fledged clues! The detective story in 1926 was not quite there yet. Secondly, Savage avoided a pitfall some of these debuting retro-GAD novels fall into by trying to setup the whole series and fleshing out the characters in the first novel, which always comes at the expense of the plot (e.g. Pandian's Under Lock & Skeleton Key). Savage gave more depth to his two series-characters than most of their past counterparts got in their entire run, but it was done with a very light, subtle touch as Graves and Carver got to know each other a little bit over the course of their first joined-investigation. I particularly liked why Graves never acknowledges a particular question or keeping the solution to the locked room to himself to give Carver an opportunity to cut his teeth on a really tricky problem ("this looks to be a meaty sort of case to get his teeth stick in to").

I'm left with practically nothing to complain or nitpick about except for two, very minor details. Carver eventually figures out how the locked room-trick was done, which is a good and absolutely solvable, Graves asks him to name the murderer. Because "only one person could have committed the crime in that way." Aside from opportunity, the method fitted another character even better than the actual murderer and combined with the implied content of the love letter I entertained another possibility for the solution. Funnily enough, as the ending showed, even that wrong solution was not all that far off the mark. And that ending also showed a modern hand was at work. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it broke the illusion a little. If you're going to do it, you should do it right at the end.

So, nitpicking aside, Savage and The Mystery of Treefall Manor is indeed an outstanding detective novel with a plot and characters shining as bright as its Golden Age ancestors. More importantly, it's a welcome and promising addition to the rapidly growing list of locked room revivalists and retro-GAD authors. I'm eagerly looking forward to the second Graves and Carver locked room mystery, Sun, Sea and Murder (2024), which going by the title should be out around summertime.