Freeman (R. Austin) Mr. Polton Explains

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1940.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/3.

Freeman invented the inverted detective story, showing you the crime first and making the interest forensic rather than whodunnit, and gave the Golden Age its great scientific detective in Dr Thorndyke. It’s pleasing therefore that one of his last novels hands the magnifying glass to the staff. Nathaniel Polton, Thorndyke’s crinkly-faced laboratory artificer, here explains himself: the first half is his autobiography, from destitute London boyhood to master craftsman, before his horological expertise proves decisive in a murder by apparent house fire.

The penultimate Thorndyke novel, published three years before Freeman’s death, and a 1940 London imprint, meaning wartime paper, wartime print runs, and jackets that mostly went the way of everything else in 1940. First impressions in any jacket at all deserve more respect than they generally get.