''Fatal Venture'' is a 1939
detective novel by the Irish writer
Freeman Wills Crofts. It is the nineteenth in his series of novels featuring
Chief Inspector French
Inspector Joseph French is a fictional British police detective created by Irish author Freeman Wills Crofts. French was a prominent detective from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, appearing in twenty-nine novels and a number of short stori ...
of
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
, a prominent investigator of the
Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
[Evans p.148] It was released in the United States by
Dodd Mead under the
alternative title ''Tragedy in the Hollow''.
Synopsis
On a
train to
Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...
completing the final leg of a foreign tour, one of the passengers approaches Harry Morrison, the employee of the
travel agency leading the party. He has an idea to create a company that provides
cruise ship tours around the
British Isles aimed at passengers on lower incomes who cannot afford expensive foreign travel. After some research, Morrison believes it is a viable scheme. However as they both lack the necessary finances, they approach one of the clients of the travel agency, the
millionaire John Stott. Stott agrees to put up the money to acquire a transatlantic liner about to be broken up for
scrap
Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...
. He revises the scheme, moving it away from affordable packages towards expensive luxury for wealthier passengers. The crucial ingredient is the addition of
gambling aboard, with a
casino that can operate as the ship cruises just outside the
three mile limit and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of British authorities.
The domineering Stott soon takes charge of the project, and lays out the funds. As well as being given a share in the profits, Morrison is employed as the head of the
tourist section arranging excursions to various location in
Great Britain and
Ireland. The ship is refitted on the
Clyde and then registered in France. It launches with great success, while also generating controversy amongst opponents to gambling. The ship proves to be very profitable, but as time passes Morrison and the other partner have still not received their share of the money.
Concerns about the damage the ship is doing to Britain's international reputation leads the
Prime Minister and
Home Secretary to approach the police to take action. Chief Inspector French is assigned to the case, booking a passage under an
assumed name and taking his wife along with him for additional cover. He tries to discover evidence of lawbreaking that can have the gambling stopped, but everything is consistent with the law. He has not been aboard long when Stott goes missing during a visit to
Portrush and
Northern Ireland. An investigation by the
RUC turns up the body in a
hollow not far from
Dunluce Castle. French is brought in to lead the shipboard investigation and is compelled to abandon his false identity.
To his discomfort it appears that Morrison, who he likes and is all but engaged to Stott's great niece, has been at the scene of the murder and lied about his presence. French works through the various
alibis of the passengers, including two business partners who may have had a grudge against the late Stott. He continually draws a blank, as each possible suspect demonstrates their lack of opportunity or motive to commit the crime. Just as he is beginning to lose hope, French at last manages to crack the case by unravelling one of the complex alibis.
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* Evans, Curtis. ''Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961''. McFarland, 2014.
* Herbert, Rosemary. ''Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing''. Oxford University Press, 2003.
* Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015.
1939 British novels
Novels by Freeman Wills Crofts
British crime novels
British mystery novels
British detective novels
Hodder & Stoughton books
Novels set in London
Novels set in Berkshire
Novels set in Northern Ireland
Novels set in France
Irish mystery novels
Irish crime novels