''The Loss of the Jane Vosper'' (also written as ''The Loss of the 'Jane Vosper) is a 1936 detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts. It is the fourteenth in his series of novels featuring Inspector French, a

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 ...

detective of the Golden Age known for his thorough technique. It particularly dwells on the process of police procedure.Evans, p. 160. Comparing the novel to Margery Allingham's latest release ''

Flowers for the Judge ''Flowers for the Judge'' is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in February 1936, in the United Kingdom by Heinemann, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It is the seventh novel to feature the mys ...

'' in his review for '' The Spectator'',

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

writing under his

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Nicholas Blake commented "Mr. Crofts’s new book is excellent too. The loss at sea of the ''Jane Vosper'', holed by mysterious explosions in the cargo, is so vividly described, indeed, that the sequel seems a little flat".

Synopsis

During a trip from England to South America, the

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

''Jane Vosper'' suffers from four mysterious explosions in her

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

and the crew abandon ship shortly before she sinks. The insurance company covering an expensive part of the cargo are far from satisfied and before they pay out the £100,000 owed they engage Sutton, a trusted private detective, to investigate. When Sutton disappears a few days later

is called for and French takes over the case. He traces the delivery of the valuable cargo from the Watford factory to the

Pool of London The Pool of London is a stretch of the River Thames from London Bridge to below Limehouse. Part of the Tideway of the Thames, the Pool was navigable by tall-masted vessels bringing coastal and later overseas goods—the wharves there were the ...

where they were loaded onto the ''Jane Vosper''. At first he can find no evidence either of a deliberate attempt to sink the ''Jane Vosper'', or to murder Sutton. Eventually, with his customary painstaking work he discovers a plot linking stolen

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

from a quarry in Wales to a

shed A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...

in the City of London where Sutton's buried body is found. It only now requires him to track down and arrest all those responsible.

References

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. 1936 British novels Novels by Freeman Wills Crofts British crime novels British mystery novels British thriller novels British detective novels Collins Crime Club books Novels set in Hertfordshire Novels set in London Novels set in Wales Irish mystery novels Irish crime novels Novels set on ships {{1930s-mystery-novel-stub