Lately, I’ve been picking up one of George Bellairs’ Inspector Littlejohn mysteries when I need a police procedural fix. Death in Dark Glasses was available through Kindle Unlimited, so I read the seventh in the series. There’s a little of everything in this book – murder, impersonation, disappearance, forgery, embezzlement. And, if an unsuspected bank teller hadn’t dashed from a bank in time to be hit by bus, none of it would have been discovered.

John Wainwright Palmer felt guilty when he thought he’d been found out at Silvesters’ Bank, Rodley Branch, so he fled from the bank and fell under a bus. It was only then that the bank investigated. They found Palmer’s embezzlement, but they also found Finloe Oates’ account with forged checks and everything withdrawn. Palmer wasn’t responsible for that. According to the postman, Oates said he was going abroad. But, P.C. Mee was suspicious, and entered the house. There he found the body of the electricity meter-man. And, Oates was still missing.

As the mystery goes up the chain to Scotland Yard and Chief Inspector Littlejohn, the case seems to spin out of control, from poisoning to a body in a pond, to the Isle of Man. And, each time, Littlejohn seems one step behind a clever forger and killer. Littlejohn is patient, though, although his suspects seem to die one after another. Someone seems to be cleaning up after the murders.

In the few books I’ve read, Littlejohn and Cromwell appear to be capable investigators with patience. There’s an understated humor in the books. We learn a little more about Littlejohn in this one as his silver wedding anniversary is mentioned, but Bellairs wrote at a time when there was little character development. Instead, we have a complex story with a clever killer in Death in Dark Glasses.

Death in Dark Glasses by George Bellairs. 1952, 282p.

FTC Full disclosure – I downloaded a free Kindle copy.