I mentioned Margot Bennett’s mystery, The Man Who Didn’t Fly, just the other day. Part of the British Library Crime Classics series, Martin Edwards wrote the introduction. I have to admit I found the introduction more interesting than most of the story. I can understand why the book has been out-of-print for twenty-five years. It was nominated for the first Gold Dagger Award by the Crime Writers’ Association, and also for an Edgar Award for best novel. However, this book, published in 1955, is too old-fashioned and slow-moving for most of today’s readers.

People reported seeing a low-flying plane go down in a fireball. Rescue planes searched the Irish Channel. It was obvious the pilot died. But, four men booked seats on the flight to Ireland, and it was reported that there were only three passengers. In the days before DNA identification, death certificates were not easily provided if the three dead passengers were not identified. Who was the missing man, and where was he?

Joseph Ferguson, Maurice Reid, Harry Walters, and Morgan Price. Detective Sergeant Young and Inspector Lewis asked questions of the Wade family and Joseph Ferguson’s wife. At that point, the story turned into a rambling account of the connection between the men and the Wades, including the two daughters of the family, twenty-year-old Hester, and her younger sister, Prudence. Over half the book is their drawn-out account of the relationship with each of the man. One was a boarder at the Wades’, another was a broke poet and possible love interest for Hester.

In the last forty pages, the shrewd Sergeant Young put together the clues as if the solution was a logic puzzle – if one man had been to Australia, and one to South Africa, and one had been to neither, it had to be this one. However, I can honestly say by this point I didn’t care who had lived or died because I didn’t like any of the characters in the book. And, I found it disappointing that a book that had started as an interesting puzzle ended up pointing to Hester as a romantic interest for another man. Who really cared?

I’m sure The Man Who Didn’t Fly was appreciated at the time it was written, or it wouldn’t have been an award nominee. However, I didn’t appreciate anyone in the story except Sergeant Lewis. I can, however, always recommend Martin Edwards’ introductions.

The Man Who Didn’t Fly by Margot Bennett. Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, 2021. ISBN 9781728220000 (paperback), 240p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I bought a copy of this book quite a while ago.