Sir Henry Merrivale almost ruined this well plotted, old fashioned mystery. As soon as he entered the novel, which up until that point had been quite well written and serious minded, declined into farce. I think he was meant to be funny but he was just annoying and mostly incoherent.

Thankfully he didn’t completely ruin the book. But it would have been better without him. The ending would have been different but it could have worked. The ending could have been better, in fact. If sadder.