This was an enjoyable Carr, just not quite up to his standards. Mind you, this would be a really strong title in most other GAD authors' bibliographies. I enjoyed the "crime that doesn't make sense" aspect of this one, the same way I had in Emperor's Snuff-Box or Punch & Judy Murders. The first 100 or so pages of this book has a lot of detection and by the midway point we seem to have the whole solution besides who killed Mr. Depping and a couple of smaller points. We have some further developments which keep the interest going, and then about 40 pages of useless spy-capering before the murderer becomes active again and is quickly apprehended. The plotting of this book could definitely have been more solid, much like in The White Priory Murders. However, the characters were still enjoyable. I loved the Bishop of Mappleham, the amateur detective whose strange actions start the plot. Henry Morgan serves as Carr's window into the book, telling us his qualms with the "realist" school of detective fiction, a.k.a. the proto-police-procedurals. It seems that not everyone is fond of the solution as a whole, but I had no problem with it. It surprised me, and I think that it plays fair with the reader. For reasons I cannot say for fear of spoilers, I would have despised this solution a couple of years ago. I think that I've either matured or become complacent. An unlikely, yet worthy inclusion in the American Mystery Classics collection.