The Progress of a Crime

This mystery won the Edgar Award in 1961. Hugh Bennett is a 22-year-old reporter for a small town paper in England. He dreams of getting to London eventually for work on a national paper. When he is sent out on the usual boring assignment to cover a Guy Fawkes Night, he witnesses the murder of a loc......more

3.5 would be more accurate. Always interesting, but never exactly a page turner, this took me longer to read than others 2-3 times more lengthy. Nothing's bad about it, but it doesn't really have any momentum or urgency. You're never in much doubt as to the culpability of the suspects, and don't hav......more

3 stars was a bit of a stretch for me. If I’m honest I found this book pretty dull. Promising start, murder at a Guy Fawlkes party, but from there it is all very plodding. There’s a lot of reasonably annoying characters in here, most notably the police who are frankly so vile and questionably corrupt......more

It won an award (Edgar Award for Best Novel - I am reading all of those in order) but I found it rather dour and lackluster, though I think it is useful for people of the 21st century to read authors who thought that juvenile delinquents would ruin society - in 1959. Basically, a violent incident be......more

This 1960 novel, now reprinted in the British Library Crime Classics series, begins with a fireworks night event, but most of the action takes place well after the party. Less a detective mystery than a vivid account of social issues in the late 1950s, this novel accordingly features as its main cha......more