| Inspector French's Greatest Case | |
| Author: | Freeman Wills Crofts |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Inspector French |
| Genre: | Detective |
| Publisher: | Collins |
| Release Date: | 1924 |
| Media Type: | |
| Followed By: | The Cheyne Mystery |
| Website: | https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/freeman-wills-crofts/inspector-frenchs-greatest-case |
Inspector French's Greatest Case is a 1924 mystery detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts.[1] It is the first in his series of novels featuring Inspector Joseph French, a Scotland Yard detective of the Golden Age known for his methodical technique.[2] [3] Like much of the following series the plot mixes the traditional form of the puzzle mystery with that of a police procedural. French has to carefully study railway and shipping timetables and crack a cipher in order to solve his case.
A robbery of the safe of a diamond merchant in London's Hatton Garden leaves one of the firm's veteran employees dead. Summoned to handle the case French pursues disparate clues over a number of weeks with some of the trails turning out to be dead ends. His travels take him from the capital to Southampton and a variety of destinations on the Continent including Amsterdam, the Swiss Alps, Barcelona and Le Havre. Eventually he believes he has hit on the solution: a former West End actress has adopted an elaborate disguise to carry out the disposal of the diamonds and raise ready cash to flee on a liner heading for South America. He races to Portugal in the hope of catching her and her partner-in-crime, whose ultimate identity gives him a great shock.