This is another of those murder mysteries from the 1930s that paints a picture of everyday life from the time. Our main character, journalist Charles Venables, moves in to the Garden Hotel in Kensington. This is more of a fancy boarding house for long term accommodation, rather than a place for a short term holiday. I’ve come across this type of accommodation frequently in books and movies set in the early 20th century but, apart from student accommodation, it isn’t something that seems to be a thing anymore – modern boarding houses seem to be only for the poor and desperate rather than a respectable accommodation option for the well-off. The setting lets Sprigg populate his story with a range of eccentric characters, including the lovely Lady Viola Merritt (an artist, bridge devotee and Charles’ love interest), Miss Mumby (a rich old lady interested only in séances and cats), Miss Geranium (a religious maniac who has visions of Ezekiel), Mrs Salterton-Deeley (a fashion designer), Colonel Cantrip (an ex-Indian army man), the Rev Septimus Blood (an Anglo-Catholic priest and renowned bacteriologist), Eppoliki (an Egyptian medical student with a glass eye) and Miss Sanctuary (a seemingly normal elderly spinster). There are a lot of characters, but Sprigg gives each of them a distinct personality, so it is easy to keep them all straight.

From the very start you realise the hotel is not going to be a place of quiet enjoyment and rest for Charles, as he overhears a murder threat against the hotel owner by her husband before he even moves in, then has a strange encounter with Eppoliki on the stairs on his way to dinner on the first evening. Charles does a little fourth-wall breaking to observe to himself “When one hears a bloke threatening to kill his wife then immediately afterwards meets a sinister and mysterious Egyptian, it is time to move somewhere else, for one has obviously walked into the plot of a thriller of the vulgarest and most exciting description.”

Despite Charles’ reservations, he does not end up in a thriller, but rather in a good solid Golden Age murder mystery. It all starts when Mrs Budge, the hotel owner, comes down with a sudden case of pleurisy. Miss Sanctuary offers to sit with the patient in the evening, to give the nurse a short break. When the nurse wakes up from a nap, she sees Miss Sanctuary in the doorway, sees her suddenly pulled back into the bedroom and hears the door lock. It takes the nurse a few minutes to summon help and get the door open. When the door is finally opened, they find the bedroom empty. Both Miss Sanctuary and Mrs Budge have vanished. Miss Sanctuary is eventually found, tied up in the wardrobe, but there is no sign of Mrs Budge. Miss Sanctuary tells of being seized from behind, and of fainting when she was tied up. When she returned to consciousness, she found herself locked up with no idea what had happened.

The police are called in over the disappearance of Mrs Budge and initially find no trace of her. A hilarious scene follows when Miss Mumby brings in one of her cats to sniff out the missing woman, claiming that Socrates, a large black tom-cat, is a trained tracker. Socrates of course creates havoc, but does eventually track something down. That what he tracks down is the remains of a haddock from the rubbish bin is a surprise to no one except Miss Mumby. But she is vindicated when, the next day, Socrates uncovers Mrs Budge’s hand, hidden in a vase. Her head turns up next, in rather graphic fashion. The rest of the body is slowly recovered from various nooks and crannies around the hotel.

This of course changes the investigation from an assault/missing person case to a murder investigation, with Charles in the thick of it, investigating for his paper. Crime in Kensington is fun little story, with plenty of side plots to distract the investigation and red herrings thrown in at regular intervals. These red herrings failed to distract me. I spotted the murderer fairly early, but I didn’t have any idea about the motive until Charles explains it all in the final chapter. Sprigge has created a good, solid murder, and writes in an engaging fashion that kept me interested in finding out what new twist would be coming in each chapter.