‘The Man in the Dark’ by John Ferguson

Published by Oreon,
The Oleander Press,
14 December 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-91547522-0 (PB)
Originally published 1928.

Sandy Kinloch has survived the First World War, but is desperate and destitute.  Such is his plight that he braves a London fog to make a begging visit to Peter Dunn, a friend and the doctor who had treated him for wounds during the war.  The visit does not go well and the two part on uneasy terms.  As he struggles through the fog-bound streets he bumps into another pedestrian, a ‘man in a fur coat’.  The resulting conversation leads to an opportunity for Kinloch to make some money – he goes to the man’s house, where his duty is to be in the background when the man receives a visitor.  However, the meeting does not go to plan, and, in a struggle, Kinloch is knocked out and the man is murdered.  When Kinloch regains consciousness, he is in a car, driven by a woman and heading he knows not where.  Thus begins his strange adventure.

The story is told in four parts, the first detailing the murder and the following three relating the resulting investigation as seen by Geoffrey Chance (a keen young reporter on The Record) and Peter Dunn, the doctor.  Inspector Snargrove is in charge of the Scotland Yard investigation and has his own, somewhat stubborn theory of what happened based on the evidence available. 

A private enquiry agent, Francis McNab, is employed by The Record, and he and Snargrove have very different approaches to trying to solve the crime, a key element of which is to find Kinloch and the mystery woman who helped him to leave the murder scene.  

It’s a well-constructed novel, providing the reader with lots of information about the crime and the world in which it was committed.  The friction between the policeman and the enquiry agent holds the interest and the ongoing search for Kinloch provides an underlying tension.  There is also a key clue that is not immediately obvious to the reader or the investigators….

This is a reprint of the story first published in 1928 and is one of a series featuring the private investigator, Francis McNab.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  Stealthy Terror, The Dark Geraldine, The Secret Road, Murder on the Marsh, Death comes to Perigord, Night in Glengyle, The Grouse Moor Mystery, Death of Mr Dodsley, Terror on the Island

John Ferguson (1871-1952) was born at Callander, Perthshire. As a dramatist Mr Ferguson is probably best known for his now famous play Campbell of Kilmohr, which at its first Royalty Theatre production was hailed by the dramatic critic of the Glasgow Herald as 'a new and significant type of Scottish drama'. He is the author of  Death and Mr Dodsley, The Man in the Dark, and Murder on the Marsh.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.