The Three Taps

By Ronald Knox

The business of death has given insurance investigator Miles Bredon a unique outlook on life in this witty Golden Age mystery.
 
Jephthah Mottram has been given some bad news from his doctor. The very rich man has only two years left to live. But he doesn’t even make it that far. While on a fishing holiday in the Midlands of England, he’s found dead of an apparent suicide by gas.
 
Sadly, that would be the best-case scenario for Indescribable Insurance, which wouldn’t have to pay out the benefits. To that end, the company sends out its own private detective to investigate the matter. Arriving at the Load of Mischief Inn, Miles Bredon is met by a policeman with whom he served in the war, who has his own theory about the tragedy—and it is murderous. The two men make a friendly wager over who will prove their case, never expecting just how much greed and vanity can complicate a life—and a death . . .
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: MysteriousPress.com Open Road
• Release date: Feb 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9781504093125

Ronald Knox

Ronald Knox (1888–1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. He also wrote several works of detective fiction, and his writing in the genre proved influential in the decades that followed.  

Reviews for The Three Taps

[jonrob_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first of Msgr. Knox's handful of detective stories is also probably the best. Insurance investigator Miles Bredon is sent to look into the death by gas of the rich Mr. Mottram. As there will be a huge payout if it was not suicide, Bredon initially supports this hypothesis. He finds himself in friendly rivalry with the policeman Leyland, who's trying to prove it was murder. The evidence seems finely balanced on both sides, and turns on the fact that the door was locked but the gas had been turned off - oddly, without any fingerprints being left. The solution Bredon eventually arrives at is satisfying and genuinely surprising