I am continuing to indulge in the ebook releases of the fabulous Inspector Henry Tibbett series. The third book, Death on the Agenda by Patricia Moyes (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), finds Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett emulating his globe-trotting creator and traveling to Geneva for an international law enforcement conference on narcotics and smuggling. Moyes thoughtfully mentions in the author’s note that the fictional conference is set in the Palais des Nations, the home of the United Nations office in Geneva, in the old conference wing which was being rebuilt at the time the book was written 60 years ago. By now of course this building has undergone many further renovations but it is still in use.
Tibbett is chosen to chair a subcommittee of five other delegates to the International Narcotics Conference to report on current methods of dope smuggling and the countermeasures being considered or implemented by law enforcement agencies of various nations. Surrounding the conference and its various committees is the constant presence of translators, transcriptionists, secretaries, and all manner of background personnel. Since the delegates are mostly strangers to each other, lunches, dinners, cocktail parties, and other social events are scheduled daily to help establish friendly collaborative working relationships. The Tibbetts soon see there are strata of society within Geneva, with the career civil servants working for the United Nations and the rotating collection of diplomats on temporary assignment and the wealthy seeking tax asylum all forming distinct and separate groups.
Tibbett does not have much time to contemplate the social structure of Geneva, as he learns that closely held details about conference law enforcement discussions were found in the hands of a drug smuggler in the United States just days after the meetings. The source of the leak could only be one of a few people. Early the next day Tibbett finds one of the potential suspects stabbed to death in an office. Several people had been working outside and the victim remained alone until Tibbett entered the office, making Tibbett the primary suspect. Tibbett as might be expected does not at all like being on the defensive or having to investigate a murder without his usual support system.
I only dimly remember reading this book in the series, which is odd, I have read other titles by Moyes so often I can quote them. The plot struck me right away as a perfect locked room mystery. Several people saw the victim enter the room, to which there is only one exit, and close the door. The same people saw no one else go in until Tibbett does. The solution, which takes a while to unravel as Tibbett wades through the victim’s complicated personal life, is positively ingenious. Not my favorite book in the series, which is probably why I did not reread it, but well done.