Moray Dalton was the pen name of Katherine Mary Deville Dalton (1881-1963), who wrote two romances and then turned to creating crime. Her first mystery was released in 1924 and it was succeeded by 28 more, the last one in 1951. Most of the books featured Scotland Yard Inspector Hugh Collier or private detective Hermann Glide. Dean Street Press reprinted 15 of them and Spitfire Publishers reprinted four others.
The Dark Wings (Jarrolds, 1927; Spitfire, 2022) is Dalton’s third crime fiction novel, with multiple puzzles and a more involved plot than her second mystery, which I reviewed earlier this year. Sir Roger Wing is the current owner of Mallowes, the ancestral home of the Wing family in rural West Sussex. He lives there alone with a few servants, as his fragile wife is a long-term resident in a facility that specializes in mental health disorders. He visits London occasionally and has dropped in on an old school friend when Celia Brand, unknown to both of them, begs for assistance. She has recently arrived to stay with her grandfather, who lives in the rooms above. She visited the shops to replenish the larder and upon her return could not make her grandfather hear her to gain entrance. Sir Roger calls Scotland Yard. Inspector Trask and his crew break into the apartment and find Mr. Brand dead on the floor, clearly murdered. The room had been ransacked and papers burned in the fireplace.
Inspector Trask learns that Brand was likely a blackmailer but did not uncover enough evidence to point to any specific person as his killer. From a homicide case gone cold the plot veers into a thread about Lady Wing, who comes home for awhile, and then to a pair of Italian brothers who had vowed vengeance on the descendants of a man who absconded with the proceeds of a jewel theft and let their grandfather die in prison. Kidnapping, a dramatic rescue, and a belated trial for the murder of Brand make for an over-the-top, sensational story, all wedged compactly into 260 pages. Despite the melodramatic twists and turns, there are similarities between this story and The Case of Alan Copeland, another but more sedate stand-alone by Dalton. The multiple disparate plot threads are tightly woven together into a very well written book. Immensely readable.