The Burning Question (Collins, 1957) by Carol Carnac is a rare non-series book from Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who usually wrote about Inspector Ryvet or Inspector Rivers under the Carnac name. As anyone who has read more than two or three of her books knows, Rivett had deep compassion for the life of the English farmer and portrayed the hardships of their lives in some detail in her mysteries.
This story, published the year before she died, takes place in the rural area near Sheffield on Guy Fawkes Night, where a cold dense fog has set in, rendering travel impossible. The local constable Jim Boyle has managed to reach his home and is just getting warm when an anonymous call advises him that a man is laying dead near the church some three miles away. No one else is available so Boyle called his father-in-law whose farm was close to meet him there. A dead man is indeed on the side of the road. Transport was impossible; the two carried the body into the church and locked the door, pending investigation on the next day. The church caught fire in the night, largely destroying the body and any evidence with it.
Boyle’s supervisor was not tactful about his failure to obtain fingerprints before leaving the body, and the general assumption was that one or the other of the two men had left a candle or match burning unintentionally, causing the conflagration. The community grapevine and rumor mill went into overdrive, speculating on ulterior motives for both men.
Into this hotbed of gossip comes young Rob Forth, late of the Army, returned to the home of his father Inspector Forth. Rob doesn’t know what his next step will be and he is presently at loose ends. In the meantime he is happy to serve his father as chauffeur while Inspector Forth looks into the unfortunate occurrences within his command. A new addition to the county Criminal Investigation Division named Christopher Riddle is assigned to continue investigating as much as possible, considering the dearth of evidence. Rob and Kit knew each other from the Army and team up to try to sort fact from hearsay and reality from full-blown fantasy, a challenge considering the mindset of the locals who never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
I found the setting engaging and the characters genuinely sympathetic, but the pace was slower than I usually find in Rivett’s work. I felt the investigation was moving in circles for a noticeable part of the narrative. There were really not many likely suspects and I recognized the culprit a little more than halfway through.
Rivett completists can safely let this one slide for a bit, which is good because copies are more than scarce.