The Knavish Crows (Collins, 1971) by Sara Woods may be the only Antony Maitland title I have not managed to read and collect over a long period of acquiring worn ex-library and tattered paperback copies of the series. It seems not to have been published in the United States. There are few copies of the UK edition in the secondary market, making it a little harder to purchase. The release of five more of these out-of-print books by Dean Street Press made me check Bookfinder again and this time a modestly priced copy appeared in Scotland.
This 18th adventure of QC Antony Maitland and his wife Jenny is unusual. First, solicitor Geoffrey Horton brings him in on a matter in which Horton is sure that murder has been done but there’s nothing solid to take to the police. Maitland thinks Horton is dreaming, which is the reverse of the usual state of affairs. Horton tends to be the stolid member of Maitland’s crew with no imagination and who can bring Maitland’s flights of fancy back down to earth. Second, Maitland is going to the United States to meet an old friend from his war days, and that’s where the action takes place. Sam Henderson and his wife are going to take the Maitlands on a country-wide tour. Hence, Horton’s request. He is helping to settle an estate in which the heir, now living in the U.S., has a deadline within which to claim a significant inheritance. Lawyers acting for the estate have not been able to make the heir, an old man himself, understand what he will be giving up if he does not sign the forms claiming the money. Horton wants Maitland to intervene.
The Hendersons are amenable to working a visit to rural Virginia into their plans. When Maitland finds the hamlet where the heir lives, the chatty proprietor of the general store advises him that another English gentleman has visited recently. When Maitland finds the old man in an isolated shack, he is quite ill and dies while Maitland is there. Maitland learns first that the heir has a now-grown daughter, who would be the rightful heir of a half million pounds (£6,923,376.13 or $9,012,851.05 in 2025)upon her father’s death.
Horton did not know that someone else representing the estate was in the U.S., nor did he know that the heir had a daughter. With this new information and a second unexpected death, Maitland finds himself coming around to Horton’s point of view. Afraid that the daughter was now in jeopardy and unsure of this other player’s location, the Maitlands and the Hendersons begin searching for the daughter and whatever family she might have. The pursuit takes them to Chicago and then to San Francisco, where the local police become involved in an unforeseen plot resolution.
It is always a risk when the author takes the main character of a long-running series outside their usual milieu. I missed Maitland’s usual supporting cast: his uncle, the irritable butler, Willett, his clerk, and the range of solicitors that bring him cases and act as a foil. On the other hand, the Hendersons made an acceptable substitute. The commentary on the various large cities and scenery during the drive across the country is a sort of travelogue, not always flattering to the subject, which may be the reason that the book was not published in the U.S.
The plot itself is one of the more complicated ones in the series, with a surprising twist about three-quarters through. The pool of suspects, thought, was too small for much misdirection. My overall assessment is good but not among the best in the series.