One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton (1929): A Golden Age Mystery

🔹️Nine men and one cat had survived a sunken ship. The oldest - and richest - of them, Mr. Pakenham, as a token of gratitude to his fellow survivors for helping him on board the live boat, has been hosting  annual elaborate dinners for them over the years. On the last dinner, he announced that the eight of them were made joint-beneficiaries in his will.

🔹️This year, however, only two of them appeared at the dinner. Young uprising Inspector Hugh Collier from Scotland Yard was present at the same building when the two guests arrived. Therefore, when few days later he learned that one of them died from an accident, he feels that something isn't quite right, and investigates the case.

🔹️Tracing the remaining survivors, Collier finds out that several of them has been died recently. Either by accident or presumably by nature. It's clear now that it's murder for money gain. Someone, apparently, is too greedy that he wants to dip into the whole inheritance at once.

🔹️Also involved in this case is the other guest attended the dinner, a Gerald Freyne. He's attracted to a girl called Corrina, the ward of Freyne's neighbor: Mr. Stark. When Freyne disappears one day, Inspector Collier was helped by Mr. Pakenham and Jehosaphat, his beloved cat, both of whom proved to be of hugely valuable helps in solving the case.

🔹️ All in all, it was a fast-pace whodunnit murder mystery spiced with a little bit of romance. Dalton wrote this in 1929, the first book of a series. Maybe due to it being the first book, the Inspector I found isn't very smart. He made a huge blunder (which no detective should ever do) that nearly caused catastrophe to one of the innocent parties. I cringed everytime he did it, like: "Don't do that!!" Moreover, old Pakenham also inspired Collier more than once during the investigation. I do hope he'll be much developing throughout the series, since I still want to read more of it!

🔹️Of the murderer, I could guess pretty easily, so it's not a surprise. Despite of the flawed detective, I enjoyed this mystery, especially the most critical moments in the last chapters. One more thing I do not agree is the way Dalton "off-staging" the brave cat Jehoshaphat by only mentioning casually of him in a conversation (or in the narrative?) He saved a girl’s life, no less! It's not the way one treating a hero, but you can’t dictate a writer, right?

Rating: 3,5 / 5


I'm not sure whether one might call this book a cat-theme book. There's a cat, yes, and he has a substantial role in the mystery, but he makes seldom appearance and very little stage was provided for by the writer. So, I would put this book as an honorary entry to Literary Potpourri's Reading The Meow 2023.