Unfortunately the Temperance meeting and the Communists have to share the Clerkenwell Central Hal with each other. The ladies of the Temperance society are not happy concerning this, especially Miss Olive Stapleton. This is made worse when Miss Stapleton is found dead.
Meanwhile Henry Jameson at British Intelligence asks Freddy to attend the Communist meetings as he suspects they are trying to arrange another general strike.
Another enjoyable well-written mystery with its likeable main character


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A Case of Conspiracy in Clerkenwell is the 3rd book in the Freddy Pilkington-Soames series by Clara Benson. The story is set in the late 1920s or early 1930s in London. Freddy is a sort of ne'er do well, upper-class Englishman, who tries to work as a newspaper reporter. He was first introduced to readers in Benson's Angela Marchmont series.

Clerkenwell Central Hall is the meeting place of two disparate organization on the same evening - the Young Women's Abstinence Association and the East London Communist Alliance. Freddy has been asked by Henry Jameson, of British Intelligence (who we previously met in an Angela Marchmont book,) to help watch Freddy's friend, St. John Bagshawe. St. John is a member of the Communists and has started a Communist newspaper. Freddy attends a meeting of the Communists and runs into his friend, Mildred Starkweather, who is a member of the Temperance organization. Mildred introduces him to some of the other members, including Miss Stapleton, who is the very militant leader of the Temperance group. The morning after the meeting, Miss Stapleton is found murdered in the meeting hall. Freddy is determined to find Miss Stapleton's murderer and to foil an unknown threat from the Communist organization leaders.

Benson has tried to write her books in the style of a Golden Age novel, and I believe she succeeds admirably. She doesn't feel the need to point out things that someone who was writing in that period would point out, but that many historical novel writers feel compelled to mention. For instance, she doesn't mention types of clothing or hats or cars or those types of things that are found so often in the descriptions of many historical books, but that a writer in that age might not necessarily mention. The story moves along very well; there is not a lot of extra detail to detract from the main plot. She gives enough clues that one might figure out the solution to the mystery, but they are not obvious clues. As in many Golden Age mysteries, the author does not spend much time fleshing out the major characters, but we get to know them well enough to be interested. The primary purpose of books like this is the fun of "whodunit" not getting into the characters' heads.

Freddy reminds me a little of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey or Margery Allingham's Albert Campion, except that Freddy is perhaps not quite as intelligent - or perhaps he hides his intelligence a little better. He seems to bumble along, sometimes getting into trouble, but then is somehow intelligent enough to get himself and others out of a bad situation. I enjoy Freddy - I enjoyed his character in the Angela Marchmont series, and I'm glad he has his own series now. He is fun to read about and I find myself rooting for him.

The one thing that bothered me a little about the plot was how willing the Intelligence service was to trust Freddy, and how much information was shared with him. That seemed a little unbelievable to me, but perhaps since it is still years before WWII, security was not as tight as it was later to become. It was mentioned that Intelligence also had a person on the inside of the Communist organization, and I was a bit amazed by how much information they still needed Freddy to get. However, closer to the end of the book, this point was wrapped up to my satisfaction.

Although this is part of a series, it could easily be enjoyed as a stand-alone.

If you enjoy mysteries in the style of the Golden Age, I think you will enjoy this book. ( )