The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

In this entertaining golden age whodunit, originally published in 1939, thousands are on hand in London’s Highbury Stadium for a historic football match pitting league champion Arsenal (whose real team members appear as themselves) against the Trojans, an amateur team comprised of “carpenters and electricians, chemists and insurance brokers, clerks and salesmen,” assembled to demonstrate that such a squad could compete against the best of the professionals. The hard-fought match is marred, however, when John Doyce, the most recent addition to the Trojans, collapses on the field for no apparent reason. Doyce dies soon afterward, and Scotland Yard, in the form of the redoubtable Inspector Slade, finds evidence that he was poisoned by something in a package delivered to him in the dressing room at halftime. Those who appreciate solid prose, masterful pacing, and authors who play fair with their readers will hope to see more reissues from the undeservedly obscure Gribble (1908–1985) in the British Library Crime Classics series. (Dec.)