Death on the Way

{{Short description|1932 novel}} {{infobox book | name = Death on the Way | title_orig = | translator = | image =File:Death on the Way.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Freeman Wills Crofts | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = Inspector French | genre = Mystery | publisher = Collins Crime Club (UK) <br> Harper (US) | release_date = 1932 | english_release_date = | media_type = Print | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = Sudden Death | followed_by = The Hog's Back Mystery }} '''''Death on the Way''''' is a 1932 detective novel by the Irish writer Freeman Wills Crofts.<ref>Reilly p.396</ref> It is the ninth in his series of novels featuring Inspector French, a prominent figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.<ref>Evans p.168</ref> It was published in the United States the same year by Harper under the alternative title '''''Double Death'''''.

The author drew on his own experience as a former railway engineer in creating the fictional project. In his next novel ''The Hog's Back Mystery'' he was to base the plot around a real-life road project.

==Synopsis== Contractors employed by the Southern Railway are working on a track widening scheme along the coast of Dorset. One evening one of the employees, a young engineer named Ronnie Ackerley is run over by a train on the route. The inquest initially considers it an accident, but subsequent information leads the local police to call in the assistance of Scotland Yard.

Inspector French's investigations establish quickly that it was indeed murder. A major scheme to defraud the railway company is also exposed, leading one of the employees to inflate the amount of work being done and pocket the difference. Then Carey, one of the other engineers, is found hanging in his office. The death is deemed a suicide and Carey is held responsible for both the fraud and for murdering Ackerley who was on the trail of uncovering it. This solution then unravels when French proves that Carey did not kill himself, but was also murdered.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Evans, Curtis. ''Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961''. McFarland, 2014. * Herbert, Rosemary. ''Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing''. Oxford University Press, 2003. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015.

Category:1932 British novels Category:1932 English-language novels Category:Novels by Freeman Wills Crofts Category:British mystery novels Category:British thriller novels Category:Irish mystery novels Category:Irish crime novels Category:Collins Crime Club books Category:Novels set in London Category:Novels set in Dorset Category:Mystery novels set in England Category:1930s mystery novels