G.V. Galwey is another author I had never heard of before, Murder on Leave is a vintage Penguin crime book, published in 1946.

The setting is the Scottish Highlands where the body of a young woman has been found at the bottom of a railway embankment. It’s the body of a young V.A.D. who was the daughter of a prominent local landowner, Sir Alexander MacGregor. He has been suspected of having Nazi sympathies and had recently quarrelled with his daughter, Gruach. Yes that’s right Gruach, the murder victim had been given the same first name as Lady Macbeth.

It’s Inspector Bourne of Scotland Yard who is investigating the murder and there are plenty of suspects, including German prisoners of war who have escaped from the local prisoner of war camp. By coincidence one of those prisoners had been known to the MacGregor’s before the outbreak of war.

Despite the Scottish wartime setting somehow this one didn’t quite hit the spot for me. At times I found my mind wandering as I read. I don’t know if that was because of me or the book. I will give this author another go though if I ever do fall over any more of his books. I think I bought this one in Edinburgh but G.V. Galwey didn’t write many books and they seem to be quite difficult to get a hold of and expensive, on the internet anyway. I know I didn’t pay much for this one though.

If you want to see what the author looked like have a keek here.