The Case with Nine Solutions
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This classic detective novel offers a masterclass in logical deduction, with a twist-filled plot that keeps readers guessing until the final confession.
Edition details
Book Summary
A series of mysterious deaths—a young man in a bungalow, a maid strangled, and an informer killed—plunge Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield into a complex investigation. As he sifts through nine possible solutions, he uncovers a web of secret affairs, financial motives, and scientific poison, ultimately confronting a vigilante known as 'Mr. Justice.'
Dr. Ringwood stumbles upon a dying man in a foggy night, leading Sir Clinton Driffield to investigate multiple murders: Ronald Hassendean and Mrs. Silverdale found dead in a bungalow, a maid killed at Heatherfield, and an informer strangled. The case involves a love triangle between Silverdale, his wife Yvonne, and Avice Deepcar, as well as Hassendean's debts and a £12,000 inheritance. Sir Clinton and Inspector Flamborough systematically analyze nine possible scenarios, narrowing them down as they uncover a secret affair between Dr. Trevor Markfield and Yvonne. Markfield, using hyoscine from the Croft-Thornton Institute, staged evidence to frame Dr. Silverdale, impersonated Sir Clinton, and killed to protect his plot. After confessing, Markfield triggers an explosion, but Sir Clinton's notebook reveals the final threads connecting the crimes.
Reading guide
Go deeper in The Case with Nine Solutions
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
Sir Clinton Driffield
A Chief Constable who'd rather follow a devious clue than a straight one, he reads crimes the way other men read chessboards — several moves ahead.
Dr. Trevor Markfield
Markfield moves easily between the laboratory, the Institute, and the Silverdales' social orbit, which makes him useful to the investigation and hard to read. He is caustic about marriage and women, and his reluctance to answer questions frankly puts Flamborough on edge. His scientific expertise and his private knowledge of the Silverdale household make him a pivot the police cannot afford to alienate.
Inspector Flamborough
Flamborough is the plodding, skeptical counterweight to Sir Clinton's leaps of intuition, and he resents being dragged up the Lizardbridge Road on what looks like a wild goose chase. He is thorough with facts, wary of theories, and quietly stung when his superior's hunches pan out. His dogged legwork — postmen, telegrams, rubber tubing — supplies the case with the small solid details that eventually matter.
Dr. Ringwood
Ringwood is the physician Sir Clinton recruits for the drive out to the bungalow, a practical man who admits he saw nothing of the house the night before because the fog hid everything. He listens to Markfield's gossip about the Silverdales with visible boredom, yet his offhand questions about the Institute draw out useful information. He matters because his route through the foggy night — and his presence at the bungalow — ties the medical and investigative threads together.
Silverdale
Silverdale is an alkaloid specialist at the Institute, respected in his field but privately miserable in a marriage where husband and wife have agreed to take separate roads. He has turned toward Avice Deepcar while Yvonne parades young Hassendean about town, and the scandal gives him motive for a divorce he probably cannot get. His professional expertise in the very poisons under investigation makes him both a resource and a suspect as the case unfolds.
Hassendean
Hassendean is the younger man Yvonne Silverdale escorts everywhere, advertising a conquest that Markfield suspects is mostly her sport. He cuts a callow figure — a live-your-own-life type with, in Markfield's scornful phrase, about as much backbone as a filleted sole. His conspicuous place at Yvonne's side feeds the Silverdale scandal and gives the police an obvious thread to pull when they begin asking who was close to the dead woman.
Murder and Investigation
The book revolves around multiple murders—the deaths at the bungalow, the maid at Heatherfield, and the informer Whalley—and the systematic police investigation led by Sir Clinton Driffield and Inspector Flamborough, exploring the methods, clues, and permutations of possible causes (accident, suicide, murder).
Deception and Secrecy
Characters conceal their true relationships, motives, and actions, such as the secret affair between Mrs. Silverdale and Hassendean, Dr. Markfield's hidden involvement, and the anonymous 'Mr. Justice' who sends cryptic messages and manipulated evidence.
Love and Jealousy
Romantic entanglements and jealousies drive the plot, including the triangle between Silverdale, his wife Yvonne, and Avice Deepcar, as well as Hassendean's possessive behavior and the vindictive threats from his jilted fiancée Norma Hailsham.
Class and Money
Financial motives are central, seen in Hassendean's debts to the moneylender Spratton, the £12,000 inheritance that alters Yvonne's plans, and the life insurance policy, highlighting how money influences relationships and leads to murder.
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