"He Holds the Attention of the Reader Till the End"

A CASE IN CAMERA.
By Oliver Onions (1873-1961).
MacMillan.
1921. 320 pages.
Online HERE and HERE.

Onions is most known nowadays for his psychological horror fiction, but even his limited output of detective stories isn't of the ordinary sort:

The name of the book is in itself a play on words, in which lurks a solution of the story's mystery.

Why do so many people in this case discourage the solving of what seems to be plain murder? That is the second problem—and the answer is a strange one.

The story is original and its incidents singular. — THE OUTLOOK (May 11, 1921)

In "A Case in Camera" we have the mystery story, replete with the usual paraphernalia of inexplicable events that await the concluding chapter for their solution.

A murder is committed under the most unusual circumstances; apparently an accident, it is really the deliberate slaying of a man by a [SPOILER]; and out of it arise numerous complications that are not unraveled until the final scene.

Oliver Onions tells his story convincingly; he musters his army of facts so as to create and maintain suspense; he makes the explanation ingenuous [ingenious?] as well as comparatively simple; and he holds the attention of the reader till the end. — "Brief Reviews of New Books," THE BOOKMAN (June 1921)

Category: Detective fiction