Maybe even 3½ stars. This is perhaps my very favorite type of mystery (British mystery of the 1930s) but I found Nigel Strangeways (the main character) a little more annoying than I had in other Blake mysteries. The mystery itself, set in a beer brewery, was fine. ( )

Originally published in 1937, There’s Trouble Brewing by Nicholas Blake is the third book in the mystery series that features Nigel Strangeways. In this outing a very disagreeable brewery owner appears to have met a very gruesome death by being boiled in a sealed copper vat.

Nigel is in the village to give a literary talk about his most recent book and at first the brewery owner wants him to look into the death of his dog. This dog was apparently thrown into the same copper vat that within days, would see the same fate being dealt to him. With plenty of red herrings, odd clues and lying suspects to comb through both Nigel and the police have much to ponder upon. Eventually Strangeways is able to rearrange the pieces and come up the solution.

Well written and interesting, I enjoyed the mystery, although I would have preferred that Truffles, the dog, didn’t have to meet such a gruesome death. But the author did keep the atmosphere fairly light with lots of witty touches which I have come to expect with this author, whose real name is Cecil Day Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 to his death in 1972. ( )

Strangeways, our detective, just avoids being too precious to be likable in this outing. A classic old-fashioned cozy—amateur detective, completely odious first victim, most gory details off-stage—this presents a nice puzzle for the armchair detective eager to outsmart the hero.
In this case, the perpetrator is identifiable by a couple of clues and a sort of feeling in the reader. Still, there’s a nicely suspenseful denouement with danger to all.
It’s a bit dated (written in 1937), but that supplies a pleasant and relaxing respite from the trials of today’s world. The characters are fairly well-developed. Recommended for fans of Golden Age mysteries. ( )

Maybe a little less than 3.5 stars but more than 3!

This is perhaps my very favorite type of mystery (British mystery of the 1930s) but I found Nigel Strangeways (the main character) a little more annoying than I had in other Blake mysteries. The mystery itself, set in a beer brewery, was fine. ( )

As you will deduce from the title,the scene of crime is a brewery. A body,or rather the bones and false teeth,which are all that remains of a body,are found boiled in a vat.
Private detective,Nigel Strangeways is on hand to assist to official police,and is soon on the somewhat complicated case.
As with all of the books in this most enjoyable series,this is no straightforward job of detection and there are red-herrings aplenty. ( )