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* GoingDownWithTheShip: ''The Loss of the Jane Vosper'' opens with the eponymous ship sinking because of mysterious explosions in the cargo hold. The captain doesn't literally go down with the ship, but he makes sure all the other members of his crew are safely in the lifeboats before he leaves the ship to join them.
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* DisabilityAlibi: One suspect in ''Sir John Magill's Last Journey'' is ruled out of consideration because he had a leg injury -- nothing serious, but enough to stop him taking any part in the murder. The doctor who examined him is adamant that the injury was genuine. [[spoiler:It was a real injury, but its timing was faked; it actually happened after the murder.]]
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* ComplexityAddiction: The opening of Crofts' short story "Unbreakable Alibi" describes this as the murderer's fatal flaw:
-->Always he would reject the simple for something more ingenious and complex. When he murdered Jack Fleet it was this trait which cost him his life...
-->Always he would reject the simple for something more ingenious and complex. When he murdered Jack Fleet it was this trait which cost him his life...
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* BlackmailBackfire:
** In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', the directors of the Chayle cement works suspect that their rivals at Joymount have stolen their new secret process and killed the night watchman into the bargain. They approach their counterparts with an offer: They want Joymount to license their process and pay 75% of the profits, or they will tell the police what they know. By invitation, they make an evening visit to Joymount to finalise the terms of the agreement... and on the way back, their boat suddenly explodes.
** In ''12:30 From Croydon'' the first victim's butler threatens the murderer with exposure unless he pays up. The murderer decides that even if he did pay up, the man couldn't be trusted to keep his mouth shut, and instead kills him.
** In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', the directors of the Chayle cement works suspect that their rivals at Joymount have stolen their new secret process and killed the night watchman into the bargain. They approach their counterparts with an offer: They want Joymount to license their process and pay 75% of the profits, or they will tell the police what they know. By invitation, they make an evening visit to Joymount to finalise the terms of the agreement... and on the way back, their boat suddenly explodes.
** In ''12:30 From Croydon'' the first victim's butler threatens the murderer with exposure unless he pays up. The murderer decides that even if he did pay up, the man couldn't be trusted to keep his mouth shut, and instead kills him.
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* RecordedAudioAlibi: In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', one of the conspirators records his half of a conversation on a gramophone. While he is committing his crime, his accomplice goes into the room where the man is supposed to be, plays the recording, and speaks his half of the conversation, thus making it seem to the witnesses outside that both men are there. Inspector French considers this to be a "very old trick" (the book was published in 1934).
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* RubeGoldbergDevice: The mechanism used in ''Golden Ashes'' to set fire to Forde Manor -- opening a certain desk drawer triggers a switch, which causes water to start draining out of a steel drum. When the water has drained, a float in the drum reaches the bottom, closing a circuit that powers a car cigarette lighter.
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* LoveMakesYouEvil: The viewpoint characters in the reverse-whodunnits ''12:30 From Croydon'' and ''Antidote To Venom'' decide on murder, in part, because they need money to marry, or carry on an affair with, the woman of their dreams.
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** In ''Antidote To Venom'' the viewpoint character is the murderer's accomplice rather than the actual murderer, so although he's morally and legally just as culpable, even he doesn't know exactly how the crime was done.
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* TheWickedStage: Characters who are actors, such as [[spoiler:Lyde in "Crime at Guildford'']], tend to use their impersonation talents for nefarious purposes.
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* DeathByFallingOver: This turns out to be the solution of ''[[spoiler:The Ponson case]]'' -- the victim tripped and fell. Since he was in the process of paying off a blackmailer, the other characters present tried to hush up the episode so his secret wouldn't come to light, succeeding only in making it look like a fiendish murder plot.
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* SternChase: Chapter 12 of ''The Ponson Case'' is called "A Stern Chase", and is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- but written from the point of view of the pursuing detective, rather than the absconding suspect.
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* ChekhovsHobby: Always be wary of characters who have a workshop or garden shed where they like to tinker. They tend to use them for less innocent purposes, such as cutting copies of stolen keys or making an improvised bludgeon from a length of lead pipe.
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* ReverseWhodunnit: With a twist in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' -- we are shown the original murder, the killer's attempt to cover it up, and Inspector French's investigation. Then there's a second murder where we don't get to see who did it or how.
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* ReverseWhodunnit: ReverseWhodunnit:
** With a twist in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' -- we are shown the original murder, the killer's attempt to cover it up, and Inspector French's investigation. Then there's a second murder where we don't get to see who did it orhow.how.
** ''12:30 From Croydon'' is a straight example: the main protagonist is the murderer, whom we follow from the moment he contemplates committing murder, all the way to his trial and conviction. We only see what he sees of Inspector French's investigation, which is hardly anything. Then in the final two chapters, French retells events from his perspective and we see all the clues the murderer never even knew were there.
** With a twist in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' -- we are shown the original murder, the killer's attempt to cover it up, and Inspector French's investigation. Then there's a second murder where we don't get to see who did it or
** ''12:30 From Croydon'' is a straight example: the main protagonist is the murderer, whom we follow from the moment he contemplates committing murder, all the way to his trial and conviction. We only see what he sees of Inspector French's investigation, which is hardly anything. Then in the final two chapters, French retells events from his perspective and we see all the clues the murderer never even knew were there.
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* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Crofts' villains are fond of this, usually luring their mark into a rigged game or series of games in the first place.
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* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Crofts' villains are fond of this, usually luring their mark into a rigged game or series of games in the first place.place.
* TheXOfY: All the chapter names in ''Golden Ashes'' are of this form.
* TheXOfY: All the chapter names in ''Golden Ashes'' are of this form.
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* SlippingAMickey: In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', one executive is drugged so that copies of his keys (which he always keeps with him) can be made.
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* SlippingAMickey: SlippingAMickey:
** In ''The Sea Mystery'' French suspects that a night-watchman he interviews is holding something back. It turns out that on the crucial night he fell asleep at his post; since this never happened before or since, French suspects that the man's flask of tea must have been drugged.
** In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', one executive is drugged so that copies of his keys (which he always keeps with him) can be made.
** In ''The Sea Mystery'' French suspects that a night-watchman he interviews is holding something back. It turns out that on the crucial night he fell asleep at his post; since this never happened before or since, French suspects that the man's flask of tea must have been drugged.
** In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', one executive is drugged so that copies of his keys (which he always keeps with him) can be made.
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* LookBehindYou: Done non-verbally in ''The Sea Mystery'' -- French, held by the murderer at gunpoint, conveys by facial expressions alone that he can see his colleague entering the room and creeping up behind the murderer.
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* QuicksandSucks: DiscussedTrope in ''The Sea Mystery'', where two men are supposed to have drowned in a bog on Dartmoor. The local police sergeant explains how it's possible to escape from such a situation by lying on one's back. Later, French wonders if a dead body could have been sunk in the bog, but the sergeant is dubious: unless weighted the body would float, while the person carrying the body would be vertical and so sink. So they'd have needed to support themselves on a plank while dumping the body, and that would have left obvious traces.
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* MapAllAlong: In ''The Cheyne Mystery'', one of the clues is a mysterious diagram drawn on a piece of linen, covered with irregularly-placed circles containing numbers, letters and wavy lines, and the phrase "England expects every man to do his duty". French and his officers eventually realise that it should be superimposed on a map of England, with the wavy lines matching the coastline; then the numbered circles indicate particular towns.
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* MapAllAlong: In ''The Cheyne Mystery'', one of the clues is a mysterious diagram drawn on a piece of linen, covered with irregularly-placed circles containing numbers, letters and wavy lines, and the phrase "England expects every man to do his duty". French and his officers eventually realise that it should be superimposed on a map of England, with the wavy lines matching the coastline; then the numbered circles indicate particular towns. In turn, the names of the towns produce a textual message, which describes a location in the Atlantic.
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* SinkTheLifeboats: In the backstory of ''The Cheyne Mystery'', a German U-Boat commander torpedoed a liner, and then sank the lifeboats so there were no survivors. It turns out he didn't do it just for the sake of cruelty, but to conceal exactly where the ship went down.
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* MapAllAlong: In ''The Cheyne Mystery'', one of the clues is a mysterious diagram drawn on a piece of linen, covered with irregularly-placed circles containing numbers, letters and wavy lines, and the phrase "England expects every man to do his duty". French and his officers eventually realise that it should be superimposed on a map of England, with the wavy lines matching the coastline; then the numbered circles indicate particular towns.
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* TheGamblingAddict: Stott's nephew in ''Fatal Venture'' has a weakness for the tables -- unfortunate, when the venture of the title is a cruise ship with an on-board casino.
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* TheGamblingAddict: Stott's nephew in ''Fatal Venture'' has a weakness for the tables -- unfortunate, when the venture of the title is a cruise ship with an on-board casino.
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* TheAlibi: Almost a CreatorThumbprint; the detective nearly always has to break what appears to be an unimpeachable alibi, frequently with the aid of railway timetables. As Creator/DorothyLSayers remarked, eventually the reader begins to suspect the person with the best alibi straight away. For example, in ''Mystery in the Channel'', one suspect is ruled out of consideration because his launch couldn't have reached the scene of the crime at its maximum speed. [[spoiler: He'd fitted an outboard motor to the launch, which he then threw overboard before the police examined the boat.]] Crofts eventually subverted this facet of his writing in ''Death on the Way''. Inspector French proves that a suspect faked his alibi, and arrests him -- but it turns out he wasn't the murderer, and faked the alibi only because he knew he couldn't prove his innocence.
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* TheAlibi: Almost a CreatorThumbprint; the detective nearly always has to break what appears to be an unimpeachable alibi, frequently with the aid of railway timetables. As Creator/DorothyLSayers remarked, eventually the reader begins to suspect the person with the best alibi straight away. For example, in ''Mystery in the Channel'', one suspect is ruled out of consideration because his launch couldn't have reached the scene of the crime at its maximum speed. [[spoiler: He'd fitted an outboard motor to the launch, which he then threw overboard before the police examined the boat.]] Crofts eventually subverted this facet of his writing in ''Death on the Way''. Inspector French proves that a suspect faked his alibi, and arrests him -- but it turns out he wasn't the murderer, and faked the alibi only because he knew he couldn't prove his innocence. And again in ''Fatal Venture'', when multiple suspects have suspiciously-strong alibis that would have been possible to fake.
* AnachronisticClue: In ''Fatal Venture'', the clue that enables French to prove a photograph was faked is that it shows flowers in bloom that wouldn't have been when the picture was supposedly taken.
* AnachronisticClue: In ''Fatal Venture'', the clue that enables French to prove a photograph was faked is that it shows flowers in bloom that wouldn't have been when the picture was supposedly taken.
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* FamedInStory: French's cover is blown in ''Fatal Venture'' when he's recognised by someone who saw him give evidence in the trial of the murderer from ''The Loss of the Jane Vosper''.
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* TheGamblingAddict: Stott's nephew in ''Fatal Venture'' has a weakness for the tables -- unfortunate, when the venture of the title is a cruise ship with an on-board casino.
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** The first death in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' is elaborately set up to look like an accident. The police take hardly any time to spot that it isn't.
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** The first death in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' is elaborately set up to look like an a car accident. The police take hardly any time to spot that it isn't.
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* ReverseWhodunnit: With a twist in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' -- we are shown the original murder, the killer's attempt to cover it up, and Inspector French's investigation. Then there's a second murder where we don't get to see who did it or how.
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* SlippingAMickey: In ''Mystery on Southampton Water'', one executive is drugged so that copies of his keys (which he always keeps with him) can be made.
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* BastardBastard: In ''The Groote Park Murder'', the murderer turns out to be [[spoiler:the victim's illegitimate half-brother, who killed him and [[DeadPersonImpersonation stole his identity]].]]
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* GasolineDousing: The murderer in ''Mystery in the Channel'' attempts a TakingYouWithMe by dousing the surroundings in petrol -- both men are armed, so a shot from either will start a fire that kills both.
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* GasolineDousing: The murderer in ''Mystery in the Channel'' attempts a TakingYouWithMe by dousing the surroundings in petrol -- both men he and Inspector French are armed, so a shot from either will start a fire that kills both.
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* GasolineDousing: The murderer in ''Mystery in the Channel'' attempts a TakingYouWithMe by dousing the surroundings in petrol -- both men are armed, so a shot from either will start a fire that kills both.
