French Strikes Oil is a 1951 detective novel by the Irish-born writer Freeman Wills Crofts.

It is the twenty eighth and penultimate entry in his series of novels featuring Inspector French, a Scotland Yard detective of the Golden Age known for his methodical technique.

[2] No further French novel appeared for six years after this, although he featured in a short story collection The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express published in 1956.

While Rodney Vale was keen to exploit the valuable new resources, his brother Maurice was strongly opposed due to the damage to the picturesque countryside.

Curiously, French discovers two separate gloves by the body, one belonging to a man and one to a woman.