Cyril Hare

Inspector Mallett mystery - 1 When successful London businessman Lionel Ballantine is found strangled in the smoking room of a house in the sedate Daylesford Gardens district, Scotland Yard's Inspector Mallett is called in to investigate.

Disambiguation notice : 'Death among friends and other detective stories' was originally published as 'Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare'.

Inspector Mallett mystery - 4 Francis Pettigrew mystery - 1 World War II has just begun. Self-important High Court judge Mr. Justice Barber moves from town to town presiding over cases in the Southern England circuit. When an anonymous letter arrives for Barber, warning of imminent revenge, he dismisses it as the work of a harmless lunatic. But then a second letter appears, followed by a poisoned box of the judge's favorite chocolates, and he begins to fear for his life. Enter barrister and amateur detective Francis Pettigrew, a man who was once in love with Barber's wife and has never quite succeeded in his profession. Can he find out who is threatening Barber before it is too late?

Inspector Mallett mystery - 5 Francis Pettigrew mystery - 2 England at War. The Blitz has forced the evacuation of many government offices from London, and Francis Pettigrew dutifully follows his Ministry to the distant seaside resort of Marsett Bay in the north of England. The disgruntled community of civil servants must provide their own entertainment in their provincial exile, and when one of their members turns out to be a mystery writer in civilian life an amusing parlour game of 'plan the perfect murder' is soon in full swing. Pettigrew remains aloof, until a victim, a real one, is discovered - slain by a common office utensil.

Inspector Mallett mystery - 2 Every weekend, four men devoted to fly-fishing gather at a small resort hotel in rural England to enjoy their favorite sport. Though not friends, the men have learned to get along in order to share fishing rights to an especially desirable section of the River Didder. Yet beneath the surface of courtesy shown by these men, there are unexpected currents that flow inexorably to murder along the riverbank. Inspector Mallett shrewdly resolves the case with his clever use of fishing lore and practice. - from fictiondb

Inspector Mallett mystery - 6 Francis Pettigrew mystery - 5 Francis Pettigrew, on holiday on Exmoor, relives memories of finding a dead body as a child--and then he finds a dead body on the same spot, in very similar circumstances. When the body subsequently disappears and reappears, he tries simply to keep out of the whole business, but his old friend Inspector Mallet, now retired, gets him involved in solving the mystery.

A country house murder mystery classic, as a party find themselves snowed-in on Christmas Eve with a murderer among them... The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. All is set for a lovely Christmas, with friends and family gathered round the fire, except as the bells chime midnight, a murder is committed. But who is responsible? The scorned young lover? The lord’s passed-over cousin? The social climbing politician’s wife? The Czech history professor? The obsequious butler? And perhaps the real question is: Can they survive long enough to find out?

Contains: [Adventure of the Abbey Grange]( / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A marriage tragedy / Wilkie Collins Lord Chizelrigg's missing fortune / Robert Barr The Fordwych Castle mystery / Emmuska, Baroness Orczy The blue scarab / R. Austin Freeman The doom of the Darnaways / G. K. Chesterton The shadow on the glass / Agatha Christie The queen's square / Dorothy L. Sayers Death on the air / Ngaio Marsh The same to us / Margery Allingham The hunt ball / Freeman Wills Crofts The incautious burglar / John Dickson Carr The long shot / Nicholas Blake. Jeeves and the stolen Venus / P. G. Wodehouse Death in the sun / Michael Innes An unlocked window / Ethel Lina White The wood-for-the-trees / Philip MacDonald The man on the roof / Christianna Brand The death of Amy Robsart / Cyril Hare Fen Hall / Ruth Rendell A very desirable residence / P. D. James The Worcester enigma / James Miles.

Inspector Mallett of the C.I.D. is on holiday at Pendlebury Old Hall. Although the Hall is a charming country hotel, his stay has been a disappointment. Room, food and service have been such a letdown that he eagerly anticipates the end of his holiday. His last trial is to sit and listen as the hotel boor, whose family once owned the house, sits down at his table. The next day the man is dead, an apparent suicide. Mallett's investigation of the suspicious death inadvertently embroils him in family passions and murder.

Who killed solo violinist Lucy Carless during a concert by the Markshire Orchestra? Was it her first husband? Or her second? Womanizer Bill Ventry? Or perhaps the clarinetist and fellow Polish émigré, Zbartorowski, with whom she'd had a violent argument? [From WorldCat]

Also published as That Yew Tree's Shade The archdruid's yew, Yew Hill, Markshire, had provided cover in its day for a variety of activities, but never before had it been shelter for murder. Then one day, in the calm of Eastertide, murder was found; and overnight, as the police began their remorseless questioning, Yewbury was shocked out of admiring foliage. Detective Superintendent Trimble had no eye for nature's extravagances in the face of human aberration. He had crossed paths with Francis Pettigrew before, to his sorrow. Now he established with grim satisfaction that the amiable, quick-witted lawyer had indeed been the last to see the victim, outlined starkly against the brow of the hill, alive. The victim, Trimble soon discovered, was held to be "an extraordinarily good woman," a solitary person with no particular friends and surely no enemies mad enough to kill her. Trimble was convinced, however, that he would get to the bottom of the affair in short order—if only Pettigrew would leave the sleuthing to "us professionals." The trouble was that Trimble did not think of the Crippen affair, and Pettigrew did—and so actually the case was solved by a dead man . . . .