E. R. Punshon

"Rupert Dunsmore has long had his suspicions concerning the death of his uncle, but he can not get the police to share them. Later the singular disappearance of his friend Charley Wright does not seem to arouse them to action, so Dunsmore resolves to take matters into his own hands. …" —from the review by The Literary Digest

What could be more innocent than a crossword puzzle? A game to while away an idle hour, a diversion for the lonely. And yet its cunning formula could still be turned to sinister purpose. The curious crossword devised by Mr. George Winterton turned out to be part of a game for high stakes - it was the creation of a man whose brother had just drowned and who feared for his own life. Yet the dog hadn't barked.... When Detective-Constable Owen (B.A. Oxon, pass degree only) arrives in the picturesque village of Suffby Cove, he is faced with the mystery of an appallingly ingenious murder - one whose ramifications reach out of England to the continent, and touch the lives of many men and women. Crossword Mystery, first published in 1934, is the third of E.R. Punshon's acclaimed Bobby Owen mysteries and part of a series which eventually spanned thirty-five novels.

Seventeenth of the thirty-five Bobby Owen mysteries. "Ode to a chocolate," murmured Bobby. Inspector Bobby Owen's wife is on a mission to obtain the recipe for some uncommonly good chocolates. But the most innocent beginning means trouble for Bobby Owen: take one wood-dwelling hermit, a girl who talks to animals, an evil stepfather, and two exceedingly valuable works of art, and you have the recipe, not for chocolate, but for one of Punshon's most satisfying and devilish mysteries. This beguiling story of labyrinths and seemingly impossible murder is a challenge and a treat for armchair sleuths everywhere. Diabolic Candelabra was originally published in 1942.

Scotland Yard's Commander Bobby Owen is in a quandary: he got a phone call saying there's been a murder at the country estate, Cobblers, but he can't find a body. There are two missing persons, one of them a famous best-selling author, but all he can find is a village full of very likely suspects and an expensive Bromberg that everyone says belongs to the murderer. What murderer?

> A unique anthology for crime aficionados – seven of the world’s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation.

Keith Norton, a public school man, tramping to London penniless, comes upon a house standing alone, doors wide open, well found and furnished, but no occupants. He determines to stay there till someone returns, and this opens a new chapter in his life, mixes him up with stolen jewels, mysterious murders, and a happy ending to a love story.

Mr. Sargent wished he had never held a Beauty Competition. Caroline Mears, the predicted winner, had already caused trouble with one of the other girls. Paul Irwin, a strong Puritan and influential councillor, had taken it into his head to come backstage to look for his son Leslie, who hoped to marry Caroline against his father's wishes. Just as the winner of the competition was being announced, different news spread — Caroline Mears had been murdered! Superintendent Mitchell of Scotland Yard and his young sergeant, Bobby Owen, were faced with one of their most puzzling cases. There were at least seven suspects, against four of whom an equally good case could be made out.

>>"I've got to hurry," Bobby said. "Mr Weston has been found dead from a knife-wound in his study." >It's not easy for a county police Inspector to handle prominent local citizens diplomatically, while getting on with the real work of crime detection. But it's particularly hard when Bobby Owen finds himself the victim of a sinister swindle worked by a millionaire business executive. Not to mention the machinations of a radical political movement, a secretary with a puzzling alibi, and a young scientist-inventor, willing to do anything, even murder, to put his schemes into action... >Night's Cloak was first published in 1944, the nineteenth of the Bobby Owen mysteries, a series eventually including thirty-five novels.

> The hour of dusk was the climax in the strange case of the man found dead in the chalk pit. Who was the murdered man? And why did so many clues lead to that infamous London nightclub, the Cut and Come Again? E.R. Punshon leads the redoubtable Sergeant Bobby Owen and his readers on a dizzy chase through a maze of suspicions to a surprise ending - though the clues are there for anyone astute enough to interpret them. The Dusky Hour, first published in 1937, is the ninth of E.R. Punshon's acclaimed Bobby Owen mysteries and part of a series which eventually spanned thirty-five novels.