Victor L. Whitechurch
Personal Information
Description
> Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch was a British author born in 1868. He became first a curate and then, in 1904, vicar of St Michael’s church in Blewbury, Berkshire. In his later career he was Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford and, from 1918, Rural Dean of Aylesbury. His first novel, The Course of Justice, was published in 1903, and a prolific writing career followed. Whitechurch’s detective Thorpe Hazell was a vegetarian railway detective, written as an antidote to Sherlock Holmes. Stories featuring Hazell were featured in Strand Magazine, Railway Magazine, and Pearson’s and Harmsworth’s magazines.
Books
Murder at the Pageant
> The pageant was held, amid great ceremony and pomp, at Frimley Manor, and it featured the reenactment of Queen Anne's visit to the great country estate in 1705. Visitors flocked to see the lavishly costumed affair, especially the ritual carrying of Queen Anne in a sedan chair from the entrance gate of the estate to the front steps of the great house. Mrs. Cresswell, a guest of Sir Harry Lynwood, Lord of Frimley Manor, grandly impersonated the Queen, dazzling the crowd with her spectacular pearl necklace. >But her performance in the sedan chair would soon be upstaged. In the dead of night, under an eerily fading moon, the chair would be discovered with a new occupant: a dying man, whose last words were "The... line." >The shocking discovery is made by Captain Roger Bristow, ex-member of the Secret Service and an astute solver of crimes. His acumen is nearly matched by that of Superintendent Kinch, official investigator of the murder, which crime is further complicated by the theft of Mrs. Cresswell's pearl necklace. >The investigation focuses on two suspects. Sonia Fullinger, a close friend of Sir Harry's daughter, is strongly linked to the crimes by circumstantial evidence, despite her indignant protestations. Leonard Curtis, the wayward nephew of a local vicar, is also a prime candidate for indictment if his improbable alibi turns out to be false. >Clues abound - a piece of gold lace, a lost handkerchief, a key, an abandoned car - but fitting them together into a logical explanation for the unpleasant events that took place at Frimley Manor requires substantial intuitive and deductive powers. The dastardly deeds are probably related, but the exact details only come to light after an inspired and meticulous investigation, comprised of much shrewd speculation and old-fashioned police legwork. >Readers who enjoy such a challenge, in the context of a gracefully written and ingeniously constructed crime novel, will welcome this classic from the Golden Age of British mystery fiction.
The Canon in residence
The Reverend John Smith, Vicar of Market Shapborough, has an unsettling encounter in Switzerland with a man who replaces the Vicar's clothes with his own and vanishes. Forced to complete his vacation without his clerical garb, Vicar Smith's outlook on his fellow man is greatly affected, such that when he returns and accepts a post as Canon at Frattenbury Cathedral, the conservative community is shocked by his attitudes and behavior.
The Templeton Case
Reginald Templeton, a reasonably well-heeled explorer, sails a small yacht into a little fishing village on the English south coast, intending to visit a relative, and also to meet someone for an unclear purpose. When he is found stabbed in his yacht, Detective-Sergeant Colson is on the case, assisted by a lawyer and an inadvertent detective in the person of Canon Fittleworth.
The Thorpe Hazell Mysteries and More Thrilling Tales On and Off the Rails
The mystery stories of railway detective Thorpe Hazell, and other adventures.
Left in charge
The Rev. Ross Philips is sent to the remote Yorkshire village of Adlington to substitute for Vicar Wrenfield, who is vacationing for his health. He quickly wins the hearts of most, excepting the Vicar's daughter Gertrude, who is accustomed to running the parish in her own way. Philips peace of mind is soon shattered, however, as he stumbles upon an international conspiracy and faces the disclosure of hidden facts about his own past.