A Crime Club novel

Twenty-eighth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. >The murder of old Mr Fransham as he washed his hands in his niece’s cloakroom was one of the most astounding problems that ever confronted Scotland Yard. Not only was there a policeman in the house at the time, but there was an ugly wound in the victim’s forehead and nothing in the locked room that could have inflicted it. >The combined efforts of Superintendent Hanslet and Inspector Waghorn brought no answer and the case was dropped. It was only after another equally baffling murder had been committed that Dr Lancelot Priestley’s orderly and imaginative deductions began to make the connections that would solve this extraordinary case.

There were seven people in the Watch House, Polferry, on the night of Eve Hale-Storford's death. Her husband and his two friends made the discovery on their way to bed after an hour together in the smokeroom. It was either all three or none of them. Then there were Dorothy Graye, the housekeeper, Miss Susan Kerr, a friend of Mrs Hale-Storford, Miss Miriam Rossiter, her sister, and George Anstruther, a young cousin of HaleStorford-all of whom retired to bed at the same time as Eve. All possible murderers. But when Colonel Gethryn decided it was time to give Scotland Yard a hand some months later, two of these possible murderers were dead, victims of extraordinary 'accidents'. Published as The Choice, The Polferry Riddle, and The Polferry Mystery.

Twelfth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. U.S. title: The Fire at Greycombe Farm. > The low, graystone buildings of Greycombe Farm were the very embodiment of peace and security. Nothing ever distrubed the general air of tranquility so typical of a West Country farm until -- one memorable night -- fire broke out in Farmer Jim's cider store. When the flames were finally extinguished, an examination of the building revealed the charred remains of a body. Here was a mystery that immediately engaged the attention of Major Betterton, Chief Constable of Wessex. It was, however, only with the calling in of Dr. Priestley, the wealthy but eccentric scientist and crime investigator, that the amazing ramifications of this mystery were disclosed.

Twenty-fifth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. >Every year, for a month or so, a crowd descended on the village of Culverden every weekend. They came primarily from the poverty-stricken East End of London, to visit the countryside and to make a bit of money picking hops. They stayed in huts away from the village dwellers, drank outside the pub rather than inside – unwelcome in some ways but a vital part of the economy nonetheless. >Then one night Sergeant Wragge happened to see something unusual lying by the side of the road, and decided to take care of it himself. After all, a twelve-inch butcher knife is nothing to be left loose on a public highway. When he noticed those curious stains on the blade, his suspicions were more than aroused and he felt that he must be ready for trouble. >The Sergeant’s forebodings were swiftly corroborated by the events that followed - robbery, a mysterious disappearance, perhaps murder; so he felt that he was justified in demanding the aid of Scotland Yard. The careful investigations of Inspector Hanslet and Jimmy Waghorn soon had them on the right track; but it was Dr. Priestley’s quiet, seemingly enigmatic suggestion that finally unearthed the solution.

When Ronald Craig succumbed after a short illness it came as a surprise, but when a specialist called down to consult declares the death as due to chronic arsenic poisoning it proves even more of a puzzle. There are plenty of suspects: the ex-wife, the reluctant fiance, the governess who doesn’t care for children, the widow of the dead man’s cousin, the attending physician, his sister - each with a motive, and each lacking an alibi. There are plenty of clues as well: footprints in the garden, the curious tea, the torn wrapping of the package never sent - to name but a few. All in all, quite a tangle. No wonder then that Chief Constable was only too happy to turn the investigation over to Chief Inspector Pointer of Scotland Yard who fortuitously was in the neighborhood on another matter. But will even Pointer be able to find the way to the truth?

> To help make ends meet, Mr. Hillock was in the habit of renting out rooms at his farm to artistic types down in the Sussex countryside looking for a rustic retreat. He wasn't particularly keen on art, nor the attention paid to his two daughters, but the money came in handy. However, when one of his boarders is found with his head bashed in this arrangement is thrown into disarray. Superintendent Gibbs, the county policeman called in to investigate the death, enlists the help of one of the other boarders, a writer of mystery plays, to help him out, but even with this assistance, he finds himself out of his depth. It is at this point that Chief Inspector Pointer of Scotland Yard is called in to lend a hand to solve . . . The Upfold Farm Mystery.

Seventeenth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. >When one of the Robthorne twins commits suicide, there is a question over which one it is and whether it was, in fact, suicide or murder. >Dr. Priestley, well-known crime investigator, is called in to solve the mysterious death of Mr. Robthorne, who has been found shot in the greenhouse of his twin brother's country estate. A chain of damning evidence that Dr. Priestley pieces so successfully together forms one of the finest examples of crime detection that Mr. John Rhode has yet produced.

Fifth of the long-running mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion. Mr Gantley, owner of the Downhamshire Courier, is found dead in his car one Monday morning not far from his native town of Carnford. He had been shot through the head. Lady Gantley, Gantley's sister-in-law, had died suddenly from a heart attack on the Saturday evening, and from her will it appeared that in the event of her death preceding that of Gantley her fortune shall go to her niece and nephew, Charles and Myrtle Harrington. If Gantley died first then her fortune should go to her companion, Sylvia Chadwick, and her brother Percy. Both Inspector Driffield, who is a local man, and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard are baffled by the crime. A lucky meeting with Desmond Merrion brings that skilled investigator into the case, to which he eventually succeeds in supplying a brilliant and surprising solution.

The first Golden Age detective novel to feature a serial killer with no rational motive - and surely impossible for Scotland Yard to solve? A long knife with a brilliant but perverted brain directing it is terrorising Holmdale – innocent people are being done to death under the very eyes of the law. After every murder a business-like letter arrives announcing that another ‘removal has been carried out’, and Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard has nothing to go on but the evidence of the bodies themselves and the butcher’s own bravado. With clear thinking impossible in the face of such a breathless killing spree, the police make painfully slow progress: but how do you find a maniac who has no rational motive? Philip MacDonald had shown himself in The Noose and The Rasp to be a master of the detective novel. In Murder Gone Mad he raised the stakes with the first Golden Age crime novel to feature a motiveless serial killer prompted only by blood lust – inspired by the real-life case in 1929 of the Düsseldorf Monster – and this time without the familiar Anthony Gethryn on hand to reassure the reader. Crime thriller. First published in 1931. Serial killer in the suburbs.

Tenth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley > Gervase Wickenden’s estate is close to a railroad line - and that’s where his mangled body is found after an unfortunate meeting with a train. The timing is a bit odd though, considering this happened only two days after Wickenden changed his will. And now, neither version of the will can be located.... The heirs ask Dr. Lancelot Priestley to look into the matter of the missing documents, but he soon stumbles on something else entirely: evidence that the train was not the actual cause of death. It’s up to him to deduce the facts behind this fatal so-called accident, in a compelling British mystery by a Golden Age master.

Thirteenth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. When a dead body was found at the foot of Tilling's Folly - the lighthouse-like monument on Brown Ridge - under circumstances which precluded the possibility of suicide, Inspector Richings thought it was high time to summon the aid of Scotland Yard. For some months past a series of robberies in his district, all apparently committed by the same gang, had completely baffled him. When a clue, concerning a mysterious gray car which had been connected with the other crimes, turned up again, he was at his wits' end. And that is why Inspector Hastings and Dr. Priestley appeared on the scene.

Thirtieth in the long-running mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion. A fairly complex detective novel set in quasi-Norfolk Deanshire, with a Scotland Yard detective overshadowed by a companion friend. >On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 7th, Wendy Burge takes the bus from the county town of Deaning in Deanshire to the outlying village of Goose Common, where until recently she lived with her husband Peter, to make her usual collection for the Deanshire County Hospital. From this journey she never returns. Her body is found the next day floating in the River Lure by a market-gardener of the name of Ezra Robbins. The local police call in the yard, and Inspector Arnold, accompanied by his friend Desmond Merrion, go down to investigate. >>[From Grandest Game]

When Mr. Sigsbee Manderson is found brutally murdered in his lavish home, Detective Gilbert marks this as just another case to crack. But as he delves deeper into the enigmatic world of Manderson, he unravels a labyrinthine web of deceit, jealousy, and long-buried grudges. The key to the truth lies in the house opposite—a dwelling that guards its own sinister mysteries. With each page turned, the tension mounts, and the race against time accelerates. As Gilbert inches closer to the heart of darkness, he'll confront secrets that could shatter the very foundations of the seemingly idyllic neighborhood.

> A fancy dress ball is in full swing when in the tumult of the revelry, Sir Ralph Feltham is found dead... >The British Secret Service agents, working to uncover a large-scale blackmail ring and catch its mysterious mastermind, "The Spider," find themselves at the country residence, Feltham Abbey, where the ball is in full swing. >When Sir Ralph Feltham is found dead, Tony, a bewildered young lawyer, sets out to make sense of the night's activities and the motives of the other guests. Among them is Hilary, an independently minded socialite still in her costume of vivid silk pyjamas and accompanying teddy bear...

A murder mystery featuring Anthony Gilbert's Liberal politician-detective Scott Egerton. It began with the theatre - and ended with drugs, blackmail and a decades old crime... Major John Hillier, a well-known clubman, is found dead in his flat in Upper Paulton Terrace early one morning in rather peculiar circumstances. The discovery is made by a servant, upon whom a certain amount of suspicion falls. Inspector Field traces the dead man’s movements on the previous night and learns that, after breaking up a dinner-party in a somewhat unconventional fashion, he travelled some distance to a remote suburban theatre to see a leading lady whom he cannot even identify by sight. Following up certain clues and deductions of his own, Field discovers the reason for this strange course of action, and tracing back the dead man’s history over a number of years, finds himself entangled in a nest of underworld intrigue in England and on the Continent. Drugs, blackmail and a crime many years old all play their part in an affair that, starting without sensation, attains universal attention. The congruent parts of the mystery are finally put together by Field and Scott Egerton, who, entering the case late in its development, is able to supply the final link.