Classics of detection and adventure

In a Sunday Times feature "The Hundred Best Crime Stories" selected by Julian Symons, reprinted as a pamphlet in about 1960, Symons comments: "Just occasionally an author writes a book that stands out from the main body of his work. Venetian Bird is structurally similar to Mr Canning's other very competent thrillers, but it is a long way from them in style and feeling. The shabby private inquiry agent, Mercer, who broods on the fact that 'something has happened to money since the war' so that he is down to third-class hotels and second-class travel, is an admirable central figure to set the tone of this story of love and treachery played out against a Venetian background that is handled with uncommon grace."

'I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a hat like that!' Those were the last words of mousy Grace Morland before she was found brutally murdered behind Squire Stephen Pendock's gracious mansion, her body in a ditch, her severed head obscenely garbed in Francesca Hart's new feathered hat. Six people at Pigeonsford Cottage heard Grace Morland utter those bitter, jealous words, including the dazzling Francesca herself, her twin sister Venetia and the dashing Pendock, whose attention Grace had so desperately wanted. Surely Grace's killer must have been one of the six...

> A woman is on trial for her life, accused of murder. The twelve members of the jury each carry their own secret burden of guilt and prejudice which could affect the outcome. In this extraordinary crime novel, we follow the trial through the eyes of the jurors as they hear the evidence and try to reach a unanimous verdict. Will they find the defendant guilty, or not guilty? And will the jurors’ decision be the correct one?