Fifty classics of crime fiction, 1900-1950

Roger Mills, a Harley Street specialist, is taking a sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads. When his six guests find him at the tiller of his yacht with a smile on his face and a gunshot through his heart, all six fall under suspicion.

James Flint has a book from the library and finds a photograph stuffed inside which seems to show a recent murder. He's intrigued.

It is 1940 and Mrs Mudge, the cleaning lady, is busy tidying the Little Theatre in Lulverton, which is run by the local amateur dramatics' society. But she is in for a surprise when she finds a corpse in the ticket office, stabbed with a dagger - a prop from the society's latest play, Measure for Measure. The novel is in two sections. In the first, the narrator, Vaughn Tudor, describes the formation of the small amateur theatre group, in a sleepy village on the South Coast in the period leading up to the Second World War. But then in the second half, after the revelation of the identity of the victim and the calling in of Witting's series detective Inspector Charlton to investigate, the reader finds out that there were rather a lot of people who had cause to visit that little theatre on the night of the murder... But can the police disentangle the complicated relationships to discover the real killer? First published in 1941, it was the fifth of Witting's novels.

Guilty - beyond a reasonable doubt - such is the incontrovertible law which pardons the innocent and condemns the guilty. But just how fallible is the process of law? To what extent can deceit, prejudice and the cruel powers of fate intervene to set a murderer free, or send an innocent man to the electric chair ... Crusading publisher Austin Spenser wants to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence. Spencer talks his prospective son-in-law Tom Garrett into participating in a hoax, the better to expose the alleged ineptitude of conviction-happy DA. Tom will plant clues indicating that he is the murderer of a nightclub dancer, then stand trial for murder; just as the jury reaches its inevitable guilty verdict, Spencer will step forth to reveal the set-up and humiliate the DA. Somewhat surprisingly, Tom eagerly agrees to this subterfuge. Unfortunately, an unforeseen event renders their perfectly formed scheme useless.

>A girl employed in the box office of a London cinema falls into the power of a mysterious trio of crooks. A solicitor, learning of her predicament, sends her to the Yard. There she tells French the story of the man with a scar like a purple sickle. That night she disappears, and next day her body is found floating in Southampton Water. Inquiries reveal the fact that other similar murders have taken place, and the further French goes into the affair the more girls he finds involved. Finally, after almost superhuman efforts, he learns the secret of the trio and runs them to earth. (review).

Was It Murder? deals with the phenomenon of coincidence by posing the question of how likely it is that two brothers attending the same boarding school meet with two separate accidental deaths — and curious ones at that — within the same school year. In the manner typical of the Golden Age whodunnit, the solution is only presented in the final pages of the novel. Throughout the book, an amateur sleuth and a Scotland Yard detective vie with each other to solve the riddle, with only one of them successful in the end.

At a meeting of Quenborough Borough Council, the Mayor, Sir John Assington, is accused by Alderman Trant of wasting money and turning a blind eye to speculators on the make.Then Trant is stabbed with his own knife, and while dying, manages to scratch the initials 'MA' on a piece of paper. Local Chief Constable Race is on the case. He is new to the force, so Superintendent Vorley comes to his aid. With the help of Scotland Yard, in the shape of Inspector Lott, they each bring a different approach to the investigation.For the truth is rarely straightforward . . .

"Mr. Mason, I'm going to confide in you." Daphne Milfield paused, and seemed to brace herself. The ringing of the telephone froze the words on her lips. "Perhaps that's your husband now," Perry Mason suggested. She picked up the receiver. "Why no, I don't know a Mr. Tragg... Lieutenant Tragg? No, I don't... He does?... He is?..." "The nerve of that man!" she exclaimed, dropping the receiver back in place. "He's on his way up here." "Lieutenant Tragg is from headquarters -- homicide," Mason said. "Who do you know that's been murdered?" "Good heavens! No one, except perhaps my ..." "Go on." "No! No! No one." "Were you about to say 'my husband'?"

"Samuel Whitehead, landlord of the Rose and Crown, is a stranger in the lonely East Anglian village of High Eldersham. When the newcomer is stabbed to death in his pub, and Scotland Yard are called to the scene, it seems that the veil dividing High Eldersham from the outside world is about to be lifted. Detective-Inspector Young forms a theory about the case so utterly impossible that merely entertaining the suspicion makes him doubt his own sanity. Surrounded by sinister forces beyond his understanding, and feeling the need of rational assistance, he calls on a brilliant amateur and living encyclopedia, Desmond Merrion. Soon Merrion falls for the charms of a young woman in the village, Mavis Owerton. But does Mavis know more about the secrets of the village than she is willing to admit?"--Publisher.

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]

When Max Easterbrook arrived in London on a month's leave, he was astounded to find George Lambert, his best friend, in prison on a charge of wife-murder. The police were satisfied that here was a clear case of the eternal triangle; no need to look far for the murderer, for George was not exactly weeping tears at his wife's sad demise. But Max was sure George was not the man to murder one woman in order to marry another. He was not nearly so sure that the large and lazy Hilda was not a natural murderee.

Meet Mr Reggie Fortune, a doctor by profession, a detective by accident. Mr Fortune is not an ordinary gum-shoe sleuth, yet he has long since established himself as one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of crime detectives. Attached in a loose way to the Home Office and Scotland Yard, he is utterly fearless, and with a cold astuteness belied by his cherubic appearance. His speciality is medicine, although he does not practice. But for his expert opinion on such matters as recently deceased bodies, the more difficult poisons and the like, the Yard would be hard pressed to investigate without him. Reggie Fortune starred in twenty-two novels and short story collections. Much praised for his puzzles and characterisation, the Mr Fortune stories have echoes of Lord Peter Wimsey but are much darker, tackling subjects not touched upon by other major writers, including police corruption and murderous obsession. Contains the short stories: The Ascot Tragedy The Unknown Murderer The Long Barrow The Hermit Crab The Greek Play The Angel's Eye The Long Dinner The Dead Leaves

“Archer wasn't going anywhere with the case. The women in it were getting to him. The one who had married for money was out to show him how little it now mattered. The one who was being blackmailed didn't care how Archer saved her mockery of a marriage. The young girl was the worst; too innocent to be involved in this sordid tangle. Three beautiful women. They had a way of distracting Archer—even from murder.” 2nd in the Lew Archer series.