Search results for ""Moonstone Press""

Frank Hugh Smallwood was first murdered on the 15th of April, 1927. Bookseller Theodore Terhune investigates an old homicide case after he stumbles on the freshly murdered corpse of seaman Frank Smallwood, a man thought to have been killed nearly twenty years previously during a houseboat party on the Thames. Smallwood’s alleged killer, Charles Cockburn, was convicted and served a lengthy prison sentence before being killed in the war. So who wants Smallwood dead now? And what actually happened between Smallwood and Cockburn all those years ago? A book of poetry found lying near the body puts Terhune on the trail of an unlikely murderer, in this entertaining blend of detective story and courtroom drama. Bruce Graeme (1900–82) was a pseudonym of Graham Montague Jeffries, an author of more than 100 crime novels and a founding member of the Crime Writers’ Association. He created six series sleuths, including bookseller and accidental detective Theodore Terhune, whose adventures—Seven Clues in Search of a Crime (1941); House with Crooked Walls (1942); A Case for Solomon (1943); Work for the Hangman (1944); Ten Trails to Tyburn (1944); A Case of Books (1946) and And a Bottle of Rum (1949)—are republished by Moonstone Press.

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Not every woman can collect her dethroned lovers and their wives into one room. But then Claribel was not ‘every woman’. Things happened at her parties and so one swallowed the latest baits and joined all the other poor fish. But having given her party, having collected her bevy of expectant friends, having displayed her three mysterious lovelies, it was painfully bad tactics to make them play a murder game. All sorts of curious things were liable to happen when one let loose such a motley throng in a darkened house. So really it was Claribel’s fault, and she had only herself to blame when things did happen. A fairy tale with a sting in its tail.

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Christabel Strange, a highly successful young novelist, is taken ill and dies a year before the story begins. It was her wish that her biography should be written by her friend Marcia Wentworth; but inexplicably, she bequeathed her diaries to her wily, eccentric grandmother, who loathes Marcia and refuses to allow her to see them. Dr. George Cardew, Christabel's childhood friend, arriving at the house (which according to Christabel's will, is being shared by Marcia), finds himself between opposing and bitterly hostile camps, for the family are at loggerheads with Marcia. He begins to wonder why Christabel behaved in such a peculiar way, and whether her death was really due to a fever. The possibility of foul play becomes a certainty when another murder takes place and a volume of the diary is stolen. Gradually Dr. Cardew pieces together the clues to Christabel's hidden life, but it is not until there has been further violence that he is able to identify the murderer and the reason for the original crime.

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"This letter has come straight from the murderer, don't you realize that? Hot from his bloody hand. Don't just stand there dithering, man. Don't you realize you hold the key to everything?" The Clove and Hoof is the hot spot in Larcombe for a pint of bitter, a good story and some laughs. It's also the focal point of a bizarre series of murders, for the only connection the victims have seems to be that they all frequented the local pub. Strange pranks, a spate of anonymous letters all painted in blue watercolor, and a decapitated head found floating in the stream near Starehole Gap all lead to the police uncovering unusual criminality dating back 20 years. Two policemen with decidedly differing approaches to crime solving head up the professional side of the investigation, accompanied by Christian Peascod, dilettante of the arts and amateur detective.

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“My accidents can’t be accidental. Very well, there’s only one thing they can be–and that’s attempted murder.” Archy Mitfold had always loved a mystery, but he never expected to take the lead role in a thriller. Yet there was no doubt in his mind that someone was trying to kill him. First there was the narrow miss on Trumpeter’s Row, where a car accelerated straight at him. Then there were the chocolates Archy received on his birthday—with an unsigned card—that made him ill. Most recent was the sharp push in the back that almost sent him sprawling in front of an oncoming commuter train. What does Archy know that someone is willing to kill for? And does the recent kidnapping of millionaire Sampson Vick have anything to do with his accidents? Or is all this just the sign of self-absorbed and histrionic young man? Before long, Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe is called to investigate and untangles more than one mystery in the process. A Deed Without a Name has a well-realised and atmospheric setting during England’s “phony war” period in 1939.

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Former governess Emma Betony is living in quiet and boring retirement when two unexpected letters arrive. The first is a lonely hearts magazine, with an entry (“Lonely Batchelor, age 49, good health, comfortable income, seeks friendship of unattached lady with view to matrimony”) highlighted by the anonymous sender. The second is an appeal for help from a former student. Grace Aram is running Makeways, a struggling boarding school for girls, newly relocated to a site of former nursing home in Dorset. Grace isn’t interested in Miss Betony’s teaching skills—she wants a trusted friend to help identify the culprit behind a series of troubling events. Two nursing patients have remained at Makeways and one appears to be the victim of a poisoner. It is not clear who could be responsible for the ongoing trickle of arsenic found in Miss Thurloe’s drinks- the new abrasive doctor, the pragmatic nurse, the nervous teaching staff or the high-strung students. During her investigations, Miss Betony uncovers an overwhelming sense of fear on the part of Makeways’ inhabitants, and clues that lead to the Great Ambrosio, a charismatic fortune-teller, who seems to have an undue influence on various teachers, students – and Miss Thurloe. First published in 1941, Fear and Miss Betony marks the final appearance of Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe—but it is Miss Betony herself who fights through fear and solves the case. Contemporary critics proclaimed the book an instant classic, with an ingenious plot.

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“Do you think it’s a secret that you are slowly poisoning Mrs Lackland?” When Dr Tom Faithful received the third anonymous letter, he knew it was time to call the police. The wealthy Mrs Cornelia Lackland was recovering steadily from a serious illness, diligently cared for by the doctor, family members and her household staff. But something is amiss in Minsterbridge. Mrs Lackland rules her house with an iron fist, keeping granddaughters Jenny and Carol as virtual prisoners and bullying her attendant Emily Bullen. Scornful and dismissive of everyone, she is planning to make one final change to her will. But before she can meet her solicitor Cornelia Lackland is dead, the apparent victim of a poisoner. As Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe of Scotland Yard and his colleague Sergeant Salt investigate, they find motives for murder much broader than first anticipated. This is a town where everybody’s business is known by everyone else. Pardoe is a satisfying and likeable creation, described by a Sunday Times reviewer as having ‘humanity and common sense as impressive as his intelligence’. Dorothy Bowers was an advocate of the ‘fair play’ school of detective novels, and displayed great ingenuity in piecing together the necessary elements of a baffling mystery, with clues shared freely with the reader. When Inspector Pardoe indicates he knows who the murderer is, the reader knows virtually everything he does. Bower’s great skill is in obscuring her characters' motives, while writing perceptively about their feelings and situation, which allows her to hide the identity of the murderer until exactly the right moment.

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Volume One of James Ronald Stories of Crime and Detection contains three pulp fiction novelettes and one novel, featuring Police Surgeon turned amateur sleuth Daniel Britling. The unassuming-but missing nothing-Police Surgeon is cast in the great tradition of Golden Age Detective Fiction sleuths. This is the first ever collection of Daniel Britling stories, originally published between 1930 and 1932. Included in this collection are: The Green Ghost Murder Introducing police surgeon Daniel Britling and his twin sister Eunice, who have traveled to Mersey for a recuperative break. When a local legend, the Green Ghost of Heaton Forest, returns to haunt the local inhabitants, Britling must find a murderer before he strikes twice. Too Many Motives Mark Savile celebrates his 54th birthday by perversely inviting four men to dine at his home who hate him, and goading them until one punches him. An hour later, Savile is found dead. This story is included in Robert Adey's Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes (1979) Find The Lady When impulsive Lady Frances Dorian disappears from the Royal Lancaster Hotel in Brighton without being seen leaving, Daniel Britling agrees to do some private sleuthing. Six Were to Die Seven financiers indulged in illegal practices, and about to be caught by the police, put all the blame on one member of their party, who went to prison for a long term. When he comes out, his plans for revenge are signalled to each man in advance. Plus Blind Man's Bluff (a short story)

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On the eve of her adored adopted daughter Augusta’s twenty-first birthday, and after bullying her harpist Tenella, and telling her great nephew Palin a family secret so dreadful he leaves Tristowell Castle and goes straight down a pothole, old Lady Elizabeth Carn is found securely and determinedly strangled. All sorts of developments in every direction occur, with some thumping subterranean scenes. Inspector Mallet investigates.

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Charles was in a vile temper and Anne was catching the full benefit of it. Charles Courtley is a difficult man. Prone to violent outbursts and a bully to his wife and daughters, he has uprooted the family from London to an old manor house in remote East Anglia. Spoilt by his growing wealth and increasingly intolerant of any dissent, Charles enjoys controlling everyone around him. His family, his employees and even the locals - banned from using the traditional footpaths on his forested estate - have multiple reasons to bear a grudge. When Charles is shot dead in a woodland clearing, evidence from an unreliable witness points to Courtley’s secretary, but he has a cast iron alibi and the resulting trial ends in an acquital. A year later, a seemingly innocent death and an odd cenotaph leads Chief Inspector Simon Sturt to reconsider the case. Dorothy Erskine Muir (1889–1977) was one of seventeen children of John Sheepshanks, Bishop of Norwich. She attended Oxford, worked as an academic tutor, and began writing professionally to supplement the family income after the unexpected death of her husband in 1932. Muir published historical biographies and local histories, as well as three accomplished detective novels: In Muffled Night (1933), Five to Five (1934) and In Memory of Charles (1941).

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‘When a man has three separate notices by three different women inserted in the local paper, and he’s my own namesake besides, I feel I owe him something.’ Sequential death notices appear for Robert Raynald: one by his mother, one by his estranged wife, one by his daughter. This odd approach draws the attention of Superintendent Mallett and his friend Dr. Fitzbrown. The inquest had decided that Raynald shot himself whilst temporarily insane, but his daughter Geraldine is not convinced and presents enough evidence to arouse the investigator within Mallett. Raynald's story is presented in flashbacks, as Mallett and Fitzbrown build a picture of his life through the people who knew him best. Requiem for Robert combines the excitement of a detective story with a haunting reading of character.

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“It was my own fault, of course. I realized that when it was too late. “ Crime writer Iain Carter has recently married and is struggling to make a decent living as an author. His brother-in-law is a likable but slightly indiscreet constable, and Iain decides to use this inside knowledge to write a satirical series featuring a pompous dictatorial police superintendent. To protect his identity, Iain creates an elaborately designed pseudonym, 'John Ky Lowell', that can’t be traced back to him. When the first book by Lowell, The Undetective, proves to be a huge success, Iain finds he must take increasingly convoluted steps to protect his secret from the press, the police and the taxman. But the real trouble begins when a local bookmaker is killed, and Iain finds his mysterious alter-ego is the prime suspect.

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But Pierre could never know that in death Fame was his, for his was the second corpse. When well known local vagrant "Peter the Hermit" dies of seemingly natural causes, the police uncover an old Bulgarian newspaper and a beautiful bejeweled comb worth substantial money in his ramshackle hut in the woods. Before long, bookseller Theodore Terhune receives a series of five anaonymous short stories, each subtitled "Ten Trails to Tyburn" that clearly aim to help Terhune (and the police) solve the mystery behind Peter's death. A crime classic from 1944 back in print for the first time; the fifth book in the Theodore Terhune series.

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“Good God, you don’t think it was an accident?” Wealthy industrialist Anthony Mullins is found dead in a garage fire with the door locked. The locals assume it was an accident or perhaps suicide. But when the autopsy reveals a bullet wound to Mullins’ head and no revolver is found, a murder investigation ensues. Was the killer his disgraced nephew Holliday, rumoured to be overly close to his wife? Or Patricia Mullins herself, whose inheritance relied on her husband’s death from natural causes? Or friend James Constant, who’s research society is the beneficiary of Mullins’ unusual will? It soon becomes apparent that everyone, including the victim, has something to hide. Good-natured Police Constable Sadler and Inspector Trenton, are alternatively assisted and hampered by the efforts of the local residents to find the killer. At first, everyone appears to have a perfect alibi, but the more Sadler and Trenton probe, the murkier the picture becomes. Fortunately, journalist Charles Venables is on hand to help make sense of the conflicting and confusing evidence. This classic detective novel from the 1930s is now back in print.

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It was not until the fifth death in Long Greeting that Miss Tidy made up her mind to go to the police. It was not a sense of civic duty that compelled her but the arrival of two letters that made it clear her life was in danger. The local villagers had been agitated for months over whether the seemingly unconnected deaths were the suicides they appeared to be. Better to say nothing of her intentions though, not even to her immediate circle: the staff of the Minerva hat shop who worked for her, or Léonie, her old Breton maid. Nor would she mention the letters to her interested neighbours or the rector, who had buried four of the victims, or even to Owen Greatorex, the novelist of international reputation, who seemed disarmingly gentle. For who was to be trusted? Scotland Yard is soon on the scene but more deaths occur before Detective-Inspector Raikes puts the pieces together. Dorothy Bowers (1902–48) was a champion of “fair play” mysteries, in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the story. She combined a satirist's eye (particularly for village life) with a penetrating view of character. A master of the red herring, The Bells at Old Bailey (1947) was her fifth and last novel. Bowers died in 1948 from tuberculosis, having been inducted the prestigious Detection Club a few months earlier.

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“So you know House-on-the-Hill, Mr. Terhune?” Local bookseller and amateur detective Theodore Terhune is asked to investigate the history of an ancient Kentish manor house for its new owner, Dr. Vincente Salvaterra. Recently arrived from Panama, Salvaterra wants to know why the house was shunned by the locals and abandoned for nearly a century, despite commanding the best views in the county. Terhune digs deep into the mansion’s past and find more than one unsolved—and disturbing—mystery, dating back hundreds of years. When tragedy later strikes the eccentric Salvaterra family in their new home, Terhune must determine if the cause is the Gothic House-on-the Hill itself, or whether a sinister human plot is afoot.

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“Are you a detective, Mr. Terhune? If you will forgive my saying so, you do not look like one.” Theodore Terhune, bookseller in the tranquil Kent village of Bray-in-the-Marsh, interrupts the attempted robbery of Helena Armstrong, secretary-companion to Lady Kylstone. Someone was trying to steal the key to the Kylstone burial vault, which will shortly be open to the public for the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. When the key goes missing, Terhune is certain there must be something in the barren vault the thieves are after, but why bother when it will shortly be accessible to all? A series of mysterious encounters leads the curious Terhune from one clue to another, involving a trip to New York City, a professional criminal for hire, attempted murder on board a passenger ship, an automobile accident, and a mysterious person nicknamed "Blondie"; eventually leading to the secret past of two families. A 1941 bibliomystery rthat mixes detective novel, adventure thriller, quest story and satire of English village life into one highly entertaining read.

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“How many times have I told you that we must appear to run this hotel as commercial proposition?” Newly arrived in London, journalist Charles Venables has been invited by his friend Viola to stay – at least temporarily – at a residential hotel in Kensington. But there is something amiss at the genteel Garden Hotel. The prices are far too low. The residents are jittery and upset. On arriving, Charles overhears a threatening discussion between the proprietors Mr & Mrs Budge that suggests they are blackmailing some tenants. When the bedridden Mrs Budge disappears into thin air, it is clear that more than one inhabitant of the hotel has something to hide. Is it Egyptian medical student Eppiloki who believes Charles is working undercover? The elderly Miss Geranium who receives messages from the prophet Ezekial, the fanatical Reverend Septimus Blood, or the cat-loving Miss Mumby? Soon, a set of gruesome discoveries point to murder, and Charles must work with Detective Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard to prevent the killer from acting again. Crime combines an intricate plot with an appealing sense of humour and ironic tone: “Viola had two passions in her life, her art and her bridge. Charles had hoped to be a third but he was beginning to abandon hope. He felt that while he might make her a satisfactory partner in life, he would certainly let her down at bridge.” Long out of print, we are delighted to reissue Crime in Kensington with a new introduction.

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“What I read in your hand is tragedy—a horrible tragedy that doesn’t come to one in a million people.” Bookseller Theodore Terhune buys the substantial library of recently deceased James Strudgewick, a wealthy Yorkshireman who drowned at a local beauty spot. Deemed anaccidental death by the coroner, the locals remain suspicious, and dislike Strudgewick’s nephew and heir. But Ronald Strudgewick has a cast-iron alibi – he was 30 miles away visiting with friend Robert Shilling in Thirsk at the time of his uncle’s death, and the police have already picked over his movements. But Terhune and his friend Julia have met Shilling before, and know there is a mysterious accidental death in his past too… Work for the Hangman is a classic blend of a traditional detective novel and inverted ‘how-to-catch-em” mystery. It showcases Bruce Graeme’s use of local geography and small details to build an intriguing puzzle.

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Stretched across the road was the body of a policeman. On the way home one evening in the Romney Marsh, Bookseller Theodore Terhune and friend Julia are caught in heavy coastal fog. A passing lorry provides some guidance on the narrow country roads, but the night ends with intentional mishap and a dead body. It becomes clear that the constable’s death was not accidental, but what possessed Tom Kitchen to try to stop a lorry singlehandedly at 1am? His widow is frightened; local farms vandalized; his home ransacked. Suspicion centres around the Load of Hay, an ancient Dickensian pub full of unsavoury characters, and Terhune finds the clues may lay in the history of 18th century smuggling in the Romney Marsh.

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When wealthy elderly Simon Ewing is found murdered in his flat, it appears to be a robbery gone wrong. Two rings were taken from the dead man's hands, but his hidden jewelery strongbox remained untouched, except for one missing diamond solitaire. An unknown man was spotted exiting the building; there is evidence that he had searched the upper floors before attacking Ewing when the old man was briefly left unattended. But how could an outsider have known when to strike? And why take only one ring from a treasure trove? Superintendent Woods is called in, and through patient careful detection begins slowly to disentangle the clues, as suspicion shifts from one character to the next. This classic detective novel from the 1930s is now republished for the first time.

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Give up your foolish plan. If not you die.” When elderly Queen Hanna of Iconia discovers the anonymous letter in her dress pocket, she knows someone in her household is spying on her. The queen is secretly planning a ceremony of atonement that she hopes will secure the royal succession. Journalist Charles Venables is asked to help identify the spy before her next public appearance. But when Queen Hanna is strangled with a museum relic known as the ‘Curse of the Herzgovins’, Venables knows an all too human hand is involved. But how was the murderer able to enter the queen’s heavily guarded chamber? And why was the body found wearing the royal ceremonial robes rather than the clothes she had retired in? Many Golden Age books have a plot involving an imaginary European kingdom, inspired by ‘Ruritania’, the setting for the 1894 bestseller The Prisoner of Zenda. Ruritania became the basis for hundreds of imitations (Lutha, Graustark, and Riechentenburg to name but a few) as well as parodies — the Marx Brothers’ film, Duck Soup, features Groucho as the dictator of mythical Freedonia. The Ruritanian setting was so broadly known that the author refutes it directly in Death of a Queen. When Venables complains ‘This place sounds dreadfully like Ruritania’, his colleague replies ‘There’s nothing Ruritanian about Queen Hanna.’ Author Christopher St John Sprigg was a polymath who read widely across history, politics, and culture, and he put this knowledge to good use in Death of a Queen, devising Iconian history, heritage and architecture with an enthusiasm and realism that add to the book’s appeal.

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“Three hundred years ago, Lord Carpenter, I’d have had your head on a spike on Tower Hill..” It is 1938 and newspaper chief Lord Carpenter is about to publish a front-page story that will guarantee war with Russia. But before the paper can go to print, he is found stabbed in his office, and circumstances suggest the killer is one of his staff. Everyone from the editor-in-chief to the staff librarian had the opportunity. But was the motivation for the murder political or personal? Crime reporter Charles Venables finds himself both suspect and sleuth as he tries to disentangle the clues and determine which of his colleagues is the guilty party. Red herrings abound, but it soon becomes apparent that more than one person had a reason to want Carpenter dead…. Fatality in Fleet Street displays the author’s trademark wit and a plot with plenty of twists and ingenuity to please the reader. Equally interesting are the political overtones and the militaristic pretensions of the deceased newspaper baron. The novel is set in 1938 – five years later than its real publication date – and presents a Russia whose economy is growing, which makes the country ‘a real menace to the established order of things’ in Carpenter’s worldview. Although the imperious newspaper baron meets his demise early on, his outsized personality and ambition are the bedrock that propels the story. Sprigg makes his satire clear; there is more than a passing resemblance between the fictional Lord Carpenter and the real world Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the Evening Standard and Daily Express. Sprigg started his career as a cub reporter and the book’s setting of a busy newspaper is well realised. Fatality also takes a sardonic view of socialist activity in Britain. When Venables goes to investigate a local chapter of the Communist Party, the situation is alternately threatening and farcical, with members parading their revolutionary credentials and loudly denouncing the ‘bourgeois’. Sprigg later became an active member of the Communist Party and published Marxist literary criticism, but his gently mocking tone in Fatality suggests this conversion was some way off in 1933.

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"You can't expect a murderer to be able to have everything his own way." An expert on twins, James Hardwicke is invited to progressive co-educational Scrope House School to investigate a case of apparent pyromania among the student body. Although inclined to ignore this odd invitation, he is persuaded to accept by his friend Caroline, who wants a job at the school. It is May 1939, German refugees are streaming into England to escape the horrors of the Hitler regime, and the headmaster is worried about the ramifications of a refugee child being the culprit. Soon enough, James' rather desultory investigation encompasses murder too, when sherry is poisoned at a faculty party. James must decide if there is a link between the fires and the murder, and whether the victim - the wife of the English teacher - was the intended victim or an accidental one.

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It won’t be much longer now. Keep your head and hold your tongue.” In Shadows Before, events from the past are the catalyst for murder. In hope of a fresh start after being acquitted of the murder of his sister-in-law, Matthew Weir has moved his family to Spanwater, a remote manor in the Cotswolds. But his heiress wife Catherine is traumatised by her sister’s death and Matthew’s trial, and has retreated into childhood memories, believing she is living in the Welsh border cottage of her childhood. Hired to keep Catherine safe in her wanderings, companion Aurelia Brett is fleeing poverty and hunger in London, Matthew’s brother Augustus is trying to elude past debts. His nephew is haunted by the death of his father. Then Catherine dies suddenly, and arsenic is found in her home-made tea. Evidence suggests someone in the house, but Chief Inspector Pardoe finds conflicting clues and suspicious behaviour among Spanwater’s neighbours too. When a second death occurs, Pardoe – and the reader – must decide which shadows points to the perpetrator and why. Dorothy Bowers (1902 – 1948) was a champion of “fair play” mysteries, in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the context of the story.

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Vol II Stories of Crime and Detection contains one novel, a novelette and a short story: Murder in the Family Stephen Osborne has just lost his job, not a good one and not one he particularly enjoyed. But at 50-some years of age in the Depression era and with no savings, he doesn’t know how he’s going to provide for his large family except by asking his sister, a wealthy woman, to help him financially. Unfortunately, Octavia Osborne is a most unpleasant person. During her annual visit to Stephen’s home, she not only refuses to help but tells the family that she is writing all of them out of her will. Bad timing on her part, for while she is sitting in a room with her niece, who is engrossed in a book, someone comes in and chokes her, causing death by heart failure. This novel was made into a 1938 British crime film starring Barry Jones and Jessica Tandy. The Monocled Man (also known as The Gentleman Crook) Chicago gangster Pete Carponi and his associates, ‘Shorty’, ‘Squiffy’ and the alluring ‘Cincinnati Sadie’, are transported to London in pursuit of ‘The Dude’ and a stolen diamond The Second Bottle. A tense and suspenseful short story that takes place in a diner in the US during a cold hard winter.

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'All these people who thought themselves securely in possession are now going to be dependent on the caprice of this young man.’ During a blinding rainstorm, Jake Seaborne takes a wrong turn and arrives at Ullstone Hall, where is he is initially mistaken for ‘Hugo’, the new heir to the family estate. It seems Hugo is the offspring of the late Mr Ullstone’s first marriage in India, but the children of his second marriage have never met him. In short, the Ullstone family destiny is now in the hands of a complete stranger. A friend, Sir Frederick Lawson (who it turns out knows Jake’s family) has been asked to act as a “sort of buffer” for Hugo on his arrival, but Lawton cannot stay and Jake agrees to act in that role until he can return. But not everything is as it appears to be, and when the handsome and charming Hugo arrives, trouble follows and before long three people are dead.

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'Mr Gabb, your son did not commit suicide. He was murdered.' Simon Gabb has everything - or so it seems: a beautiful house, a big estate, a flourishing business and two sons, both endowed with evident capacity for carrying on the family firm. The moody Giles is brilliant and inventive; the married Basil is dependable and efficient. And yet something is manifestly wrong. A secret invention, on which his business was engaged for the government, becomes known to those who had no right to know it. But how and where did the leak occur? It is a conundrum which creates suspicion and dissension within the family and engulfs everyone who dine with them one Saturday night. Giles has become friendly with young Arden and Billy Laforte, who were the previous owners of Herons' Hall until their father's death left them penniless, and who now rent one of the lodges on the property. When Giles brings the Lafortes to the Hall for the first visit to their old home in three years, the Gabbs hardly know what to expect. Yet the Lafortes seem completely at ease, so when a fierce storm develops, Mrs Gabb insistes they stay the night. The next morning, Gabb's elder son, Giles, is found dead in a motorboat on the lake, his body propped up by a shotgun. But it is soon apparent that the gun was not the cause of death, nor did he die in the boat; a skilled marksman shot him from a distance. Superintendent Mallett is assigned the case and must deal with the smouldering emotions the flare up between everyone present that evening.

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‘A man does not leave school at fourteen, make a fortune by forty and go on to become a skilful and powerful politician without ruthlessness.’ Hugh Mason was the kind of man it was very easy to hate, if you were not susceptible to his particular kind of charm. He had of necessity hurt a lot of people on his way up. Taciturn and enigmatic, his extended family did not really know him well. At a weekend gathering for his 60th birthday, it slowly becomes apparent that Hugh plans to give substantial funding and support to a new right-wing political group called the Freemen. The next morning Hugh is dead of poisoning and the evidence suggests a family member must be responsible. But who among them would risk such a move, given that Hugh provides for all?

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