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';My finest, ferocious Caravaggio style'that was his own phrase for his later manner; and that was the style I was aiming at, an interplay of light and shadow that would rivet the attention and, ultimately, draw the eye to darkness.At the beginning of Doris Langley Moore's deliriously entertaining final novel, bookseller and author Quentin Williams has just received the royalties (just over GBP4) from his two published biographies. In his resulting doldrums he perversely tries to impress a smug American manuscript dealer, hinting that he may have unearthed a copy of Lord Byron's lost memoirs, famously burned by his friends just after his death. Buying time with elaborate tales about the manuscript's location, he sets about an audacious forgery, focusing on the scandalous style of Byron's later writings.Quentin is also trying to impress his girlfriend, a smart, beautiful model who may very well be out of his league and whose savvy intellect, when Quentin piques her interest in Byron, becomes his biggest obstacle. The unforeseen complications of his deception culminate at a gathering of elite Byron scholarsincluding none other than Doris Langley Moore herself! This new edition features an introduction by Sir Roy Strong.

';There are some embroidered waistcoats . . . They are very old. A museum might be glad of them. . . . There are some pictures too,' Mrs. Hovenden brought out with a fresh effort, ';oil paintings that were in the rector's family.'The kindness of Dr George Sandilands towards an elderly patient, and her insistence on repaying him with the detritus of her attic, sets in motion a comedy of errors that rocks the art world. Dr Sandilands finally accepts a stack of begrimed paintings, to the horror of his eldest daughter, a stern housekeeper. But his younger daughter is prepared to be swept up in the romance of old treasures, and her boss, an amateur art connoisseur, develops a theory about the artworks and clings to it like a dog with a bone. Enter an art expert who's not above some shady maneuvers, his adoring secretary, the director of the local art museum, and a sleazy London dealer.Doris Langley Moore has packed her unpredictable, compulsively readable plot with subtlety, wit, and insight, and with an array of characters both lovable and so delectably nefarious that they're begging for their just deserts. All Done by Kindness is a rollicking masterpiece of tight plotting and unexpected machinations. This new edition features an introduction by Sir Roy Strong.

';I don't mind being alone at all. I was often here alone in the blitz, and I was so frightened of the bombs that I quite stopped being frightened of burglars.'World War II has ended, residents are flooding back to London, and the housing shortage creates strange bedfellows. Elinor MacFarrenmiddle-aged spinster, botanical writer, and collector of prints and objets d'artdecides to rent part of her house to Antonia Bankes, whose American husband is with the Occupation Forces in Europe. While Miss MacFarren prefers to live alone, Mrs Bankes seems a perfect tenant. She admires Miss MacFarren's beautiful things (';It's the prettiest room I've ever seen in my life!'), promises quiet and care (';You'll find me madly careful'), and seems an ideal homemaker (';I like housework. I've got quite a ';thing' about it.').Inevitably, however, it's not so easy. Mrs Bankes proves to be exasperating and helpless, skilled only in charm, manipulation, and blithely promising anything to get her way. What follows is an intricately plotted, gloriously entertaining saga of domestic warfare, as Miss MacFarren tries to cope, tries to cajole, and finally tries to rid herself of her meddlesome tenant, all while taking up whiskeyand all with unpredictable and delightful results. This new edition includes an introduction by Sir Roy Strong.

Fanny Burney would not approve of some of my chapters, but it was my affection for the novels of her school, in which the heroine goes through all kinds of distresses but emerges in a sweeping triumph at the end, that made me long to try my hand at the same themetreating it, however, in our down-to-earth twentieth-century way.This brilliant homage to the 19th century novel begins with two young womenLucy, sturdy and unflappable, and Daisy, charming but self-interestedperforming with a theatre company in Egypt after World War I. The show closes, and Daisy stays on with a well-to-do businessman while Lucy eagerly plans her return to England. But then she falls seriously ill, then in debt to Daisy's lover. She finds that Daisy, anxious not to alienate her meal ticket, has rashly promised that Lucy will remain in Egypt and work for him until he's repaid.Thus in Egypt they remain, over the course of nearly 20 years, while Moore's intricate, lovely plot unfolds. Frivolous Daisy, the cause of Lucy's woes, ascends the ladder of wealth while Lucy, downtrodden but diligent, slaves and toils. Misunderstandings, deceptions, and self-deceptions abound, and finally the stage is set for Lucy's ';sweeping triumph', as giddy and satisfying a climax as any a 19th century master could have conceived. A Game of Snakes and Ladders may remind readers of Fanny Burney or George Eliot, or even Jane Austen, but it's always, definitively and incomparably, Doris Langley Moore. This new edition includes an introduction by Sir Roy Strong.

Its favourite afternoon pastime was murder, and its favourite evening occupation was the same, only a trifle more so.Anthony Bathurst reaches Swallowcliffe Hall, summoned by Constance Whittaker, to protect her husband, Major Whittaker, from an unnamed threat. Bathurst enlists his friend Peter Daventry, a crack shot and good in a fight.One of the household suddenly drops dead, despite no one being anywhere near him. When poison is revealed to be the method of execution, Bathurst finds himself asking how someone can poison from a distance, or whether there is quite another solution to this fiendish mystery . . .Invisible Death was originally published in 1929. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.';An excellent tale' Northern Whig';The compulsion of the Ancient Mariner' Dundee Courier

Remember, there were no maps, no travelogues, or any data whatsoever on this land that God and man had forgotten.Born into an extraordinary family clan, this is the breathless, picaresque memoir of Addison Mizner: the great architect of Palm Beach, and other spots on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Following his early family life in affluent, late nineteenth-century California, we join the exploits of the intrepid young Addison by the author's account the most remarkable figure of his age. We hear of his experiences in central America, then his truly hair-raising work as a gold prospector in the Yukon, where he becomes an unwitting midwife, and has to foil a murder plot against himself. He details further adventures in Hawaii, and ends up in the boxing ring in Australia, escaping via China.When Addison finally arrives in New York, we see a more recognizable individual, re-entering the society life he was born to. All along we see his eye for detail and an obvious flair for design and architecture, something exploited wherever he happens to be, whether in Palm Beach or the Yukon.Only in the touching last chapter, detailing the hilarious final months of his mother's life, does he perhaps realize what it means to be a ';Mizner'.

I never thought it would fall to my lot to write what is popularly known as a ';thriller', but Lois insists that I am the right person to do it and when Lois sets her mind on anythingYoung Cecilia Cameron takes up reins as narrator in one of Brian Flynn's most diabolical and surprising mysteries. Cecilia isn't expecting to become embroiled in the secret of the doggerel cryptogram, still less the horror that hangs over a little corner of Sussex. When Anthony Bathurst arrives to investigate, she will discover the real meaning of the tiny blood-smear near the body of the late colonel. . . . Only Bathurst's extraordinary knowledge of the career of the immortal Sherlock Holmes will enable him to succeed in his investigations.The most exacting thrill-seeker will happily travel hand in hand with Anthony and Cecilia along this trail of clues and just may eventually help put a name to the guilty party.The Triple Bite was originally published in 1931. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

';As you seem to be indicating a spot of murderwelllet's have the facts.'Major Daniel Wyatt gathers a group of six people together in the back room of a London restaurant. All are acquainted with Andre de Ravenac a known blackmailer, but most probably also a serial murderer. He is currently threatening to destroy the life of a woman they all care for. Hence a plan is hatched to assassinate De Ravenac at a masked ball and once all of the men agree, lots are drawn. Each is assigned a random role in the plan as they are all of roughly the same build and will be wearing masks, nobody will know which of them is the man who carries out the fatal blow . . .The Orange Axe, the ninth Anthony Bathurst mystery, was originally published in 1931. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

';Education's like murder. It will out.'Anthony Bathurst drops into a Glebeshire church and when it transpires that the vicar is acquainted with the medical examiner on a case of murder, Bathurst is hooked. He is soon on the trail of a most bizarre murderer. Who could have slain the slightly mysterious, yet quite unsuspicious, man on the top of a local bus? Bathurst assembles a band of helpers, with the reluctant help of Inspector Curgenven, to get to the bottom of a most perplexing case. And the vicar himself helps narrate the story of what is a seemingly impossible crime.Murder en Route was originally published in 1930. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

';So great was the force of the blow, it would have been impossible for the victim to have lived more than a few seconds.'The stately homes of England are under threat from the seemingly untouchable jewel-thief ';Creeping Jenny'. After the latest burglary, Inspector Baddeley suspects the country-house home of Henry Mordaunt might be the next target.Mordaunt is hosting a party to celebrate the engagement of his daughter, when her fiance intends to hand over a priceless gem as a gift. But murder unexpectedly strikes, and Mordaunt relies on Baddeley to unmask the culprit. Can he cope without the help of super-sleuth Anthony Bathurst, and his redoubtable sidekick Peter Daventry?The Creeping Jenny Mystery was originally published in 1929. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

';Hard luck to be murdered just after your horse has won the Derby! Don't you think so, Doctor?'Julius Maitland, the millionaire horse trainer is excited about his horse's chance to win the Derby. His wife's horse is also strongly fancied. In a neck and neck finish, Maitland's horse takes the race, his wife's in second.In a national sensation, the winner is disqualified. A telephone call the day after the race summons the police to a house where Maitland's murdered body is found and he has been dead for at least two days. When Sir Austin Kemble, Commissioner of Police is asked to investigate, he immediately summons his friend Anthony Bathurst. But can Bathurst make sense of a case when the stakes are this high?The Five Red Fingers was originally published in 1929. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.';Undeniably exciting and mysterious' Bystander';The detective interest and the sporting interest are skilfully interwoven.' Northern Whig';A well-told tale of crime and detection' Aberdeen Press and Journal

';This is not suicide, gentlemen. This is murder! Cold-blooded murder! The sooner we get the police here and find Sir Eustace Vernon, the better!'Christmas Eve at Vernon House is in full swing. Sir Eustace's nearest and dearest, and the great and the good of Mapleton, are all there. But the season of comfort and joy doesn't run true to form. Before the night is out, Sir Eustace has disappeared and his butler, Purvis, lies dead, poisoned, with a threatening message in his pocket. Or is it her pocket?That same evening, Police Commissioner Sir Austin Kemble and investigator Anthony Bathurst are out for a drive. They come across an abandoned car at a railway crossing, and find a body Sir Eustace Vernon, plus two extraordinary additions. One, a bullet hole in the back of his head. Two, a red bon-bon in his pocket with a threatening message attached.The Murders near Mapleton was originally published in 1929. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

"Anonymity is such a terribly strong position in which to entrench one's self. To you I am Sheila Delaney - to me you are - an unknown quantity."At the Hunt Ball in Westhampton, Sheila Delaney dances the night away with a stranger - a man who wanted only to be known as Mr X. At the end of the evening, he departs as mysteriously as he appeared.Months later, private investigator Anthony Bathurst is approached by the Crown Prince of Clorania over a nasty blackmail case.At the same time a sea-side dentist finds that the girl he was treating has been found dead, apparently injected with cyanide.The three events prove to be intimately related, and Anthony Bathurst and Chief Detective-Inspector Bannister find themselves on the trail of an exceptionally ruthless murderer.The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye was originally published in 1928. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge."One of the ablest pieces of misdirection one could wish to meet" Sutherland Scott

';Mr. Laurence P. Stewart was murdered last night in his library. He was found with his skull battered in!'Peter Daventry, a young lawyer, receives instructions from a rich client to purchase three valuable artefacts once belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots. It's a singular request, with no limit on the money to be paid at the auction. But the day after Daventry inspects the items, they are stolen from the auction house and a security guard is found horribly murdered.The next morning, Daventry and his colleagues are startled to discover that the client, miles away at his country house, has also been slain in a room locked from the inside. Faced with such a dilemma, there's only one thing that can be done call for Anthony Bathurst, detective extraordinaire.The Case of the Black Twenty-Two was originally published in 1928. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.';Convincingly detailed' Birmingham Gazette';A skilful piece of work' Bystander';An exciting murder mystery' Daily Whig';A fine yarn, splendidly told' Western Mail';There is a realism and directness about this mystery story that ranks it among the best' Dundee Courier

I was awakened by a piercing scream that echoed and re-echoed through the house. It came from the floor below!';Murder! Murder! Help! Help! Murder!'The setting is Considine Manor in Sussex, where Sir Charles is holding his annual Cricket Week. But the house-party is marred by the discovery of a dead body in the billiard room, not to mention the fact that Lady Considine's pearls have been stolen. Can Inspector Baddeley catch the criminal, or will it take the super-sleuth Anthony Lotherington Bathurst to discover the diabolical truth?The Billiard-Room Mystery was originally published in 1927. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.';A classic of its type' Nottingham Herald';A very good yarn . . . off the usual lines and most ingeniously contrived' Bystander

Tom came running up, pulling at his socks, so that there seemed something hiccuping, drunken, in his progress.';We have been cleaning up,' he said cheerfully.Mrs. Oxford winced. These poor children in their menial rolesAnd here came Sarah, with a smut on her cheek.Left in genteel poverty by the death of their father, the Fontayne siblingsSarah, Philly, Christopher, and Tomare shaken when their mother, loving but dizzy, takes a liking to Julian, a widowed neighbour with two children of his own. Sarah becomes infatuated with a thirty-something diplomat. Philly endures being painted by a dull local artist. Julian's daughter Bronwen, a child prodigy who has already published a book, deals with the pressures of a literary life. And, in the end, a valiant attempt is made to revive the decaying, long-neglected ballroom of the family home for Sarah's 18th birthday party. All against a backdrop of the ominous approach of World War II.Evoking Diana Tutton's Guard Your Daughters and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, Beneath the Visiting Moon is both a glittering, funny tale of romance and family life and a brilliant, haunting story of youthful hopes and heartbreaks in a world on the brink of devastating change.';First-rate comedy. What a delightful little world it is that Miss Cavan has created and how truly representative of the time' New York Times

I wonder how many women today are back in their pre-war ruts. For how many was the war merely a temporary disarrangement and for how many others has it meant complete re-adjustment, an entirely new set of circumstances? This is a stupid thought for me to have when, even in my own case, I don't know the answer.Helen Townsend and neighbour Laura Watson are unlikely friends as a result of serving together in the ATS. Helen is married to the local doctor, but has spent much of the war with her lover Brian, and both men are now due back from active service. Laura, stuck caring for her domineering father, is already missing the freedoms that war offered. They and many others in their village are just beginning to adjust to the unexpected challenges of peace.In Wine of Honour, Barbara Beauchamp seems somehow to have recognized how unique and fleeting were the details of life in the days and weeks just after the end of World War II, and to have set out to carefully document themwith particular focus on the experiences of women. The result is an incomparable, fly-on-the-wall vision of a fascinating time and place.

';It's awful to think that there are nine of us here to-day at this table and in six months' time we may all be dead,' said Miss Purbeck. ';There were thousands killed last night, so the bus conductor told me.'';You certainly are our little ray of sunshine,' said Elsie scornfully.Marjorie Wilenski's only novel, as biting and funny as Barbara Pym at her crankiest, follows an office of women translators at the fictional Ministry of Foreign Intelligence in London as they bicker, manoeuvre, and shift allegiances just before and then in the thick of the London Blitz. Its two main characters are sharply contrastedthe clever, efficient but terminally bitter middle-aged Elsie Pearne and the cheerful, pretty young newcomer Anne Shepley-Rice, whose once affluent family has fallen on hard times. Their colleagues include a fresh air fanatic, a busybody, an inept supervisor and her trusty deputy, the dithering, chatty Mrs Jolly, and a former lady's companion who delights in bad news and disaster.The cast of Table Two are instantly recognizable to any office worker of today. But this portrayal of a 1940s office is a rare treasure for modern readers, showing, with vivid detail and dark humour, how a group of independent, capable women experienced some of the darkest days of World War II.';The most striking novel about women war workers this war has produced' Elizabeth Bowen

I was thinking of offering Godfrey Prial some sort of partnership. I'm pretty sure now of at least two thingsthat he liked me, and that he'd have accepted. If he'd lived.When Ludovic Travers took over Bill Ellice's Broad Street Detective Agency, he was glad to welcome back from war service the Agency's star operative, Godfrey Prial. But when something happened to Prial whilst holidaying in an East Anglian town, Travers decided that a case was one he must tackle on his own. The trail led him to a year-old murder, the violent death of a retired jeweller, the theft of some particularly valuable diamonds, to a mad old man and to a young lady who didn't somehow ring true. The Case of the Corner Cottage shows Christopher Bush at his most astute and entertaining.The Case of the Corner Cottage was originally published in 1951. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

It was curious that the aerial bombardment of London, which had ennobled so much that was normally sordid, should only debase a love affair between two people who had managed for three years to overcome the threat to their relations implicit in all such. To die together would be simple. It would not be so simple to be dug out still alive from the same collapsed building.Elizabeth Simpson is a secretary having an affair with her married boss. Her father is an air raid warden and her terrified mother takes her courage from concealed bottles of rum. Owen Cathcart, their neurotic teenage neighbour, slips out during night raids to watch the fireworks and collect souvenirs of shrapnel. And Bob Craven, a soldier Elizabeth uses as cover for her illicit romance, plans his taxi rides to see the most dramatic bomb damage.In this riveting drama of life during the Blitz, the extraordinary immediacy and vivid, intimate detail stem directly from the first-hand experiences of Barbara Noble, who lived and worked in London throughout the war. The result is a unique social document and an unforgettable reading experience.';The most satisfying picture yet of what life was like in London during those hectic months.' Times of India

Instinctively Frances fumbled in her handbag for a torch before she faced the lights and the certainty of the lifted black-out. For some time now she had taken streetlighting for granted, but in her present sense of withdrawal she had forgotten.Set just after World War II, Peace, Perfect Peace is a poignant and humorous tale about women readjusting and rebuilding their lives after the upheavals of war. Frances Smallwood has returned from service in the A.T.S. and is staying with her mother-in-law Joanna, who has cared for her two children during the war. Tensions grow, however, as Frances comes to believe Joanna is undermining her relationship with her children for her own selfish reasons. Clare, a young novelist friend of Joanna's, is also pulled into the conflict as she deals with her own writer's block and romantic difficulties.Packed with fascinating details about life in the months just after the war's endrationing, barbed wire entanglements on the beach, and the omnipresence of dust from bombed out buildings (not to mention the difficulties of buying a dress)Kamm's novel also serves up complex, multi-dimensional characters who might be our own friends and neighbours.';The sort of novelist who makes you feel you've known her characters all your life. . . . swift, amusing and natural' Daily Telegraph';The champion debunker of our time . . . an extremely capable and often amusing writer' Daily Mail';Possesses a sense of humour that would give zest to the dullest occupation. Most entertaining and entirely human' Woman's Journal';Mrs. Kamm's chief gift is a quick eye for the little surface peculiarities, follies, selfishnesses of the people she meets' Evening Standard

When I asked the local chemist for lint and disinfectant, he felt it was only fair to allow the first-aid post to claim me. . . . Half a dozen V.A.D.s made a rush at me and treated my small abrasion as though my whole head had been blown off.From an impromptu wedding in the early days of World War II, to a bout with German measles in a hospital reminiscent of a medieval torture chamber, to becoming the first casualty for over-eager V.A.D.s, Verily Anderson's war gets off to a bumpy start. And it doesn't get easier.In this acclaimed memoir, we follow the inimitable Verily and her husband Donald through all the vicissitudes of war, including the unforgettable birth of Verily's first child in the midst of a German bombing raid. By turns hilarious, poignant, and harrowing (and sometimes all three at once), Spam Tomorrow presents a rollicking view of home front life from the perspective of one strong, courageous, and very funny participant.';A new kind of wartime experience new, that is, to literature; the job of marrying and having babies. . . . Those who agree with it will become incurable addicts.' Elizabeth Bowen

';I have told Rose that there will be a chauffeur for dinner,' she ended, frowning slightly at the cannibalistic sound of her sentence.Unmarried and nicknamed ';Button' by her friends, Mary Morrison is a (very mildly) distressed gentlewoman. She no longer lives in her family home, but remains at the very centre of village life, surrounded by friends including carefree, irresponsible Catha, Lady Rollo, just back from India and setting up lavish housekeeping nearby with her husband and childrensocialist Tony, perfect Crispin, and Elizabeth who's preparing to be presented at Court. Then there's Marcelle, Mary's widowed sister-in-law, and her challenging daughter Rosemary, who may soon be planting themselves with her to escape London bombs, Miss Rosanna Masquerier, a historical novelist who might just be a wry self-portrait of the author, and an array of other Sirs and Ladies who rely on Mary's sympathy and practicality. And perhaps there's just a hint of romance as well . . .Known for her bestselling historical fiction, in Nothing to Report Carola Oman delightfully evokes E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady in her portrayal of an English village cheerfully, hilariously, and sometimes bumpily progressing from obliviousness to the war's approach to pulling together for king and country. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Oman's Somewhere in England, a sequel to Nothing to Report.

';At any rate,' ended Philippa-Dawn, staring up at the garland of silver monsters gently swaying above them in the evening sky, ';at any rate, it'll be a change of Balloons.'Carola Oman's irresistible sequel to Nothing to Report begins with young, perky Philippa-Dawn Johnson, preparing to launch her nursing career at Woodside, the country home now overseen as a hospital by none other than the redoubtable Mary Morrison. Pippa soon encounters other faces familiar to readers of the earlier novel, including Mrs. Bates, whose debilitating rheumatism has been suddenly cured by Hitler, the Dowager Lady Merle, who is ';the living image of Elizabeth Tudor in later life', and the redoubtable historical novelist (and alter-ego of Oman herself?) Rosanna Masquerier, doing war work and encountering bombs with her usual flair.Set in the thick of World War II, Somewhere in England traces Oman's charming and eccentric village characters through unforgettable new muddles, romances, and hilarities on the Home Front. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Nothing to Report.';Delicious fun for the wise and gentle everywhere.' Observer

Rex Harrison's fifth - but not last - wife, Elizabeth said of him: 'I was very fond of Rex before we were married, and even more fond of him after we were married - it was the bit in between that was so difficult.'The Incomparable Rex is an affectionate and witty memoir of one of Britain's great theatrical and cinematic talents, Rex Harrison. When he died in 1990, the English-speaking world lost one of its most eloquent and fastidious high comedians.Patrick Garland worked with Harrison on the revival of My Fair Lady and came to know him well and - despite Rex's reputation as something of an unholy terror - became extremely fond of him. Rex Harrison was famed for his urbane style, his mordant wit, his numerous wives and his truly appalling temper, quite apart from his legendary and much loved performance as Henry Higgins on both stage and screen.The Incomparable Rex is a delightful and frequently laugh-out-loud blend of anecdote, pen-portraits and personal reminiscence which gives a vivid flavour of this complex man, and the pressures of working with him and a large cast, and of reviving a great musical on the American stage. This edition features a new introduction from actor and writer Simon Callow.'A scrupulously fair and most diverting memoir' Daily Telegraph

';Famous Spiritualist Dead . . . Gun Found in Flat'In The Case of the Happy Medium Ludovic Travers is at the top of his considerable form. When Ludovic and his wife set out to attend a seance, they are in a mood of amiable scepticism. But the atmosphere swiftly changes when Travers is plunged headlong into a case where he, and Scotland Yard supremo George Wharton, must tussle with murder, suicide and traffickers in forbidden goods. There is action, dry humour, and a more than fair chance for the armchair detective to join in the hunt.The Case of the Happy Medium was originally published in 1952. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';Bush gets better and better . . . And Ludovic Travers is becoming one of our favourite sleuths' San Francisco Chronicle

He was deader than last year's hit-song. At the side of the skull was where the bullet had done its work.Four detectives? Surely things must have come to quite a pass if the well-tried team of Ludovic Travers and George Wharton has to be doubled in order to crack even the most baffling case. Yet when sudden death comes to the head of a big firm of grocers in the City, our old friends do find both help and hindrance in unexpected quarters.The Case of the Fourth Detective was originally published in 1951. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

';At first it may seem an astounding coincidence that two members of a family should have considered it necessary to ask for the services of the same detective agency. I think I can prove otherwise, and even if I can't, the facts remain. Alice Stonhill and Peter Wesslake did precisely what I have said, and what's more . . .'So Ludovic Travers says at the opening of a case in which he joins with Bill Ellice and Superintendent George Wharton to solve the mystery of a novelist, his two wives, and a murder that happened contrary to expectationsnot to mention the identity of the Happy Warrior. This is one of Christopher Bush's crispest brain-teasers told in the smooth and friendly Travers manner loved by the author's devotees.The Case of the Happy Warrior was originally published in 1950. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';Christopher Bush is one of the good ones. Although he has written so many mysteries, the strange thing is that they all sound fresh, wide-eyed and dewy, as if he had written hardly any.' New York Herald Tribune

';Murder's my job, not parish politics.'Ludovic Travers, the unofficial expert of Scotland Yard, pairs with his friend, Superintendent Wharton, to dig deeply into an East Anglian murder. Interwoven are the thefts of antique rugs and pictures from old churches, and in putting together the facts and defining the motives, Travers comes up with the answerall i's dotted and t's crossed in the solution to a diabolical and absorbing mystery.The Case of the Purloined Picture was originally published in 1949. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';First class mystery reading. A good, well planned plot and even better told.' Minneapolis Tribune

The murderer was clever and the planning was perfect. There was apparently nothing that had been overlooked and nothing that didn’t go to plan. There was nothing that could be called a slip. Why then was the murderer caught?Too few answers chasing too many questions is the problem facing Ludovic Travers and Superintendent George Wharton when a famous actress is murdered. The crime-investigator always looks for unusual circumstances, departures from customary routines. Travers’ trouble is that in the odd-behaviour department he finds himself confronted by a definite surfeit of riches. . . .The Case of the Seven Bells was originally published in 1949. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.“Has all the elements of mounting suspense. . . . not only well-plotted but told with the skill in depicting atmosphere and character that readers have learned to expect from Mr. Bush.” Knoxville News-Sentinel