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In a small English town, family conflict can be murder…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, is found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night is found in brash young Lennie Hunter’s possession, and it is he who is to be hanged for the crime.
To clear his name, Hunter’s fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook. Soon Crook discovers Emily was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer.
‘No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant’ Sunday Express
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, is found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night is found in brash young Lennie Hunter’s possession, and it is he who is to be hanged for the crime.
To clear his name, Hunter’s fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook. Soon Crook discovers Emily was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer.
‘No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant’ Sunday Express
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Reviews
No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant
Anthony Gilbert shared with other successful crime writers a combination of writing talent and clever plotting skills necessary to make it in detective fiction's Golden Age ... Along with Agatha Christie [he] had a talent to deceive
Unquestionably a most intelligent author. Gifts of ingenuity, style and character drawing
A delight from start to finish ... The plotting is mesmerizing, the characters are outrageous, the suspense is relentless and the ending is killer. You're sure to be stunned by one or more twists in the gasp inducing finale
Fast, light, likeable
If there is one author whose books need to be widely available, it is Gilbert
Well-plotted, fast-moving - brilliant
