Murder Room
51 total works
A movie star whose fame is on the decline - but did he take his own life or did someone else have an axe to grind?
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Eight years ago René Tessier was at the height of his fame. Now the once-celebrated film star frequents less reputable Parisian cafés. That is until young producer Julian Lane plans to star Tessier in his latest production with the promise of millions.
Tessier is headed to London. But the washed-up old man spends less than 24 hours in a dingy Soho hotel before he is found dead. Was it suicide or murder? And who could have wanted Tessier dead?
Henry's vocation is being a husband. First he woos. Then he weds. Then he kills...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When he falls in love with orphan Sarah, Henry takes her to a lonely cottage and her initial happiness at being with him soon gives way to some uncomfortable suspicions. But will anyone reach the isolated spot before Henry deems her a little too inquisitive for her own good?
The most glamorous hotel in Europe is not immune to murder...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When Julian Marks, a well-known diamond merchant, is found murdered at the Hotel Fantastique in Monte Carlo, the motive is presumed to be theft. Marks always carried with him an enormous diamond on a steel chain.
Guests have noticed a shady character in button boots staying at the hotel. But when the diamond is found in an unexpected place, French sleuth M Dupuy has to rethink his investigation. Could the mystery man now lead him to the culprit?
May Forbes came four nights a week to feed the wild cats on Broomstick Common. That was how she happened to glimpse a masked man with a spade - and she's now in fear for her life.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
May leaves the common and ends up at the Mettlesome Horse, where irascible lawyer, Arthur Crook, is drinking at the bar. So when the body of eighteen-year-old Linda Myers is found buried on the Common, Crook discovers a number of people who might want the girl dead.
Then May Forbes leaves for work one lunchtime and does not reappear . . .
She lost her memory - now her life is at risk.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When lawyer-detective Arthur Crook bumped into a woman called Barbara on the parade at Beachampton it became apparent she had no idea who she was. She had been closely involved in the sudden deaths of two rich old ladies but something had instinctively prevented her from going to the police.
Now Barbara finds herself under grave suspicion and fighting for her life. But will Arthur Crook be able to untangle the mystery?
'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express
If you ever need my help, I'll be there. But by the time he arrived, she had already disappeared...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Arthur Crook and Miss Pinnegar meet by accident and take to each other on sight, parting with mutual appreciation and an invitation by the detective to call on him professionally should she ever need help - unlikely as that may be.
But when Miss Pinnegar receives a visit, it threatens to shake her life to the very foundations. She sends Crook an SOS and he comes at the double, but by then Miss Pinnegar has already disappeared . . .
An ordinary day - which turns to blackmail and murder.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
What seemed like an ordinary phone call in the middle of the afternoon suddenly plunges its recipient, Simon Crete, into a plot of blackmail and murder.
'Tell him it's no use. I haven't got it,' the mystery woman's voice cried desperately down the line. But who was she? And why was she ringing a man whom she had never seen?
The victims were predictable - the murderer was not...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Sour, selfish and worth several millions, Mrs French was just the kind of woman you'd expect to be murdered. And so, in due course, she was.
Mrs Hoggett was the next to die - another murder predicted by all who, unfortunately, knew her well. Since there was no shortage of suspects, it was small wonder the killer eluded the law. And then a lovely young woman came forth with a story of bigamy and blackmail so bizarre it had to be true. All that was needed for proof was yet another corpse...
'Clever' New York Herald Tribune
A mission to help refugees - but someone has murder in mind...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
It is at a local watering hole, the Duck and Daisy, that lawyer-detective Arthur Crook happens upon a party of men and women calling themselves the Peace Brigadiers. Their mission is to aid refugees from Europe.
But it isn't long before Crook suspects one of them is using the premises for criminal ends. And when murder strikes Crook becomes entangled in a treacherous plot . . .
An ordinary couple - but wherever they go, death follows...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Mr Cobb is the third elderly invalid to die conveniently, if unexpectedly, in the house of Fred and Bessie Meadows. Yet who could suspect this responsible, honest couple? Nothing is too much trouble, yet wherever they go, death goes too. But their third crime involves them with Arthur Crook, and that's when their luck turns.
Fans of the lawyer-sleuth know that his arrival on the scene brings action, and that every sort of cunning will be employed to ensure the innocent are kept safe and the guilty ... trapped.
'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express
A missing wife, a husband suspected - and only the incorrigible private investigator can save them both.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
On the day that Emily Tate vanished, Inspector Marston met her husband, Stephen Tate, on the tow-path of the River Pyle. The unassuming Stephen was on the brink of a nightmare episode that was to make his unhappy marriage, his clandestine love affair and his disappointed hopes seem positively joyous by comparison.
The determination of the girl he loved was the only thing that could save him from the web of circumstances in which he was enmeshed. She sent for Detective Arthur Crook.
A crime that isn't reported; a mother who's threatened...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Out walking in the snow with her young son, Mike, Sara Drew is the only witness to a particularly unpleasant car accident in which an elderly lady and her dog are killed. Nervous of going to the scene of the accident with a child, she reluctantly goes home. There she meets one of the drivers, and is appalled that he has no intention of reporting the incident. And he also threatens to hurt her son if she goes to the police.
But when Mike is kidnapped she contacts Detective Arthur Crook, who takes over the case and counters the wiles of desperate criminals . . .
Beautiful, amoral and ruthless - but was she a killer?
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Ruth Garside was framed for three killings. But was she really guilty?
As a girl, Ruth was accused of a dreadful crime; as a wife she was suspected of her husband's death; as a widow she was accused of her employer's murder.
'I can prove her innocence,' cried Thomas Fogg KC. 'I can prove my own innocence,' said Ruth. 'She's my client so she can't be guilty, and by heck, I'll prove it if it means the skies falling,' declared Arthur Crook. Well - does he? And is he justified?
Murder on the train - and the killer is looking for the next victim...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
On a fast train to London, Arthur Crook meets trouble with a capital T. During the journey one passenger disappears and is subsequently found dead beside the line. The killer has killed before and is preparing to kill again.
Soon, a girl in desperate circumstances finds herself at the hands of a criminal organisation - will Crook now step in as her salvation in this life-and-death chase?
Solange Peters 'died' - and so did the scandal and suspicion that haunted her. So now she has the chance for a new life . . .
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
A bizarre accident gave Solange the chance to assume a new identity - and, as Julie Taylor, she set out to do just that, as companion to wealthy, neurotic Bianca Duncan. But soon she is plunged into a distorted and terrifying existence. A menace to Bianca's life is growing daily and a strange young man could expose Julie's masquerade. Suddenly the new identity seems far from safe, as Julie is forced to fight for her own life.
An escaped convict, a mysterious deserted house, and murder in the Lake District..
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
The shades of night were falling fast when Arthur Crook drove the old Superb over the Lakeland Fells and into the valley, to stop at a mysterious house where, though a light burned in an upper window, no one answered the bell.
Here opens a double murder mystery in which Crook acts in the defence of a young prisoner on the run, whose guilt appears evident.
'The usual gusto, racy prose, good plotting and up-to-the-minute social observation' Sunday Times
A blackmailer - murdered. And the suspect in fear for her life...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Margaret Ross knew she had to pay off the blackmailer, Samson, or else her beloved son would go to jail for forgery.
The next night she rang the bell at Samson's sinister house on Margate Street. There was no answer. Slowly she entered the house and went up the stairs. Samson was waiting at his desk - murdered. She found the incriminating letters and the cheque and escaped with them. But she had been seen.
The dangers gather like wasps around Margaret and it takes all of Detective Arthur Crook's genius to get to her in time.
'Amusing and zestful, with an unexpected and exciting climax' Daily Telegraph
It began with the theatre - and ended with drugs, blackmail and a decades old crime...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Major John Hillier is found dead in his flat, early one morning, in strange circumstances. Inspector Field traces the dead man's last movements and learns that, after breaking up a dinner party, he visited a remote suburban theatre to see a leading lady he didn't even know by sight.
Field traces the Major's history back some years and finds himself entangled in a net of underworld intrigue in England and further afield. Drugs, blackmail and a crime years old all play their part in an affair that starts to attract wide attention.
Assisted suicide - or murder...?
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
Even Hatty Savage had to admit, at the inquest, that it had been foolish of her, when Richard Sheridan had threatened suicide, to hand him her sleeping tablets. So when a girl who had apparently been trying to blackmail her also came to an abrupt end, it was scarcely surprising that Hatty found herself in custody.
Fortunately, she'd had the sense to marry local solicitor Philip Cobb, and, the moment Hatty is locked up he rushes to enlist the help of Detective Arthur Crook. When he becomes the prime suspect, it's a decision Cobb could live to regret ...
'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express