Features thirty stories that give an introduction to Cyril Hare's Golden Age detective fiction, which often turns on an ingenious use of the law. Born in 1900, Hare was a barrister and judge and only began writing at the age of thirty-six. Some of his first short stories were published in "Punch" an[...]
When an anonymous letter arrives for Mr Justice Barber, the High Court judge, warning of imminent revenge, he dismisses it as the work of a harmless lunatic. But then a second letter appears, followed by a poisoned box of the judge's favourite chocolates, and he begins to fear for his life.[...]
Francis Pettigrew travels to Exmoor for a holiday with his wife - an area in which as a young boy he was traumatised by coming across a dead body on the moor. In an attempt to exorcise this trauma, Pettigrew walks across the moor to the place where the incident occurred - only to find another dead b[...]
Two young estate agent's clerks are sent to check an inventory on a house in Daylesford Gardens, South Kensington. Upon arrival, they find an unlisted item - a corpse. Furthermore, the mysterious tenant, Colin James, has disappeared.[...]
Inspector Mallett is brought in from Scotland Yard to find the killer; and, though quick to disentangle the complex relationships linking suspects and victim, Mallett must master the subtleties of fly-fishing in order to uncover the incriminating evidence he seeks.[...]
Alfred Gordon Clark was a county judge at the time of the novel's composition. When Francis Pettigrew, former barrister and sometime amateur detective, is plucked out of peaceful retirement in the Home Counties to deputise for the County Court judge, the proceedings offer him some unexpected insight[...]