Search Results for: crooked-house,-the

Murder, politics and Nazi sympathisers – Arthur Crook has his detection skills pushed to the limit., with a most unlikely conspirator…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club


‘The lobby of the House of Commons was very full on the momentous afternoon that Miss Sarah Bennett, a composed and amused spinster, torn from her happy obscurity by an energetic and enterprising Minister of Labour, came from the Temporary Pass Office, up the stairs, through a corridor lined with effigies of the great . . .’

Arthur Crook, and valiant conspirator Miss Sarah Bennett, secretary to Allen Wilkinson Stout MP, adventure through murders, Nazi incitement and parliamentary happenings to save a wing commander arrested for murder.

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 seemingly-innocent advert; a missing widow. And it’s the detective who’s in the most danger…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club

Detective Arthur Crook is browsing the newspaper on the morning of 14 April 1947, when an advertisement jumps out at him.

‘Rest and Refreshment: to a lady seeking the above and able to pay for it, is offered a unique opportunity for complete seclusion in a delightful country house’

Disastrously, Mrs Emily Watson has read the same ad, and soon Crook becomes embroiled in the disappearance of a rich widow preyed upon by her unscrupulous nephew. And, for once, the super sleuth almost comes a cropper . . .

‘The ebullient Crook at his boisterous best’ Country Life

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

For years Colin Harpur’s dubious boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, ran an ‘arrangement’ with Mansel Shale and Panicking Ralph Ember, owner of the Monty Club: Iles would protect their drug businesses if they ensured peace on the streets.

But when a small-time crook’s house is firebombed and he and his daughter are both killed the pact is knocked sideways and gang war erupts. With the relaxation of drugs law legislation, Shale and Ember have serious competition. Their profits slide and an all-out battle for survival begins.

‘Most other British Police writers are foam rubber truncheons to James’ iron riot baton’ Time Out

When Meg Jeacock let out the furnished cottage next to her house she did not care that her new tenant had certain rather sinister characteristics – he’d paid three months’ rent in advance. But Meg’s husband Marcus sensed he was a crook.
And when the stranger shows an inexplicable interest in Shandon Priory, the big house nearby, whose elderly owner has recently died, it becomes clear that there is trouble brewing – which, when it comes, takes the form of double murder . . .

Lawyer-detective Arthur Crook always believes his clients are innocent… despite the evidence to the contrary.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club

A famous art collector’s car discovered at the bottom of a cliff after he was supposed to have taken a young woman to the railway station, so naturally the police expect to find his body there, too. But it turns up weeks later, in a locked room in his country house, and he’s been stabbed to death…

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

They took her identity – they wanted her life – but they couldn’t take her spirit.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club

When Julia Ross, a jobless and penniless young woman, is sent to meet a prospective employer, she is oblivious to the trap that awaits her. As she rings the bell to 30 Henriques Square, the door opens on a London household ruled by a woman dressed in red with murderous intentions. For Julia is exactly what she needs – someone with no family, no connections, who will not be missed…

Two days later, Julia awakes in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity. And no one will believe anything she says.

But the woman in red hadn’t reckoned on a secret admirer even Julia didn’t know she had – and the indefatigable sleuth Arthur Crook.

After years of caring for her often impossible mother, Alice is finally free. But an unexpected legacy gives her more than she bargained for…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club


When Alice Hunter’s mother dies, after grimly clinging on for eighty-odd years, it is enough for genteel Alice just to be free. But she soon becomes lonely, having few points of contact with the people in the cheap boarding houses which are all she can afford. Then comes news of a legacy, and Alice’s soul rises as she travels to the family’s lawyers in Bath.

Her new life is not what she expects, however, and she is lost in a fog of human misunderstanding, hatred and deceit. A nice cup of tea, stirred by detective Arthur Crook, is what she will need to put things right . . .

A young woman has a new position – but will she listen to the voice warning her not to cross the threshold of that sinister house…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club


Nora Deane, a young nurse, has been instructed to report to 12 Askew Avenue, Charlbury, to look after a new patient. As she steps from the station into an impenetrable blanket of fog, she is glad to accept the escort of a mysterious young man to the address.

Once alone in the darkness, she presses the bell and waits. She shivers. She wants to be inside, out of the dangers of the dark. Yet some inner voice persistently warns her not to cross the threshold of that sinister house . . .