Cyril Hare

The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. With friends and family gathered round the fire, all should be set for a perfect Christmas, but as the bells chime midnight, a mysterious murder takes place. Who can be responsible? The scorned young lover? The lord's passed-over cousin? The social climbing politician's wife? The Czech history professor? The obsequious butler? And perhaps the real question is: can any of them survive long enough to tell the tale?

These thirty stories, selected and introduced by fellow crime writer and lawyer Michael Gilbert, are a terrific introduction to Cyril Hare's inventive and clever 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 and he went on to write nine novels including his most famous, Tragedy at Law.

Two of the stories in this collection feature Francis Pettigrew, a barrister and amateur detective who appeared in several of Hare's novels and was perhaps his best-loved creation.

The banks of the river Didder in the summertime appear idyllic: the sun is shining, the trout rising. But when the body of a local landowner is discovered, the peace of the countryside is shattered. It soon becomes apparent that quite a few local people disliked the deceased.

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. 

The picturesque village of Yew Hill, Markshire becomes an idyllic retreat for Francis Pettigrew and his wife until Francis is suddenly summoned to sit in as the County Court Judge and an elderly neighbor is brutally murdered.

The Magic Bottle - originally published in 1946 - is the only book for children by much-loved Golden Age crime writer Cyril Hare.

When Philip and his sister Mary opened the oddly-shaped bottle and found that they had released a Djinn, Philip, who knew his Arabian Nights, feared the worst. But the Djinn was an unexpected kind of Djinn, and his release was the start of some very unexpected adventures...

Inspector Mallett's stay at the country house hotel of Pendlebury Old Hall has been a disappointment. Room, food and service have been a letdown and he eagerly anticipates the end of his holiday. His last trial is to sit and listen when an elderly and boorish man, whose family once owned the house, joins his table. The next day the man is dead and Mallett unwittingly finds himself investigating the suspicious 'suicide'. 

Tenant for Death (1937) was the debut crime novel by 'Cyril Hare', nom de plume of Alfred Gordon Clark and one of the best-loved names in English 'Golden Age' crime writing.

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. In a tale which uncovers many of the seedier aspects of the world of high finance, Hare also introduces his readers to the formidable Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard.

Upon the novel's first publication the Times Literary Supplement praised Tenant for Death as 'a most ingenious story' while the Spectator celebrated its 'wit, fair play, and characterization' and also declared that 'a new star has risen'.

A classic of legal detective fiction in which a judge's tour of the Southern Circuit during WW2 is bedevilled with a series of nasty incidents. Is someone trying to murder the judge?

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 body. Moreover when he returns to the scene with the police, the body is gone. Did he really see a body - or is it a hallucination conjured up by his return to the scene of the crime that has haunted him since childhood? In Untimely Death, Cyril Hare conjures up an intriguing puzzle whose twists and turns will keep the reader turning the pages until the final surprising resolution.

Violinist Lucy Carless is making a guest appearance with the Markshire Orchestra, only to be found strangled with a silk stocking part-way through the concert. Everyone in the orchestra had access to the scene of the crime, and the police officer in charge, Inspector Trimble, has no idea where to start. Luckily retired barrister and amateur detective Francis Pettigrew has been acting as an honorary treasurer to the Markshire Orchestral Society, and he is soon on his way to finding the murderer.

The Blitz has forced the evacuation of various government offices from London and Pettigrew accompanies his ministry to the distant seaside resort of Marsett Bay. In this strange atmosphere, Pettigrew begins to fall in love with his secretary, who is also being courted by a widowed man much older than her. Bored and restless, the ministers start playing a light-hearted game of 'Plan the perfect murder' to pass the time. Pettigrew is detached from the silliness - until a real murder happens, and he is drawn into solving the mystery.