1930s Murder Mystery

Series · 4 books · 1764-2016

By Kel Richards

Books in series

The Corpse in the Cellar

2015

It's the summer of 1933, and Oxford don Clive Staples Lewis, better known to his friends as Jack, is on a walking holiday with his brother Warnie and young friend Tom Morris. When Jack's wallet is accidentally destroyed, they visit a bank to replenish their funds - and walk straight into the scene of an impossible murder.The victim is in the vault of the bank alone, cut off by brick and steel from the rest of the world. Yet he has been stabbed from behind and the murder weapon has vanished. A 'locked room' mystery - which would have baffled the cleverest sleuths of the Golden Age of detective stories - is tackled by the brilliant mind and larger-than-life personality of 'Jack' Lewis, beloved creator of Narnia and formidable defender of the Christian faith.

The Country House Murders

1764

'Dear Jack, I think I'm about to be arrested and charged with murder.' Tom Morris, busy cataloguing the library of Plumwood Hall, is in a fix. Three days before, a member of the family had keeled over at afternoon tea after eating a slice of fruit cake laced with poison. And Tom has been fingered by the weasel-like Inspector Hyde as chief suspect. The young scholar turns to the only person who can help: his old Oxford tutor, C. S. ('Jack') Lewis. As they investigate, mystery piles on mystery. Why did the victim's husband disappear twelve months before? Why is a strange tattooed foreigner living in a cottage on the moors? Who is the wild man of the woods? And most puzzling of all: how did a massive dose of cyanide get into just one slice of cake? This mind-twisting case has all the hallmarks of a classic Country House Mystery. Woven throughout the story is an engaging conversation about Lewis' Christian worldview.

The Floating Body

2016

The year is 1935. Clive Staples Lewis (known to his friends as ‘Jack’) and his brother Warren (‘Warnie’) are visiting their young friend Tom Morris at Nesfield Cathedral School. Jack is to be the guest speaker at the school’s speech night. They become eyewitnesses to a murder, an impossible murder. A man is stabbed to death by an unseen assailant, and Tom and Jack see his body fall from the rooftop . . . but the body doesn’t hit the ground until the following day! An entertaining homage to the beloved creator of Narnia – and a celebration of the hugely popular school stories of the early twentieth century – The Floating Body reveals how Jack’s nimble brain again proves invaluable to the police in their attempts to explain the seemingly impossible.

The Sinister Student

2016

It's a Thursday evening in 1936. Clive Staples Lewis (known to all his friends as Jack) is hosting a gathering of that well-known literary group, The Inklings. Among the regulars are his brother Warnie, J. R. R. Tolkien, Neville Coghill, Hugo Dyson and Adam Fox. Two visitors are also attending: Jack's old pupil Tom Morris and an undergraduate named Auberon Willesden. The following morning Willesden is found murdered in his room in Magdalen, though both the door and the windows were locked from the inside. And not only has he been murdered: he has been beheaded and the head is missing! Who killed the student? And why? And, more baffling still how was it done? It's a puzzle that will tax the brilliant ingenuity of Jack and his fellow Inklings to the limit.

Author

Kel Richards

Author · 17 books

Kevin Barry "Kel" Richards (born 8 February 1946) is an Australian author, journalist and radio personality. Richards has written a series of crime novels and thrillers for adult readers which includes The Case of the Vanishing Corpse, Death in Egypt and An Outbreak of Darkness. Richards currently presents ABC NewsRadio's weekend afternoons, which includes regular Wordwatch segments. Wordwatch is a feature introduced by Richards. Initially developed as a "filler" program for the radio programs to allow time for changes of people or locations, it tapped into an interest by the listening public and several books have been produced based on the show's research. In November 2003 the thousandth episode of the show was produced. Richards can also be heard on ABC Local Radio programs including Nightlife (national) and Evenings in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.