Part of Series
In the novel, the story revolves around a seemingly simple case of mistaken identity that quickly escalates into a complex and dangerous murder mystery. Arthur Crook gets involved and strives to uncover the truth behind the crime, following the clues with his sharp intellect and unconventional methods. . . with a little help from two underestimated little girls who must prevent another murder. . . Jan van Damm, a pretty 18-year-old Dutch au pair, has been brought to England by a wealthy couple to help care for their two small daughters. When she was stood up by the boyfriend with whom she'd arranged to go away secretly while the family were on holiday, Detective Arthur Crook smuggles his business card into her pocket, unaware of the unpleasant surprises that are in store for her that very evening. She could not have foreseen that she would shortly need the lawyer/detective's services when she sneaked back to the house to find it burgled and the housekeeper's lifeless body in the broom cupboard. Crook was needed more than ever when there was a second murder in the village, and as always he steals the show, though this time young Dawn and Coral Banks run him a pretty close second, both for their engaging personalities and for their effectiveness in thwarting crime.
Author
Anthony Gilbert was the pen name of Lucy Malleson an English crime writer. She also wrote non-genre fiction as Anne Meredith , under which name she also published one crime novel. She also wrote an autobiography under the Meredith name, Three-a-Penny (1940). Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927. She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas. Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey. Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her. The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974. Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
