The elderly family solicitor preferred to take his four o’clock tea in chambers. But this afternoon, tea was served with sudden death. Any of the clients who consulted him that day had the opportunity to sneak back and do the deed. But London’s leading actor, Joseph Dowling, had a motive. And in his current performance of Macbeth he also had a bloody dagger—the same one found lethally lodged in the lawyer’s back. Now a British courtroom could be the setting for Dowling’s last public performance—unless barrister-detective Antony Maitland can put the spotlight on the real killer before an innocent Macbeth takes his curtain call as a condemned prisoner. (Publisher’s description)

Old Uncle William Cassell had come back to England after nearly twenty years. His return to the family home in Wimbledon brought a lovely reunion at tea time… and a fatal bullet in the back after dinner. Now his great-nephew Paul stood accused of the crime… found with the smoking gun in his hands and a dazed look in his eyes. Young Paul felt caught in a nightmare, sure he was sleepwalking when the deed was done, unsure of his own innocence or guilt. But Antony Maitland’s famous barrister uncle, Sir Nicholas Harding, would never argue somnambulism as a defense for murder. The plea must be “not guilty”, and it was Antony’s job to prove it… in an intriguing case where inquiries into old acts of madness may uncover a new killer in the family. (Publisher’s description)

From the back cover: The General Aircraft company stood on the desolate Yorkshire moors. It was the perfect spot for a secret government project ... and deadly intrigue. Missing documents pointed to espionage, but a corpse added murder most foul to the high crime of treason. Working undercover as a new employee, Antony Maitland needed all the skills he learned as a wartime agent to find the traitor. The suspects ranged from the company's director to a very private secretary, but one murder after another quickly narrowed the field. Maitland decided that it was time to set his own trap to catch the elusive killer. Though if it failed, it would be his first ... and final mistake.

Someone had murdered kindly old Dr. Martin. Scotland Yard promptly arrested Martin’s freeloading cousin Gerry, who had bumbled into an argument with his rich relative at about the fatal hour. But Antony Maitland knew Gerry didn’t do it. The good doctor had been a secret service agent… and Antony knew who really had a motive to kill him. The catch was that a visit with a man from Whitehall plunged Antony back in Her Majesty’s Service and sworn to secrecy. His only chance to save Gerry was to catch the real killer. And that desperate hunt would bring him face-to-face with a nightmare from his own past… and a wartime betrayal that had once made Antony a prisoner and now could make him a corpse. (Publisher’s description)

Roddy Gaskell, grandson of deceased shipping magnate Roderick “The Pirate King” Gaskell, believed in “finders keepers”. His family were finders—of a priceless Old Master discovered behind a secret panel, and probably purloined by old Roderick himself. Locked in combat with his puritanical father over the famous oil’s fate, Roddy had just consulted the celebrated barrister-detective Antony Maitland when the “hot” masterpiece led to cold-blooded murder. Someone had added lethal monkshood to daddy’s daily vitamins, and Roddy was suspect number one. Could Antony prove Roddy innocent… and find out which art lover was a killer at heart? (Publisher’s description)

In a battle for his client’s life, a lawyer calls death to the witness stand. A DEADLY CASE OF DOUBLE IDENTITY The defendant said his name was Michael Godson and that he was a photographer. The prosecution declared that his real name was Guy Harland and charged him with high treason. Whoever he was, it was the difficult task of a brilliant lawyer named Antony Maitland to prove him innocent. Maitland’s daring investigation takes him through a sinister maze of shadowy witnesses, ugly clues and bitter memories—all pointing to his client’s guilt. The he reaches a deadly crossroad…

There hadn’t been a murder in Chedcombe in over a hundred years until someone poisoned old Mrs. Randall. Her servants revealed that at Christmas the old lady argued with her grandson Hugo. Her solicitors testified that on Boxing Day she cut Hugo out of her will and made her penniless godchild, Fran Gifford, her sole heir. The local constabulary noted that on New Year’s Eve someone made Mrs. Randall a hot toddy spiked with deadly foxglove. Fran Gifford was in custody the next afternoon. Just two days before trial, Antony Maitland took the case for the defense. But as soon as Maitland started hunting about for new evidence, a shot in the dark made this case the most difficult test yet of his courtroom skills… and his ability to stay alive. (Publisher’s description)

Why was everyone telling lies? The beautiful redheaded model Barbara Wentworth was on trial for murder. All the evidence pointed to her guilt, but lawyer Anthony Maitland was convinced otherwise. Furthermore, he was certain that no one concerned in the case - not Barbara, nor her employer, nor her relatives - was telling the truth.

A fair-haired man in his middle thirties work up in a hotel room. He had no idea who he was. However, there was a name scribbled in his notebook. He followed up on the name and went to see Antony Maitland.

Fifth in series starring Antony Maitland, FIRST EDITION, first printing hardcover in DJ.

New York:: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,, (1972.). Very good in very good - dust jacket (slight spine slant, wear to ends of spine, rubbing to back cover of dj.). First US printing. An Antony Maitland mystery.

The Case is Altered

This plot centers on an unusual and amoral woman, who involves Maitland in her murderous fantasy. As always, however, his instinct for the truth saves him for making a fool of himself. His relationship with his wife, Jenny, plays an especially strong part in this book. - The Mystery Lover's Companion, Art Bourgeau

The girl in the dock, Camilla Barnard, was almost beautiful; she was pale—she was accused of having killed her husband. A bride at nineteen, she had been married for seven years; she had a son six years old. Antony Maitland was acting as junior to Bruce Halloran, Counsel for the Prosecution. It wasn’t the first time Antony had worked with Halloran, but usually for the defense. “There can be no doubts about the facts of this unhappy case,” Halloran said. But Mrs. Barnard insisted she was innocent. She and her husband had come back from a party: “We talked for a while—nothing important—then I went into the bedroom. Richard said he was going out. He wanted some fresh air. I closed the door and straightaway I heard a shot. It sounded dreadfully loud. Then I rushed out, but there was no one there. Only Richard.” “Your husband was already dead when you came out of the bedroom?” “Yes … oh, yes.” In spite of her protests Camilla Barnard was found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison for four years. — Seven years later Antony came home one evening and his wife asked him, “How often do you think a person is tried twice for murdering her husband?” Antony said, “It can’t happen. I suppose you mean she was acquitted?” “No, I don’t. This is her second husband.” The lady was Camilla. Her second husband was her first husband’s cousin. And Antony Maitland again found himself involved with Mrs. Barnard—this time for the defense!

Tarry and be hanged . . . or linger and be strangled—which is what happens to the wife of a doctor and then to the woman he had been treating at a time just sufficient to clear him of suspicion. Antony Maitland makes yet another discreet investigation and courtly courtroom appearance in order to establish the pivotal second murder and prevent a third. More substantial than the later comers in this series and pleasant even where it fails to raise a pulse or an eyebrow. — Kirkus Review

She was young and pretty, a TV newscaster with a fine talent and many fans. But when she publicly accused a popular married actor of being her sister's lover—and murderer—a lot of people wanted her out of sight and permanently silent.

To the citizens of Arkenshaw, Yorkshire, Mr and Mrs Alfred Baker and their twelve foster children represent the ideal family, respected for their closeness and mutual concern. When seventeen-year-old Joe Baker fatally assaults his father, barrister Antony Maitland finds himself with a new client—a tight-lipped one at that. The bleak industrial town of Arkenshaw is not unfamiliar territory to Maitland, and as he begins to look for the motive that led to his young client’s murderous act, he finds himself enmeshed in the tight-knit society of the town, its gossip, and its unwillingness to face the whispered-about activities of its younger generation. (Publisher’s description)

In an unusual departure, Sara Woods takes her latest suspense novel back in time to 1947, when Antony Maitland, recently discharged from service, is reading law at the farm of a friend in Yorkshire. But the anticipated pastoral quietude is blemished by four seemingly disparate occurrences—the growth of gossip concerning the revival of local witchcraft, rumors of a treasure of gold plate hidden and then lost during the seventeenth-century Civil War, suspicions of lucrative black market activity in the vicinity, and the death of a woman from arsenic poisoning on a nearby farm. Weaving these incidents together against the rustic background of the Yorkshire countryside in what certainly must be Antony Maitland’s first big case, Miss Woods tells a fascinating and entertaining story that will surely please her many fans. “They love not poison that do poison need, Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead, I hate the murderer, love him murdered.” —Richard II, Act V, scene vi

Sara Woods' ENTER THE CORPSE is a traditional British style mystery. The black sheep of the family Mr. Hubert Denning is being released from prison where he has been serving a term for robbery. He has nowhere to go and is taken in by his god-son Roger Farrell. Before Denning even reaches the home Roger and his actress wife, Meg Hamilton, discover the body of one of Denning's former 'employees' in the hall of their home. Roger begs the help of his friend barrister, Antony Maitland, to find out who killed the man and also to manage to keep the matter out of the papers. Gold bullion excites the greed of many underworld characters who know Denning stashed some of his last haul away for safe keeping. A good read with plenty excitement to take to the beach or the dentist office.

Any work of fiction whose characters were of a uniform excellence would rightly be condemned - by that fact if by no other - as being incredibly dull. It seems unlikely the people of this book should resemble a real person alive or dead. It will be obvious to the reader that the story took place a couple of years before the introduction of the new currency in England.

Antony Maitland, barrister and very confidential detective, reluctantly journeys to a gray town in the English Midlands to defend a young boy who is, on the face of it, guilty of murder and art theft. Maitland’s problems are not reduced by the boy’s mysterious unwillingness to say anything on his own behalf beyond the baldest explanation; and as long as the boy refused to speak there was no possible line of defence. In order to save his client from what, Maitland finally realizes, will be a gross miscarriage of justice, he has to piece together the boy’s troubled past and, in the process, stumbles across a web of criminal intent in which the boy is just one victim—and Maitland the other. (Publisher’s description)

New York:: St Martin's,, (1977.). Very good in very good dust jacket.. Book club edition. An Antony Maitland mystery.

Sara Woods St. Martin's Press Book Club Edition Number of 190

Kevin O’Brien, Q.C., has been briefed to defend a woman charged with murdering her husband. Also charged with her is the doctor, assistant to the family physician, who generally treated her children and with whom—the prosecution claim—she had been having a love affair. O’Brien embarks on an unusual and adventurous course when he comes to persuade Antony Maitland to act as counsel for the defence of the doctor. ‘I want Collingwood to have the best representation,’ says O’Brien, not entirely convincingly. Perhaps what O’Brien really wanted was the benefit of Maitland’s insatiable detective energies. The case is both sombre and complicated: the allegation that a doctor has made love to a married woman and then conspired to murder her husband is sensational enough in itself. And to counsel for the prosecution at least, proof of adultery is almost tantamount to proof of murder. Maitland forms the view that if his client is innocent he can be fully cleared in only one way—by demonstrating who is guilty. This is the object of his investigations. The long trial scene, in which O’Brien and Maitland battle for their respective clients, is one of the most effective Sara Woods has ever written. (Publisher’s description)

First American Edition. A near fine copy in a fine dust jacket. The front cover is warped. Dust soiling to the edges of the upper page block.

Gossip is rife in the provincial town of Chedcombe. It seems there have been dark doings at the Restawhile Hotel, actually an exclusive nursing home. Three residents have recently died—all of them very rich. When a fourth succumbs, it becomes clear that Restawhile should be renamed “Rest Forever”. Not surprisingly, a post mortem reveals murder and Antony Maitland is launched on perhaps the most baffling case of his career… one where the best medicine may prove fatal and nothing is what it seems. (Publisher’s description)

After investigating a puzzling case involving a woman's "suicide," Detective Antony Maitland becomes convinced that one of her friends, neighbors, relatives, or mourners is a cold-blooded murderer

This splendid thriller shows us Antony Maitland as Prosecutor, an unusual role for him. Another unusual factor is that, although complete in itself, the story is in a sense a sequel to Weep for Her. A young man has been charged with receiving stolen goods—to wit, a Rubens painting. Since the painting had been found hidden in his rooms, and since it was undoubtedly stolen, his guilt seems certain. But Maitland has his doubts. He becomes more and more intrigued by the prevalence of art thefts, and the violence and death that has taken place, apparently to conceal the identity of the leader of the gang that stole the pictures. In the dock [in another case] is a woman who has confessed to the murder of her husband. Maitland becomes Assistant Prosecuting Counsel for reasons that are not simple. He has a secondary objective; he is not wholly committed to establishing the guilt of the accused. [Publisher’s blurb]

Leonard and Victoria Buckley are a legend of the London stage; in their forth-three married years they have played opposite each other in countless plays, and not the least of their charms is their apparently idyllic marriage. It is a shocked Antony Maitland, then, who learns that Leonard Buckley suspects his wife of trying to murder him. And when Victoria Buckley is killed on stage on the opening night of a new thriller in which she and her husband are once again both cast, the police are quick to pin the murder on the most obvious suspect: Leonard Buckley. But the famous barrister-detective Maitland is not so sure. As his investigation winds its elegant and intricate course, culminating in a dazzling court battle, Sara Woods fans will once again take pleasure in this superb addition to the series, and readers new to Antony Maitland mysteries will have the delightful experience of meeting one of mystery fiction’s most intrepid and attractive heroes.

Urbane lawyer-detective Anthony Maitland finds himself confronting his own uncle when he gets involved in a scandalous case of divorce and murder

In an amusing change of scene, Maitland and Jenny visit New York City, where he investigates a political assassination at the U.N. There's more danger, action, and suspense than in many of Woods' books, and Third-World people and politics are humorously parodies.

Sara Woods is one of England's noteworthy mystery writers. This title features her continuing character, Antony Maitland, a counselor/attorney, who finds himself involved in a protection racket.

Charged with espionage—and bigamy to boot—John Ryder didn’t have a prayer of a defense. His trial was beginning the next morning in the Old Bailey when his desperate barrister turned to Antony Maitland. Ryder swore that he had never laid eyes on the defecting KGB agent who claimed Ryder passed him state secrets… or on the London woman who tearfully described him as her long-lost husband. Maitland guessed at the truth. But the deadly proof lay in the dark world of spies… and in what someone thought was a little white lie. (Publisher’s description)

First US Edition. Pages are clean and binding is tight.

Suave British barrister—detective Antony Maitland sets out to clear his client, a young Yorkshire man accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife

While defending two constables accused of bribery and perjury in a murder linked to the mob, British barrister Anthony Maitland and his uncle, Sir Nicholas Harding, uncover a deadly plot to frame two policemen

Suave barrister-detective Antony Maitland defends an eccentric gentleman accused of killing his infant nephew in order to inherit his late brother's estate

Rehearsal for murder The play in rehearsal at the Cornmarket Theatre has all the earmarks of a smash hit… if sabotage doesn’t bring down the curtain before opening night. Ghostly messages appearing o dressing-room mirrors, dirty tricks, and mysterious “accidents” begin to spook the cast, who believe the theatre is haunted by the angry spirit of Restoration dramatist Sir John Cartwright, the play’s author. But barrister-sleuth Antony Maitland is sure that the things going bump in the darkened theatre have a very human origin. And if he doesn’t unmask the joker jinxing the Cornmarket, the next act could be bloody murder. (Publisher’s description)

Antony Maitland gets caught up in a desperate custody fight that quickly turns into a case of murder

Antony Maitland, the British barrister and his wife, Jenny, find their Yorkshire vacation turned into a nightmare when they discover the murdered bodies of three women and suspect a friend of Jenny's aunt

A Black Mass held in the wine cellar of a staid London mansion? It seemed impossible, although Antony Maitland had proof: a scandalous snapshot and a scrap of paper scribbled with mysterious conjurations. Then the man who had complained of the blasphemous doings turned up dead, his own son accused of the unfilial crime. Six solid citizens swore to the young man’s guilt. But Maitland had his own suspicions—and the devilish task of proving the witnesses were witches—and one of them a killer. (Publisher’s description)