Murder by Experts launched Anthony Gilbert's long-running series featuring the shady London lawyer and detective Arthur Crook. Although she had been writing since 1926, this was her first major popular success. The plot revolves around collectors of Chinese antiques. Badly dressed and unappealing, Mr. Crook's appearance often traps murderers. Gilbert uses skillful plotting, lively supporting characters, entertaining dialogue and clever action to tell the story. A strong and popular personality, Crook is not generally the protagonist of the stories, but comes to help when women or children are in peril or an innocent person is blamed for a crime. . .and his clients are always innocent! In this story, Sampson Rubenstein, a wealthy English art collector, has invited several people to his country house to admire his latest acquisition, a very rare and highly valuable Chinese cloak. Fanny Price, a beautiful adventuress, Graham, a dealer in curios, and Simon Curteis, visit the country home to see Rubenstein's collection of Chinese antiquities. Chinese art is his dominant passion and his collection includes a large number of ancient and fabulously valuable cloaks, dresses and other items of clothing. Fanny, an ambitious, intelligent and beautiful woman who fascinates every man who meets her, is middle-aged Graham’s mistress. Curteis is in love with her, he knows that Fanny is dangerous, but doesn't care. Lal, Rubenstein’s wife, is madly jealous of her. Fanny also acts as Graham's agent in buying and selling antiques, especially Chinese antiques. Also in the house is a young photographer artist named Norman Bridie with his girlfriend Rose. Problems erupt on the first night when Rubenstein offers to drive Fanny to the railway station. The weather is atrocious, with heavy rain and fog, and Rubenstein is a notoriously bad and reckless driver. Lal is jealous and makes a scene, but Rubenstein and Fanny leave for the railway station. . . but Rubenstein does not return. Later his car is found at the foot of the cliffs, buried under a fall of rock. Naturally the police expected to find his body there as well, but they do not, and a week or more later he is found stabbed to death in a locked room in his own house. The mystery is narrated by Simon Curteis, an adventurer who has fallen in love with Fanny Price who has been charged with Rubenstein’s murder. Curteis enlists lawyer Arthur G. Crook to help him find the real murder. Anthony Gilbert delivers a twisty plot and a double surprise ending!

Classic golden age mystery from a true icon of crime fiction Circumstantial evidence was as strong as proof at the trial of Viola Ross. Everything pointed to the conclusion that this beautiful woman had smothered her wisp of a husband. But, the twelfth juror, Richard Arnold, held out stubbornly to the end . . . perhaps he knew something which the others didn't . . . perhaps he only guessed. But, he was certain that beautiful Viola Ross could have had neither the heart nor the strength to have murdered her husband, Teddy. When a retrial is ordered, Arnold, haunted by the face of Viola Ross, sets out his own investigation before she faces the second trial for her life! Without Richard Arnold's almost fanatical interference, Viola Ross would have gone quickly to the gallows, for there were too many strikes against her from the beginning. A dead man, for example, alone in the house with his wife, does not get up to hide his alarm clock in a hat box! Moreover, Viola had quarreled frequently and bitterly with her husband over her stepson, young Harry Ross—and it was upon this young man and his life that the obsessed juror, Arnold, concentrated his desperate search for new evidence. Arnold discovered that Harry Ross had had both provocation and opportunity to have murdered his father and, as unbearable as the suspicion was to Arnold, young Ross could have been infatuated with his exquisite young stepmother. Three attempts on his life did not deter Arnold, but before the end of the story, he had learned that the police work more surely than the private individual. The final solution of The Clock in the Hat Box reveals the ingenuity of a plot that places this baffling and delightfully written story high on the list of Gilbert's widely popular mysteries. It is as brilliant a book as any that Anthony Gilbert (pseudonym of [Lucy Beatrice Malleson](https://www.goodreads.com/search/search?q=Lucy%20Beatrice%20Malleson "Lucy Beatrice Malleson")) has written, full of ingenuity, character and refreshing humor.

Laura Verity, tired of life, decides to rent a very isolated cottage in the countryside. On arriving there in the darkness in the middle of the storm, she is shocked to find evidence that there is somebody else in the house. Shortly afterwards she discovers a body of a young woman, strangled to death, on the bed. Terrified, in the morning she hurries into the nearest market town to report the crime, only to find the police dubious about her claims - particularly when they return to the cottage with her and find no body. Only Arthur Crook, a dishevelled lawyer she encounter, is ready to believe her. He suggests that she is now in grave danger from the murderer and persuades her to move to a large, busy hotel in Brighton where she will be safer. The determined Verity perseveres in trying to solve the mystery, assisted at first in an offhand way by Crook. Newspaper publicity at last draws the police into the case, and with Crook's advice they find a body hidden in the well of the cottage. It soon proves to be not the corpse of the missing young woman, but the cottage's previous owner. To add to the confusion Miss Verity has herself now vanished, with Crook concerned that she has fallen into the hands of the murderer.

JULIA ROSS had a dreadful premonition about the new job for which she was applying. But she was hungry and lonely and out of work. Otherwise, she would never have rung the door-bell of that dark, forbidding house at 30 Henriques Square. And when she did, it was too late to retrace her steps, too late to avoid the strange little old woman in red, too late to escape the fateful net about to close in on her. Next morning Julia Ross had vanished completely, as if by magic into thin air! A few days later notice of her death appeared in a London paper But a young man, with whom she used to dine, and Arthur Crook, eccentric lawyer, were skeptical, persistent and patient enough to find sometime later a young woman of another name, halfway across England, being slowly driven to insanity and death.

'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express Middle-aged spinsters of independent means shouldn't answer matrimonial adverts. Agatha Forbes realised this when she saw what her brand new husband kept in his woodshed and screamed in mortal terror. By then her husband's tender caresses had slowly turned into a stranglehold. But, unbeknown to her, the moment that a doctor would scrawl his signature on her death certificate was creeping nearer with each passing day.

The first time Arthur Crook encountered the elderly and forgetful Q.B. Theler, better known as the "Tea Cozy", this one, by mistake, tried to enter Crook's apartment. The Tea-Cozy lived by himself, downstairs; Crook went downstairs with him to investigate a mysterious noise of running taps. Then, while the Tea-Cozy, dazzled and happy, thought he was participating in an experiment on the nature of Time, Crook's eyes discovered a relic of another time; the incredible hat of the aunt of the Tea Cozy. But the aunt was missing. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\* La primera vez que Arthur Crook encontró al anciano y desmemoriado Q.B. Theler, más conocido como el Cubretetera, éste, por error, procuraba introducirse en el departamento de Crook. El Cubretetera vivía solo, en el piso inferior; Crook bajó con él para investigar un misterioso ruido de grifos abiertos. Entonces, mientras el Cubretetera, deslumbrado y feliz, creía participar en un experimento sobre la naturaleza del Tiempo, los ojos de Crook descubrieron una reliquia de otros tiempos; el increíble sombrero de la tía del Cubretetera. Pero faltaba la tía.

A 1943 mystery thriller novel by the British writer Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of [Lucy Beatrice Malleson](https://www.goodreads.com/search/search?q=Lucy%20Beatrice%20Malleson "Lucy Beatrice Malleson"). It was the twelfth in a long-running series featuring her unscrupulous London lawyer Arthur Crook, the famous detective from [Death in the Blackout](https://www.goodreads.com/search/search?q=Death%20in%20the%20Blackout "Death in the Blackout"). It was released in the U.S. the following year under the alternative title of Thirty Days to Live. While escaping a false fire alarm at his country house, a miserly but wealthy old man falls down the stairs. Everard Hope was dead. This, at least, was certain. Among those close to him, in the dark, in his dilapidated house, no one mourned him; he had been a greedy and hard man; the heirs presumptive awaited his end with avid impatience. But Hope's death did not bring them serenity. When his will is examined his greedily expectant relatives are shocked to discover they won't receive any money at all. Instead the entire estate of £100,000 will go to Dorothea Capper, someone none of the disinherited have ever heard of. However to secure her inheritance of the money and the house, she must spend thirty days in the house, despite a clear threat to her life. To help her she calls in Arthur Crook. Tried and true Mr. Crook apprehending—without a legal conviction—a family liquidator, in taking the case of the beleaguered, if dull spinster, Miss Capper, heiress of £100,000 — if she lives 30 days. Mr. Crook unearths two previous killings while warding off hers, and "snooping" around for information. Mr. Crook quiets his client, and precipitates all issues by a drummed up murder plot. Film adaptation In 1944 it was made into a film Candles at Nine directed by John Harlow and starring Jessie Matthews, John Stuart and Beatrix Lehmann.

A Mr. Crook Mystery, from the Author of Death in the Blackout. From inside front cover: No wonder they called Mereshire "The Village That God Forgot!" For over it, like an ominous pall, hung the Curse of the Clevelands—the curse that struck with uncanny force, generation after generation. Always the eldest son of the Earl of Cleveland kept an appointment with Death—one was drowned, one shot, one poisoned, one killed in battle. And then "it" struck Edmund Oliver, who was found at the bottom of a quarry, his neck broken. Was "it" the Curse—or the bloody hands of the village ne'er-do-well, Tom Grigg? Then, years later, Tom Grigg dares to return—and he is murdered! Are these two deaths—a generation apart—connected in any way? That's what Arthur Crook, that solid sleuth, wants to know. The Curse is understandable—it was born of greed—but why should anyone want to get rid of a penniless fugitive? Had he known a secret that someone had to silence? When the police arrest the victim's elderly aunt, Mr. Crook simply must ferret out the answers—or eat that brown bowler of his. The victim was certainly deserving of death, but not the hard, cruel death he found. No one deserved that ...At first, the killer goes unsuspected. Someone else would pay the price for the crime - an innocent woman would pay and the murderer was willing to arrange other, more 'accidental' deaths to ensure it ...until solicitor/detective Arthur Crook steps in. It was sheer luck that caused Arthur Crook, taking an unwanted holiday in November in the little Mereshire Village of Bridges St. Mary, to stumble on a body where no body had any right to be. It was Crook who hardily undertook to work for the defense of the old woman arrested for the crime, who followed the trail from Kings Fossett to Bishop Cleveland, and thence to London; who unraveled the mystery of the strange girl, Stella Reed; who attacked the murderer with his own weapons and at the eleventh hour, when everything seemed lost, who produced the final iota of evidence that brought the criminal to book. In one of his most baffling cases, Crook only has two guiding principles: his client is always innocent and, come hell or high water, he always gets his man.

Some men are born to be murdered Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club Among the visitors to the Vereker's family mansion of Four Acres was Lewis Bishop, a man born to be murdered – the perfect murder victim, a man whom many had every reason to hate and fear. When he is suddenly shot dead one night in the darkness of the library, he leaves behind him only unpleasant memories, a flood of relief, and a pretty puzzle for the police – and a case for the irrepressible and slightly unscrupulous detective Arthur Crook . . . in particularly fine form. Crook only grinned when Peter Vereker burst into his office. They would come to him sooner or later, Crook knew; after all, hadn't everyone connected with that famous family wanted to kill? And now Peter's beautiful cousin would hang unless Crook could find who was guilty. The Verekers family: they Knew What They Wanted... Murder! There was lovely Anne... she would do anything to keep the bitter secret of her lover hidden. Peter... he would be lost if his Aunt turned him out. Tessa... she would force her second marriage through at any cost. Bishop... he hated the family, but he knew how to use each one to suit his fancy. . . except now he was dead! Mr. Crook exposes a family affair. . .

'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' ~Sunday Express 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 . . .

At Dr. Oliver Stuart's office, Rosa East arrives beautiful and terrified. She tells her she is twenty-five years old and is married to a man who is forty years older than her; this man is rich and sick and the two hate each other. Rosa East adds that her husband always tells her that a patient cared for by her wife runs the risk of dying from poisoning. She tries to think that he is joking, but gradually, she falls into an obsession. Shortly after, Mr. East dies on his property in Hinton St. Luke of a heart attack. Arthur Crook, the memorable detective from "Don't open that door!" and "People die slowly", investigates the enigma.

Forget The Girl on the Train - meet the woman who watches from her window, and finds herself caught up in murder... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club 'Watching, fascinated and horrified, she saw thin fingers creep around the edge of the black curtain. Someone from inside was tugging to loosen it . . .' Miss Janet Martin, a 74-year-old spinster of small means and delicate health, finds her chief interest in observing people passing by while sitting at the window of her lone room in Kensington. One day, her attention is caught by a little golden-haired girl called Pamela, whom subsequently she gets to know. It is obvious this child comes from a comfortable home, where she appears to be in the care of a guardian and a charming young governess named Terry. A little later, Miss Martin is taken ill, removed to hospital and finally sent to an Old Ladies' Home outside London. Here she is very lonely, but one day, again watching from the window, she sees a group of children from the Destitute Children's Orphanage coming down the street, and to her amazement and horror she recognizes Pamela. When she tries to make inquiries, however, she is repulsed on all sides and assured that she must be mistaken. Profoundly dissatisfied with this explanation, the old lady persists in her efforts despite obstacles from the matrons and her unsympathetic niece, Doreen Blake. Eventually, she decides to take a risk and contacts private investigator Arthur Crook to explain her predicament. Crook, recognizing the unfamiliar territory, conducts some investigations and eventually unearths a most exciting plot involving murder, attempted murder, fraud and abduction . . .

This is the nineteenth in Gilbert's long-running series featuring the unscrupulous London solicitor Arthur Crook, one of the more unorthodox detectives of the Golden Age. In the spring of 1946, shortly after the Second World War the domineering Lady Bate came to live at the Downs, built by the eccentric Col. Anstruther many years before. War conditions made it necessary for the Colonel's daughter to take in paying guests, but only Lady Bate knew the secret of her past life and the key to her mysterious hermit-like existence. When, in due course, Lady Bate is found dead, a chance remark puts Arthur Crook on the right track, which he follows—but at the risk of his life! Lady Bate's murder threatens to unravel secrets best kept buried. In Death in the Wrong Room, the talented Anthony Gilbert has written a first-rate detective story at once mystifying and well-constructed. It is a story which the legion of Crime Club readers will thoroughly enjoy.

Novelist John Sherren's three elderly relatives were eccentric -and rich. And, by a curious quirk of fate all three died shortly after he visited them. The colonel, a recluse and a conscientious objector to anything modern, went first. Then there was Aunt Isabel, a trusting, timid soul who believed in everything and everyone. She kept falling for unscrupulous fortune hunters (all considerably younger than herself), and finally fell - to her death. Aunt Clara, as shrewd as she was stingy, completed the doomed trio. It was not exactly coincidence that brought Arthur Crook to the scene during this violent upheaval. He just happened to be in the vicinity ... So it was only natural that the famous legal beagle in the brown derby should eventually succeed in nosing out Scotland Yard - a practice which has become almost second nature to him.

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 . . .

Original hardcover published by Random ©1951. A Mercury Mystery featuring Arthur Crook as sleuth. Cover "A triple riddle in death for Arthur Crook.” Unabridged edition in digest format. The neighbors said it was a wonder vicious old Miss Fitzgerald had lived this long. Arthur, who lived directly above the noisome biddy, found the news of the murder positively cheering! Firstly a wicked tongue was silenced; second, it was, for Arthur Crook, a heaven-sent opportunity to confound his ancient enemies, the police.

A serial killer who has a knack of ridding himself of superfluous wives, but destiny sometimes hangs by a single thread, and it is the slenderest of chances that puts one Arthur Crook in contact with the latest of his galaxy of victims. 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant'~Sunday Express Henry's vocation is being a husband. Like the famous English king with whom he shares his first name, Henry first woos, then weds, then kills his wives. When he falls in love with orphan Sarah, Henry takes her to a lonely cottage and her initial happiness at being with him soon gives way to some uncomfortable suspicions. But will anyone reach the isolated spot before Henry deems her a little too inquisitive for her own good?

"If you ever need my help, I'll be there." But by the time he arrived, she had already disappeared... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club Arthur Crook and Miss Pinnegar meet by accident and take to each other on sight, parting with mutual appreciation and an invitation by the detective to call on him professionally should she ever need help - unlikely as that may be. But when Miss Pinnegar receives a visit, it threatens to shake her life to the very foundations. She sends Crook an SOS and he comes on the double, but by then Miss Pinnegar has already disappeared . . . "Anthony Gilbert has real detective power" Manchester Guardian

He tried to help a woman in need - but she's the prime suspect in her husband's murder... Con Gardiner had no family; his work and his one-room flat filled most of his solitary existence, until one evening a strange girl in the street asked him to lend her a pound. Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club Con was attracted to Caro Graves, and puzzled too; he couldn't see what would become of this girl who had just left her husband after a bitter quarrel, and who had nowhere to go. But he was soon to have more to worry about: Caro's husband was dead . . . and Caro was the main suspect. 'Anthony Gilbert's novels show the unsensational type of detective story at its best' ~Daily Telegraph

She lost her memory – now her life is at risk. Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club "Wake up, Sunshine," said the young man on Beachampton Parade to the pretty fair-haired girl in the blue coat. But that was just what she couldn't do. "I don't know where I'm going, because I don't know who I am; I don't know how I got here and I don't know why. And I can't ask the police to help me me, because . . ." Well, why couldn't she? This is the problem confronting the heroine of Anthony Gilbert's new novel. With no home, no name, no past that she could recall, no future she could anticipate, what was she to do? Her isolation was an unconventional one, leading her into a world of suspicion, jealousy and violent death, which in its turn involved the reappearance of a man from the past who could supply the missing links. When lawyer/detective Arthur Crook bumped into this woman (called Barbara) on the parade at Beachampton it became apparent to him that she had no idea who she was. She had been somehow involved in the sudden deaths of two rich old ladies but something had instinctively prevented her from going to the police. Now Barbara finds herself under grave suspicion and fighting for her life. But will Arthur Crook be able to untangle the mystery? Two murders, a daring impersonation, a seeking after identity—these are the mainsprings of the story—with, of course, Arthur Crook, that least conventional of lawyers, to take a hand and unravel as complex a tangle as ever came his way. Ingenious and exciting, Give Death a Name is a fine example of the type of crime story that combines a detective problem with a thrilling story of suspense. 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' ~Sunday Express

In a small English town, family conflict can be murder... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club If the bus hadn't been in an accident . . . if Dinah James hadn't been late . . . if it hadn't been for the silver pencil . . . everything might have happened very differently. In any event there was a murder, an arrest, a conviction; conclusive evidence as the prosecution and the jury very reasonably thought. When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, was found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night was found in brash young Lennie Hunter's possession, it was he who was to be hanged for the crime. To clear his name, Hunter's fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook who has some very lively explanations of his own as to what sort of evidence he considers conclusive. He charges into the case with his old bounce and vitality; discrepancies and new suspicions begin to emerge. Soon Crook discovers that the victim was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer. 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express

The victims were predictable – the murderer was not… Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club It all starts with a personal ad in a newspaper. A middle-aged man is looking for a spouse, and a little too much emphasis is placed on her being without a family. The experienced lawyer and detective Arthur Crook can immediately work out that the man has no real intentions towards his future wife, but does he have it right? Would you marry the man you loved if he were suspected of shooting his first wife? That was Helen Wayland's problem. Blanch French had died of a gunshot wound, and a jury could not decide if it was accident, suicide or murder. Sour, selfish and worth several millions, Mrs. French was just the kind of woman you’d expect to be murdered. And so, in due course, she was. Young, beautiful, capable nurse Helen Wayland hears from a friend that people are saying unkind things about her behind her back. She made her choice, but two years later a second woman died in mysterious circumstances, and once again Paul French's name was involved. Paul's housekeeper, Mrs. Hoggett was the next to die – another murder predicted by all who, unfortunately, knew her well. Since there was no shortage of suspects, it was small wonder the killer eluded the law. And then a lovely young woman came forth with a story of bigamy and blackmail so bizarre it had to be true. All that was needed for proof was yet another corpse… It was thanks to Arthur Crook, that intrepid legal champion of lost causes, that the astonishing truth about both deaths was finally established and the innocent vindicated. Arthur Crook, a charming, unorthodox and brawny British lawyer and detective, cares a lot about his clients and less about formalities. He is the main character in the majority of Anthony Gilbert's crime novels, where he creatively solves murder mysteries and intrigues in 1900s England. The exceptional standards of entertainment and integrity for which Anthony Gilbert is famous are fully maintained when Death Takes a Wife.

Sporting his familiar mustard-colored suit, his bowler hat and his bright yellow Rolls Royce, Arthur Crook is on the scene again. This time the imperturbable little Cockney criminal lawyer is drawn into a tangled case of suave murder than only he can unravel—a case that features as fine a collection of poisonously polite, potential murderers as he has ever been called upon to face. Suggested by a recent famous English murder trial, Anthony Gilbert's latest novel displays all the qualities of subtlety, and uncanny reproduction of the English scene and characters, which have made his previous books so outstanding. At book's end, a double twist of irony gives an added fillip to the proceedings, as knight-errant Crook brings the case to a close with his customary finesse. Devotees of Arthur Crook and Anthony Gilbert, and indeed all lovers of a finely spun tale of mystery, will find Prelude to Murder a happy blend of sophistication and suspense.

Several individuals, occupying a house divided into flats, become connected more than by just living in the same place. One of the residents, Arthur Crook, receives an unexpected visitor at his flat. Miss Chisholm disappears - and this could be the unlikely center of a criminal operation. Everyone is in danger ...

When Arthur Crook's latest client arrived, to consult him, unannounced, at 8:00 in the evening, the red-headed rogue among lawyers already had the published facts of the case at his fingertips. No interesting murder case comes to light without Crook keeping an eye on it, and the case against Hatty Savage—young, attractive and with a chip on her shoulder—was making headlines. Some thought she had been lucky to escape a similar charge not long before and feeling was running high in the neighborhood. Crook attacks the case like a Terrier, a rat and in his own inimitable and explosive way, proves his client's innocence by revealing a cunning killer. She Shall Die also shows once again that Anthony Gilbert has an incomparable mastery of the detective story which is both highly ingenious and continuously entertaining.

'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express It is at a local watering hole, the Duck and Daisy, that lawyer-detective Arthur Crook happens upon a party of men and women calling themselves the Peace Brigadiers. Their mission is to aid refugees from Europe. But it isn't long before Crook suspects one of them is using the premises for criminal ends. And when murder strikes Crook becomes entangled in a treacherous plot . . .

A crime that isn't reported; a mother who's threatened... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club One of Arthur Crook's favorite maxims was "Beware of the invisible witness, the man or woman whose presence can't be guarded against because it can't be foreseen." This never was more true than in this baffling case of death and kidnapping. Just such a witness was Sara Drew when with her 4-year-old son, Mike, she saw the two racing cars go flying down the hill to virtually inevitable tragedy and violent death. She is the only witness to the particularly unpleasant car accident in which an elderly lady and her dog are killed. Nervous of going to the scene of the accident with a child, she reluctantly goes home. There she meets one of the drivers, and is appalled that he has no intention of reporting the incident. And he also threatens to hurt her son if she goes to the police. This is a story of kidnapping—of a young widowed mother driven to desperation by thugs who have killed and will kill again. In her loneliness, and fright Sara finds confidence and encouragement in the cozy and uproarious person of the lawyer/detective Arthur Crook. With her son Mike kidnapped, Detective Crook takes over the case and counters the wiles of desperate criminals . . . Anthony Gilbert tells an exciting story with wit and conviction; Arthur Crook bounds cheerfully through it, redressing wrongs. And the hardships and hazards of a bitterly cold English winter provide a realistic setting. 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express

An ordinary day - which turns to blackmail and murder. Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club What seemed like an ordinary phone call in the middle of the afternoon suddenly plunges its recipient, Simon Crete, into a plot of blackmail and murder. 'Tell him it's no use. I haven't got it,' the mystery woman's voice cried desperately down the line. But who was she? And why was she ringing a man whom she had never seen?

To Sarah Hollis and her flatmates a ramshackle villa in the French Pyrenees seemed to offer the perfect holiday: romantic, restful, remote—that was how the advertisement described the Villa Abercrombie. Sarah went ahead of the others in her own little car. She reached the villa alone. On the way she had met by chance, a man called Arthur Crook, though she could scarcely believe his assertion, made with hearty and cozy vulgarity, that he was by profession a lawyer. A time would come when Sara would have need of Crook's services. . . The villa reminded Sarah of the House of Usher, and the events that befall her there revived the terrifying comparisons. Sarah pegged herself a girl of spirit—and spirit was the quality most needed to save her from the ruthless criminals in whose schemes she became involved. Set in the deep countryside of France, this exciting story tells of Sarah's dangerous predicament, reveals a complex and wicked plot, and shows Arthur Crook in roaring action to foil the villains.

Solange Peters 'died' - and so did the scandal and suspicion that haunted her. So now she has the chance for a new life . . . Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club. "You have been very fortunate," Solange Peter's lawyer told her when she was waiting to leave Rome under a suspicion of murder. "If there had been a prosecution you would have had nowhere to hide. As it is, you have a British passport, an air ticket to London that has been provided upon establishing your identity when you get there a sum of money will be made available to enable you to make your plans for a fresh start in any country except Italy." They had even booked a room for her, in short, every contingency had been covered except the one the most astute lawyer couldn't have foreseen. Into this contingency bursts Arthur Crook, as buoyant and enterprising as ever, to find himself once more involved in a complicated mystery whose by-product was murder. A bizarre accident gave Solange the chance to assume a new identity - and, as Julie Taylor, she set out to do just that, as companion to wealthy, neurotic Bianca Duncan. But soon she is plunged into a distorted and terrifying existence. A menace to Bianca's life is growing daily and a strange young man could expose Julie's masquerade. Suddenly the new identity seems far from safe. Tension and struggle mount until Julie is struggling for her life at the hands of a murderer. A most unusual and ingenious novel begins with a Gothic crime amid scenes of Italian splendor. It peruses its labyrinthine and exciting courses to a spell-binding climax beside the English sea. Mr. Gilbert is at his best here.

Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club May Forbes, forty plus and single, visited Broomstick Common four nights each week to feed the feral cats. It was during one of these visits that she happened to see a masked man suspiciously carrying a spade. Filled with fear for her safety, she accidentally went in the opposite direction and ended up at the Mettlesome Horse, a local establishment where the renowned lawyer, Arthur Crook, happened to be enjoying a drink at the bar. I knew Providence had some reason for making me wallow in that sea of slope, Crook thought as he listened to her story. So when the body of pretty eighteen-year-old Linda Myers was found buried on the Common, he was convinced of it. Then, May Forbes knew what she had seen—and she knew, too, that the murderer had seen her, and that her turn would come next . . . A number of people had good reason for wishing the girl dead, Crook discovered, when he undertook the defense of the man the police had accused. He was soon to realize that someone wanted him dead too. Subsequently, May Forbes, who had spent her entire life working happily at the nearby draper's shop, vanished during her lunch break and never returned. Death Wears a Mask (AKA Mr. Crook Lifts the Mask) takes the ubiquitous Mr. Crook from his beloved London to a village community, where he finds that murder is spelt the same way wherever you come across it.

When an accident begins to look like murder... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club On a quiet country station, Detective Arthur Crook, waiting for the train to London, witnessed a near-fatal accident. Despite the arm of her companion, Miss Imogen Garland slipped and almost fell under the train. No harm was done, and Arthur Crook may have dismissed the incident all together if not for a newspaper article that captured his attention several weeks later. The chatty Imogen makes friends wherever she goes. While waiting for the London train, she confides to fellow passengers Dora Chester and Arthur Crook about her dislike for her companion Miss Styles and the number of accidents she has suffered recently. Her point is proven soon enough, as Imogen nearly ends up under the wheels of a train. This incident raises suspicions for Dora and Arthur, who speculate that the "accident" may have been intentional. Arthur believes that someone like Imogen is bound to become a murder victim, emphasizing the potential risks of living life on one's own terms. A few weeks later, Dora is saddened, yet not overly shocked, to learn that Miss Garland had once again encountered an accident, this time fatal. However, the surprising aspect is the person who actually passed away: It's not Imogen, but Miss Styles, her companion. . . and Imogene has disappeared. The prestigious hotel is plunged into disarray when Miss Styles' downfall occurs, observed solely by the distressed Mrs. Huth, who is unsure of how she will convey the situation to her husband in Surbiton. In the hotel lobby, she stammers to the onlookers, “It was like some great bird, like a great black bird…No one expects to see a body falling through space from…well, from nowhere!” Arthur Crook thus acquired one of his strangest clients and an exceptionally puzzling case. Someone wanted Imogen Garland dead but her singular combination of guile and guilelessness proved unexpectedly tough. As usual, Crook digs deep to unearth an ingenious solution, while remaining at the top of his racy form.

'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant'~Sunday Express Margaret Fielding, the spouse of a prominent QC, stood trial for the homicide of her former spouse a decade ago. She was ultimately acquitted due to insufficient evidence. However, presently, someone is threatening to produce evidence that could potentially incriminate her. Fortunately, Margaret meets Arthur Crook, the detective lawyer to whom the innocent turn, never in vain. When her blackmailer is found murdered, just after she is seen, distraught, leaving the premises, it is to Crook that she confides her tale. But someone knows Crook by reputation, and is anxious that he does not take on Margaret's case.

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.