Whilst a guest of Lord and Lady Blatchington, Dick Prescot finds a stranger dead in the library, a revolver tied to his hand with a piece of string. It transpires that the victim had a profound interest in gaining possession of the world-famous Blatchington rubies, and that very night an attempt was made to steal the gems. Armed with these clues, Prescot attempts to solve the mystery. Many of those attending the country house party were behaving in a suspicious manner, but Prescot finds his sympathies engaged with the very persons he had most reason to suspect. The imminent arrest of the most popular member of the party leads to the summoning of the great detective Mr Henry Wilson, formerly superintendent at Scotland Yard… ABOUT THE AUTHORS G.D.H. and Margaret Cole were a husband and wife detective fiction writing duo who wrote over thirty novels between 1923 and the early 1940s. Much admired at the time (‘The collaborating Coles, have long been known as writers of skilfully constructed detective tales’ New York Times ; ‘Among the most remarkable and efficient of English detective story writers’ Times Literary Supplement ), their success is all the more remarkable because they both led sterling careers in addition to their prodigious crime-writing output; George as an Oxford University economist and Margaret as a socialist politician. Their best-known character, Superintendent Wilson, starred in twenty-three novels. Originally a conscientious Scotland Yarder, Wilson is eventually forcibly retired into private practice after catching-out an ex-Home Secretary. Among their other literary creations are medic turned private detective, Dr Ben Tancred, the prickly and difficult Inspector Tom Fairford and the gentle, old-lady sleuth, Mrs Warrender. G.D.H. Cole died in 1959 and Margaret in 1980. PRAISE FOR G.D.H & MARGARET COLE ‘Any mystery story by the Coles is sure to be worth while’ New York Times ‘Highly recommended to readers who like a good, practical mystery neatly and entertainingly recorded’ Chicago Daily Tribune ‘I enjoy all Mr and Mrs Cole’s stories’ The Sunday Times ‘Mr and Mrs Cole are deservedly noted for their detective stories’ The Scotsman ‘Well-written and carefully planned… will please the most fastidious devotee of mystery stories’ Boston Transcript ‘A really entertaining yarn’ New York Tribune ‘Few crime experts are so consistently good as are the two Coles’ Evening News ‘These famous authors have achieved a flawless technique’ Country Life ‘A Cole story is always a first-class story’ Illustrated London News
Author
George Douglas Howard Cole was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the cooperative movement. He and his wife Margaret Cole (1893-1980) together wrote many popular detective stories, featuring the investigators Superintendent Wilson, Everard Blatchington and Dr Tancred. Cole was educated at St Paul's School and Balliol College, Oxford. As a conscientious objector during World War One, Cole's involvement in the campaign against conscription introduced him to a co-worker, Margaret Postgate, whom he married in 1918. The couple both worked for the Fabian Society for the next six years before moving to Oxford, where Cole started writing for the Manchester Guardian. During these years, he also authored several economic and historical works including biographies of William Cobbett and Robert Owen. In 1925, he became reader in economics at University College, Oxford. In 1944, Cole became the first Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. He was succeeded in the chair by Isaiah Berlin in 1957.
