Part of Series
This is the last Scott Egerton mystery, and a counterpart to The Murder of Mrs. Davenport (1928). The accused and the victim in both books have the same names and a similar relationship. In Davenport, Denis Brinsley was arrested for the murder of his former mistress Helen Davenport, an obstacle to his marriage; in this case, Denis Paget is arrested for the murder of his estranged wife Helen, an obstacle to his marriage. “Be bloody, bold, and resolute” was the advice of the second apparition to Macbeth, and none better was ever given to a murderer. Had the person responsible for the death of Helen Paget followed it, an innocent man would have been hanged; but a passion for safety brought the real culprit to the gallows. Mrs. Paget was found shot dead in a private room of the Apsley Hotel, London. Helen Paget is found shot dead in a private room of the Apsley Hotel in London. Strong suspicion pointed to Denis Paget, the husband of the dead woman. Her murderer has developed a very complex plot to commit the killing without being caught, but he is too clever for his own good. The story develops into an enthralling mystery that will grip and fascinate the reader.
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.
