The Mystery of the Evil Eye

A Dr Hailey Detective Novel

By Anthony Wynne

2021

First Published

4.14

Average Rating

260

Number of Pages

7H56M

Audio Length

• ‘A ghastly murder, a first-class detective… exceptionably well written’ NEW YORK TIMES; • ‘Golden Age of Crime’ writer Anthony Wynne’s first-ever detective novel, republished here for the first time in almost a century; • The debut of psychologist-detective DR EUSTACE HAILEY; • ‘He will be a lynx-eyed reader who sees the truth before Dr Hailey’ THE SUNDAY TIMES; • Includes a complete bibliography of Anthony Wynne’s crime novels. SIR WILLIAM ARMAND, a prominent lawyer, is found murdered, stabbed through the eyes near his country house on the Northumbrian coast. The timing appears suspicious, immediately following his order to his daughter, Estelle, to break off her engagement with the man she loves, Jack Derwick. A gruesome white ‘berry’ and a charm against the evil eye imprinted at the base of a tree are found where Sir William met his terrible death. Dr Eustace Hailey, a forty-something surgeon, scientist and amateur detective, investigates and succeeds in running to cover a strange and awful manifestation of distorted passion. ABOUT THE Anthony Wynne was the pen name of Robert NcNair Wilson, a Scottish physician, writer and politician. Wilson began his career as a house surgeon in his native Glasgow, developed a specialism in cardiology and was the medical correspondent of THE TIMES for over thirty years. He wrote over fifty books, his non-fiction under his own name and his ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction as Anthony Wynne. His first crime novel, THE MYSTERY OF THE EVIL EYE, was published in 1925 and introduced his principle literary creation, Dr Eustace Hailey an over-weight, snuff-snorting, Harley Street psychologist-sleuth. Dr Hailey would star in twenty-seven novels and one short story collection. Wilson died in 1963. PRAISE FOR ‘A long-forgotten master’ MARTIN EDWARDS; ‘Wynne excels in the solution of apparently insoluble problems’ DOROTHY L. SAYERS; ‘He is a welcome and refreshing change from the usual run of super sleuth’ MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS; ‘Dr Hailey’s superlative work in the Cyprian Bees has earned him an honorary membership in the exclusive society, The Club of Great Modern Detectives’ ELLERY QUEEN; ‘Dr Hailey again proves his claim to a place among British master criminologists… infinitely satisfying’ NEW YORK TIMES; ‘In the multitude of writers of mystery stories there are few more engaging than the one who chooses to call himself Anthony Wynne… Dr Hailey is an admirable creation’ NEW YORK TIMES.

Avg Rating

4.14

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

49%

4 STARS

22%

3 STARS

24%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Anthony Wynne

Author · 4 books

Anthony Wynne is a pseudonym of Robert McNair Wilson, an English physician, who developed a specialism in cardiology after working as an assistant to Sir James Mackenzie, whose biography he subsequently wrote in 1926. He was born in Glasgow, the son of William and Helen Wilson, (née Turner), He was educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow University and became House Surgeon at Glasgow Western Infirmary. He was Medical Correspondent of 'The Times' from 1914–1942. He twice stood, unsuccessfully, for Parliament, as liberal candidate for the Saffron Walden district of Essex in 1922 and 1923. He wrote biographies and historical works under his own name and a single novel under the pseudonym Harry Colindale. Under Anthony Wynne, he created Eustace Hailey, a doctor in mental diseases and amateur sleuth, who featured in many of his 45 mystery novels, beginning with 'The Mystery of the Evil Eye' (1925) and ending with 'Death of a Shadow' (1950). As Anthony Wynne he also wrote short stories for a variety of magazines and newspapers. He married Winifred Paynter on 7th December 1905 in Alnwick, Northumberland, and the couple had three sons. In the September quarter of 1928 he married again, Doris May Fischel, at Hampstead and they had two sons. He died in the New Forest, Hampshire, on 29 November 1963.