The Ponson Case (Detective Club Crime Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Wills Crofts, Freeman

Genre Fiction

Collins Crime Club

Pit-Prop Syndicate

HARPER/COLLINS

Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy (Inspector French Mystery)

Literary

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the sixth Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.
A MURDER MYSTERY WITHOUT A CLUE
When Sir John Magill, the wealthy Irish industrialist, fails to show up at his home town on a well-publicised visit, neither his family nor the Belfast police can explain his disappearance. Foul play is suspected when his bloodstained hat is discovered, and Scotland Yard is called in. With his characteristic genius for reconstruction, Inspector French evolves a gruesome theory about what happened to the elderly man, but his reputation – and that of Scotland Yard – will depend on finding out who was responsible . . .

Inspector French: Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (Inspector French Mystery)

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the forgotten second novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.
When the body of Sir William Ponson is found in the Cranshaw River near his home of Luce Manor, it is assumed to be an accident – until the evidence points to murder. Inspector Tanner of Scotland Yard discovers that those who would benefit most from Sir William’s death seem to have unbreakable alibis, and a mysterious fifth man whose footprints were found at the crime scene is nowhere to be found . . .
This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean Golden Age mysteries.

A unique anthology for crime aficionados – seven of the world’s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation.
A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier’s mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand… Seven of the world’s greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world’s most spine-tingling mysteries – all of them astonishingly TRUE.
This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction.

The Anatomy of Murder

Simpson, Helen

Iles, Francis

Rhode, John

Detection Club, The

SAYERS,DOROTHY L.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the seminal first novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’ and recognised as one of the ‘big four’ Golden Age crime authors.The unloading of a consignment of French wine from the steamship Bullfinch is interrupted by a gruesome discovery in a broken cask leaking sawdust and gold sovereigns. But when the shipping clerk returns with the police, the cask and its macabre contents have gone. Following the clues to Paris, Inspector Burnley of Scotland Yard enlists the help of the genial French detective M. Lefarge to check motives and alibis in their hunt for evidence of a particularly fiendish murder.This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Freeman Wills Crofts himself in a unique preface from 1946 about The Cask’s origins.

The Cask (Detective Club Crime Classics)

The Groote Park Murder (Detective Club Crime Classics)

From a murder in South Africa to the tracking down of a master criminal in northern Scotland, this is a true classic of Golden Age detective fiction by one of its most accomplished champions.
When a signalman discovers a mutilated body inside a railway tunnel near Groote Park, it seems to be a straightforward case of a man struck by a passing train. But Inspector Vandam of the Middeldorp police isn’t satisfied that Albert Smith’s death was accidental, and he sets out to prove foul play in a baffling mystery which crosses continents from deepest South Africa to the wilds of northern Scotland, where an almost identical crime appears to have been perpetrated.
The Groote Park Murder was the last of Freeman Wills Crofts’ standalone crime novels, foreshadowing his iconic Inspector French series and helping to cement his reputation (according to his publishers) as ‘the greatest and most popular detective writer in the world’. Like The Cask, The Ponson Case and The Pit-Prop Syndicate before it, here were a delightfully ingenious plot, impeccable handling of detail, and an overwhelming surprise ‘curtain’ from a masterful crime writer on the cusp of global success.
This Detective Club classic is introduced with an essay by Freeman Wills Crofts, unseen since 1937, about ‘The Writing of a Detective Novel’.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

The Pit-Prop Syndicate (Detective Club Crime Classics)

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the third standalone novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.
Seymour Merriman’s holiday in France comes to an abrupt halt when his motorcycle starts leaking petrol. Following a lorry to find fuel, he discovers that it belongs to an English company making timber pit-props for coal mines back home. His suspicions of illegal activity are aroused when he sees the exact same lorry with a different number plate – and confirmed later with the shocking discovery of a body. What began as amateur detective work ends up as a job for Inspector Willis of Scotland Yard, a job requiring tenacity, ingenuity and guile . . .
Freeman Wills Crofts’ transition from civil engineer on the Irish railways to world-renowned master of the detective mystery began with The Cask when he was fully 40 years old; but it was his third novel, the baffling The Pit-Prop Syndicate, that was singled out by his editors in 1930 as the first for inclusion in Collins’ prestigious new series of reprints ‘for crime connoisseurs’.
This Detective Club classic is introduced by John Curran, author of The Hooded Gunman, and includes the bonus of an exclusive short story by Crofts, ‘Danger in Shroude Valley’.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the second Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.THE RETURN OF INSPECTOR FRENCHWhen young Maxwell Cheyne discovers that a series of mishaps are the result of unwelcome attention from a dangerous gang of criminals, he teams up with a young woman who is determined to help him outwit them. But when she disappears, he finally decides to go to Scotland Yard for help. Concerned by the developing situation, Inspector Joseph French takes charge of the investigation and applies his trademark methods to track down the kidnappers and thwart their intentions . . .

Inspector French and the Cheyne Mystery (Book 2)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wills Crofts, Freeman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wills Crofts, Freeman

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wills Crofts, Freeman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Ponson Case (Detective Club Crime Classics)

Pit-Prop Syndicate

Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy (Inspector French Mystery)

Inspector French: Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (Inspector French Mystery)

The Ponson Case (Detective Club Crime Classics)

The Anatomy of Murder

The Cask (Detective Club Crime Classics)

The Groote Park Murder (Detective Club Crime Classics)

The Pit-Prop Syndicate (Detective Club Crime Classics)

Inspector French and the Cheyne Mystery (Book 2)