Two men in Hadestone Prison are approaching the end of their sentences for burglary and assault. James Carson is well educated but brutal; Toddy Shaw is a cheerful cockney who considers burglary a sport....

Harborough is a large seaside town on the north-east coast of England, whose local paper, the Harborough Post, mounts a campaign against the city's funfairs. Soon the proprietor of the newspaper, Herbert...

Colonel Jerrod has just six months to live, but he needs a year if he is to save Brackton, the family estate, from crippling death duties. Then his ambitious son, Grant, has an idea, one that involves...

Hector Berrenton returns home from hospital after a serious car accident to find a terse note: San Podino. This is yours. Fallon next.Suspecting Berrenton's car has been tampered with, the North Sussex...

Two threats from a newly released convict - a poacher framed on a murder charge - put Captain Scole, Chief Constable of Brodshire, on his guard. Special men are assigned to protect him.But four days later,...

Cousins James and Charles Morden run a shipping company in Liverpool that is, in the wake of the Great War, struggling. It appears there have been financial irregularities, and then James Morden's body...

A wealthy banker, Sir Garth Fratten, dies suddenly from an aneurysm on the Duke of York's Steps. His doctor is satisfied that a mild shock such as being jostled would be enough to cause Sir Garth's death....

PC John Bragg is young and full of ambition, and with his eye on making Superintendent one day, he squares up to each case that comes his way as an opportunity to show himself brave, reliable and a good...

At a meeting of Quenborough Borough Council, the Mayor, Sir John Assington, is accused by Alderman Trant of wasting money and turning a blind eye to speculators on the make.Then Trant is stabbed with...

Geoffrey Hastings is doing very well for himself: having survived the Great War, he is not only working for wealthy financier Sir John Smethurst but is engaged to his daughter, Emily. Hastings has a rival...

Hilary and John Pansel have muddled along in their cottage in the small community of Bryde-by-the-Sea for ten years, hopeful that John's paintings will ignite a flame of interest in the art world.Now...

Sir Robert D'Arcy, High Sheriff of Brackenshire, harbours a painful memory of what he considers his shameful surrender to the Germans in 1916. Gradually he realises nothing is known of the incident and...

Sir Herbert Sterron is found dead, hanging by the neck from a curtain cord. He had good reason to want to kill himself, so nobody is unduly surprised.But then hints of foul play start to emerge: Sterron's...

Aylwin Hundrych is a diplomat with political aspirations, who was once involved with a French girl, Antoinette, with whom he unwittingly shared details about a royal visit to Paris - details which put...

Detective Constable Henry Campion turns lone avenger when his childhood friend and colleague DC Fred Jordan is shot dead by a gangster who is spared the death sentence. And Campion is convinced there...

Eustace Hendel, head of the younger branch of a rich and titled family, suddenly realises that, as the result of a holiday accident, the question of the succession to the entailed estates holds more than...

A baker's dozen of stories from the Golden Age master of the police procedural: seven from the casebook of Detective Inspector John Poole, whose brilliant work in the The Duke of York's Steps and No Friendly...

Charles Rathlyn has everything - a benefactress, a rich wife and a comfortable country life. But while riding to hounds one day he takes a terrible spill, and, on reviving, finds himself looking into...

The night watchman at Hallams, the long-established Bond Street jewellers, is found dead with his head battered in, and a number of display cases have been rifled. Chief Inspector Burr picks up the trail,...

Great Norne is a small harbour town in East Anglia that once flourished with trade. Now the quiet community is being terrorised by a series of murders: the vicar, Reverend Torridge is found dead on the...

At first it seems that Lord Henry Grayle has taken an overdose of sleeping medicine, but the autopsy reveals a tiny amount of scopolamine along with the draught - harmless in itself, but fatal when mixed...

“A glass of the Dow for Mr. Hessel, please, Rogers, and I’ll have brown sherry.” The wine waiter retired to execute the order and Sir Garth Fratten turned to his guest. “Too much vintage port last night,...

A fine February drizzle was drifting across the course as the numbers went up for the 1952 Royal Cup. Disappointing, because the day had begun fine and this might spoil visibility, blurring one’s race-glasses...

“This is my Chief Clerk’s office, General.” Captain Scole, Chief Constable of Brodshire, threw open the door of a small ill-lit room, lined with shelves and filing cabinets. A uniformed police-officer,...

The great hall of Tassart was lit only by the flickering light of burning logs as Lady Grayle came down the wide, uncarpeted staircase. It was early summer, still light out of doors, but the big house...