The Crime

‘A brilliantly-written detective story’ The Daily Mail‘A detective story of the first order’ Cassell’s WeeklyThe second crime novel of the much-revered crime writer Vernon Loder, writing here as ‘Anthony Lang’This 2024 Spitfire Publishers ebook and paperback edition represent the first republication of this classic of the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ in almost a centuryWired by his employer to attend an unfamiliar address, diamond-merchant clerk, Mr Semple, promptly complies. After all, his boss, Theodore Gainer, is not a man to be questioned. On arrival at No. 8 Balville Terrace, London NW1, he finds another man waiting for an appointment with a third party. Whilst casting his eyes round the nondescript sitting-room, Semple sees a man’s boot protruding from the end of a chesterfield sofa. He draws his new companion’s attention to the grisly discovery; the couch is moved to reveal a very dead Mr Gainer. Or is it? The other man identifies the corpse with equal certainty as James Hubsch. Inspector Pledge of Scotland Yard investigates this puzzling case assisted by insurance enquiry agent, Mr Buckley.About the AuthorAnthony Lang was one of no less than nine pseudonyms adopted by Anglo-Irish detective fiction author, Jack Vahey. Born John George Hazlette Vahey in Belfast in 1881 he worked first as an apprentice architect, then an accountant before finally turning to writing fiction full-time. He is perhaps best known by his ‘Vernon Loder’ pseudonym used on twenty-two of his novels, many published in the prestigious Collins Crime Club, the first The Mystery at Stowe in 1928, the last, Kill in the Ring, in 1938. Jack Vahey died in 1938.Praise for the Author‘Effortless telling of a good story and meticulous observation of the rules’The Observer‘A murder most ingeniously contrived’New York Times‘The name of Vernon Loder must be widely known as a reliable and promising indication on the cover of a detective story’Times Literary Supplement‘Character drawing in Vernon Loder’s strong point’Glasgow Herald