Death Against the Clock

In a small English town, family conflict can be murder... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club If the bus hadn't been in an accident . . . if Dinah James hadn't been late . . . if it hadn't been for the silver pencil . . . everything might have happened very differently. In any event there was a murder, an arrest, a conviction; conclusive evidence as the prosecution and the jury very reasonably thought. When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, was found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night was found in brash young Lennie Hunter's possession, it was he who was to be hanged for the crime. To clear his name, Hunter's fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook who has some very lively explanations of his own as to what sort of evidence he considers conclusive. He charges into the case with his old bounce and vitality; discrepancies and new suspicions begin to emerge. Soon Crook discovers that the victim was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer. 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express