Moray Dalton - Collection
English| Mystery/Detective | ePUB | 3.35 MB |
Katherine Dalton Renoir (‘Moray Dalton’) was born in Hammersmith, London in 1881, the only child of a Canadian father and English mother. The author wrote two well-received early novels, Olive in Italy (1909), and The Sword of Love (1920). However, her career in crime fiction did not begin until 1924, after which Moray Dalton published twenty-nine mysteries, the last in 1951. The majority of these feature her recurring sleuths, Scotland Yard inspector Hugh Collier and private inquiry agent Hermann Glide.
List:
1. One by One They Disappeared (1929)
2. The Night of Fear (1931)
3. Death in the Cup (1932)
4. The Strange Case of Harriet Hall (1936)
One by One They Disappeared: Elbert J. Pakenham of New York City is among just nine survivors of the sinking of the Coptic – not counting his black cat Jehosaphat. The benevolent Mr. Pakenham has made his fellow survivors joint beneficiaries in his will, his nephew having recently passed away. But it seems that someone is unwilling to share the fortune, as the heirs start to die under mysterious circumstances . . .
Then Mr. Pakenham himself disappears, and Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard suspects dirty work. When a trap is laid that seriously wounds his best friend at the Yard, Superintendent Trask, Collier is certain his suspicions are correct. Into his net are drawn a charming young woman, Corinna Lacy, and her cousin and trustee, Wilfred Stark; a landed gentleman of dubious reputation, Gilbert Freyne, and his sister-in-law, Gladys; an Italian nobleman of ancient lineage and depleted estate, Count Olivieri; and a Bohemian English artist, Edgar Mallory. But Collier will need some unexpected feline assistance before the case is solved.
One by One They Disappeared was originally published in 1929. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
The Night of Fear: A Christmas gathering of young and old in a great country house in England—a masquerade—and the lights are turned off for a game of hide and seek. Silence—then a man’s cry for “Lights!” The lights come on, revealing Hugh Darrow, blind since the War, standing in the main hall, fresh blood dripping from his hands and covering his white Pierrot costume. He tells the story of having discovered a dead man, stabbed through the heart, lying in a curtained window embrasure next to the one in which he was hiding. The murdered man proves to be Stallard, one of the visitors, and a writer of mystery tales. There follows a thrilling tale in which the life of an innocent man hangs in the balance. A grand and baffling tale for the mystery lover.
The Night of Fear was originally published in 1931. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
Death in the Cup: Murder in the poisoned bosom of a genteel, if alarmingly dysfunctional, family in the English countryside.
Dennyford is a “peaceful little place . . . where the most exciting thing that could happen would be the lowering of somebody’s golf handicap. . . .” Or so the locals used to think. But young Lucy Rivers is in love with handsome Mark Armour, the local police’s chief suspect in a most dreadful murder case – the initial slaying (that of Mark’s domineering older sister, Bertha), and another which follows it, appear to have been done by means of arsenic. The true killer is finally unmasked, with credit going to the wily Hermann Glide, working in parallel with Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard.
Death in the Cup was originally published in 1932. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
The Strange Case of Harriet Hall: Harriet Hall, living in her isolated cottage outside the village of Larnwood, might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but why did someone feel the need to kill her on the eve of the arrival of her young niece, Amy? Why had the likeable Deene family seemingly been so in thrall to the late Harriet? The innocent in this classic murder mystery have every reason to be grateful for Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard’s involvement, given the incompetent behavior of the local Chief Constable. But as Collier’s investigation deepens, the case gets stranger still. Finally, however, the guilty are punished – though readers will have to read through to the book’s final, quietly devastating chapter to see just how.
The Strange Case of Harriet Hall was originally published in 1936. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.