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Published by Collins Crime Club
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London SE1 9GF
Copyright © Martin Edwards 2015
Jacket illustration © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 2015
Martin Edwards asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780008105969
Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780008105976
Version: 2015-04-20
To the members of the Detection Club, past and present.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Members of the Detection Club elected 1930–49
Author Gallery
Part One: The Unusual Suspects
The Ritual in the Dark
A Bitter Sin
Conversations about a Hanged Woman
The Mystery of the Silent Pool
A Bolshevik Soul in a Fabian Muzzle
Wearing their Criminological Spurs
The Art of Self-Tormenting
Part Two: The Rules of the Game
Setting a Good Example to the Mafia
The Fungus-Story and the Meaning of Life
Wistful Plans for Killing off Wives
The Least Likely Person
The Best Advertisement in the World
Part Three: Looking to Escape
‘Human Life’s the Cheapest Thing There Is’
Echoes of War
Murder, Transvestism and Suicide during a Trapeze Act
A Severed Head in a Fish-Bag
‘Have You Heard of Sexual Perversions?’
Clearing Up the Mess
What it Means to Be Stuck for Money
Neglecting Demosthenes in Favour of Freud
Part Four: Taking on the Police
Playing Games with Scotland Yard
Why was the Shift Put in the Boiler-Hole?
Trent’s Very Last Case
A Coffin Entombed in a Crypt of Granite
Part Five: Justifying Murder
Knives Engraved with ‘Blood and Honour’
Touching with a Fingertip the Fringe of Great Events
Collecting Murderers
No Judge or Jury but My Own Conscience
Part Six: The End Game
Playing the Grandest Game in the World
The Work of a Pestilential Creature
Frank to the Point of Indecency
Shocked by the Brethren
Part Seven: Unravelling the Mysteries
Murder Goes On Forever
Appendices
Constitution and Rules of the Detection Club
Bibliography
Index
