Böcker av E.R. Punshon

';There's a spot of trouble this morning. Old gentleman found dead in his bath.'Bobby answered: ';there may be one chance in a million it's natural death.'When the notorious gangster Cy King was imprisoned thanks to Commander Bobby Owen's investigation, he spent a good deal of time talking about avenging himself. Now Cy's out of jail, linked to a notorious London nightclub owner, while a man impersonating Bobby has been spotted snooping around in a remote London suburb. The same suburb, as it happens, where a young woman, recently arrived from Canada, has seemingly vanished into thin air. All Bobby's investigations lead to the unassuming borough of Southam, where the disappearance of Elizabeth Smith is compounded by the sudden death of a respectable old man. Cy keep dodging around in the background of the case, but can Bobby bring it home to the old villain or find an alternative solution?The Secret Search, a classic golden age whodunit, is the twenty-eighth novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, originally published in 1951. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans, and a selection of E.R. Punshon's prolific Guardian reviews of other golden age mystery fiction.';What is distinction? in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.'--Dorothy L. Sayers

';Why should anyone want to pinch the daggerexcept to do somebody in?'No one answered this question.Item: one anonymous phone call reporting a murder at a historic country house but no body is to be found. Item: one ornate antique knife, discovered in a village call-box, blood-stains on the blade.Rather than identifying a corpse, Bobby Owen of the Yard has to find out who, if anyone, has actually been killed. Two persons, one a best-selling author, the other no-one's cup of tea, are missing but a particular kind of hat keep turning up in the case which also involves a haunted wood, a hatchet-wielding secretary, and a curious abundance of writers.The Golden Dagger is the twenty-ninth novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, originally published in 1951. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans, and a selection of E.R. Punshon's prolific Guardian reviews of other golden age mystery fiction.';What is distinction? in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.'--Dorothy L. Sayers

';It's murder all right; no one could bash his own head in the way this chap's was.'The stranger's body was discovered by businesswoman Mrs Holcombe, the unofficial queen of Pending Dale. As if there wasn't enough gossip rife in the village, now the Queen may be under suspicion of murder.Talk is cheap, but reputations are valuable but were they worth buying silence at the cost of a man's life? When Bobby Owen of the Yard arrives in Pending Dale to investigate, amid a panoply of local characters and red herrings he discovers a compelling and unpredictable motive. A reason why the unassuming and anonymous commercial traveller had to die The Attending Truth is the thirtieth novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, originally published in 1952. This new edition features a bonus Bobby Owen short story, and an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';What is distinction? in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.'--Dorothy L. Sayers

';The poor devil's mouth was filled with feathers. An unconscious man with his mouth full of feathers wouldn't have had much chance of surviving, and this one didn't.'The press gleefully dubbed it the ';Banquet Murder'. The murdered man, Hugh Newton, had apparently been making a sumptuous feast for two in his flat, before his own goose was cooked.Bobby Owen of the Yard is drawn to the cold case. Starting with the curious fact that the apartment building has experienced two break-ins since the murder, Bobby starts investigating the colourful, or faintly macabre, inhabitants. Elsewhere in London, Doreen Caine, cookery instructor, is excited that the case has been reopened. And further afield, a travel agency specializing in gastronomic tours comes under suspicion. It's a bouillabaise of a mystery, one of Punshon's finest, in which Bobby will discover whether retribution if not revenge is a dish best served cold.Strange Ending is the thirty-first novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, originally published in 1953. This new edition features a bonus Bobby Owen short story, and an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';What is distinction? in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.'--Dorothy L. Sayers