Loder, Vernon
Description
‘Detective mystery in a sinister old mansion’ Daily Sketch ‘Effortless telling of a good story’ The Observer ‘Exciting’ The Spectator The much-revered
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crime writer Vernon Loder’s first crime novel back in print for the first time in almost a century
The quarter-of-a-million-pound Tarry family fortune is in need of a new owner. The lucky heir is likely to hail from the land of fortune – the USA. And so two Americans descend on the Devon moorland village of Toomerton to inspect the Tarry estate and monumental country house and establish their respective claims. ‘Blood will out’, and indeed it does – out of the caved-in head of one of the men – brutally murdered while asleep in his bed. A man’s gold cuff-link is the only clue left at the scene. Who is the owner of this missing link? Will the elderly amateur sleuth and detective novel fan, Mrs Turnbull, uncover the identity of the murderer before the genial Superintendent Vaux?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vernon Loder 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. Vernon Loder was Vahey’s most productive pseudonym and using this name he wrote 22 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 VERNON LODER
‘Vernon Loder spins out his gruesome tale and does it well’
New York Times
‘A brilliantly-written detective story’
The Daily Mail
‘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
‘A master story-teller’
Manchester Evening News
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