The Groote Park Murder. Freeman Wills Crofts

      

      ‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’

       Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929

      Now the Man with the Gun is back in this series of COLLINS CRIME CLUB reprints, and with him the chance to experience the classic books that influenced the Golden Age of crime fiction.

       Copyright

      Published by COLLINS CRIME CLUB

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by The Crime Club by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1923

      Copyright © Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts 1923

      Introduction © Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts 1937

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1923, 2020

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008159337

      Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008159344

      Version: 2020-01-17

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

PART I: SOUTH AFRICA

I. THE DARTIE ROAD TUNNEL

II. THE POTTING SHED

III. GATHERING THE THREADS

IV. VANDAM FORMS A THEORY

       V. ROBBERY UNDER ARMS

       VI. A PROFITABLE EVENING

       VII. THE SCALA CINEMA

       VIII. VANDAM MAKES UP HIS MIND

       IX. MARION HOPE

       X. THE DEFENCE

       PART II: SCOTLAND

       XI. A FRESH START

       XII. ON THE CRIANLARICH ROAD

       XIII. TOUCH AND GO

       XIV. INSPECTOR ROSS TAKES CHARGE

       XV. THE BALLACHULISH FERRY

       XVI. INTRODUCING SIR ANTHONY SWAYNE

       XVII. MR SANDY BUCHAN

       XVIII. ENLIGHTENMENT AND MYSTIFICATION

       XIX. LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS

       XX. CONCLUSION

       The Detective Story Club

       About the Publisher

       INTRODUCTION

       THE WRITING OF A DETECTIVE NOVEL

      WE are going, you and I, to write a detective novel, or so I am informed. Let us see, then, how we would set about it and what we would find ourselves up against.

      Necessarily we must follow a hypothetical method, for if we asked a hundred detective-novelists how they worked, we should probably get a hundred quite different replies. And we are going to write a detective story, which we are doubtless agreed deals with detection and in which the problem is supreme: not a thriller, which depends on conflict and thrills, nor yet a crime novel, which is the history of some particular crime, usually from the criminal’s point of view.

      Before we begin we must settle one or two points about our detective. Is he to be a gifted amateur, a professional private detective, or a man from the C.I.D.? Is he to be a ‘character’ or an ordinary humdrum citizen? Is he to work alone or to have a Watson? Suppose you settle these points? You have? Then let’s get down to it.

      If we’re lucky we shall begin with a really good idea. This may be one of