Dead to the World: Based on Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery. Francis Durbridge

      FRANCIS DURBRIDGE

       Dead to the World

       PLUS

       The Ventriloquist’s Doll

      WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MELVYN BARNES

       Copyright

      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 Hodder & Stoughton 1965

      ‘The Ventriloquist’s Doll’ first published by Associated Newspapers

      in the Daily Mail Annual for Boys and Girls 1952

      Copyright © Francis Durbridge 1965

      Introduction © Melvyn Barnes 2018

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

      Francis Durbridge 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.

      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: 9780008276355

      Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008276362

      Version: 2018-06-01

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Introduction

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

      

       Chapter Six

      

       Chapter Seven

      

       Chapter Eight

      

       Chapter Nine

      

       Chapter Ten

      

       Chapter Eleven

      

       Chapter Twelve

      

       Chapter Thirteen

      

       Chapter Fourteen

      

       Chapter Fifteen

      

       Chapter Sixteen

      

       The Ventriloquist’s Doll

      

       Footnotes

      

       By the same author

      

       About the Author

      

       Also in This Series

      

       About the Publisher

       Introduction

       Wealthy American Robert Scranton asks Philip Holt to investigate the murder of his son at an English university, with the only leads being a postcard signed ‘Christopher’ and a missing signet ring …

      When Dead to the World was published in March 1967, regular listeners to Francis Durbridge’s radio serials featuring Paul Temple could hardly have failed to be reminded of the plot of Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery, particularly as a new production had been broadcast less than four years earlier. Dead to the World was indeed the novelisation of that radio serial, but with Paul and Steve Temple replaced by photographer Philip Holt, his secretary Ruth Sanders and Detective Inspector Hyde. It was Durbridge’s second novel to feature these characters, their having debuted in his previous book The Desperate People, the novelisation of his 1963 television serial of the same name.

      At that time, Francis Durbridge (1912–1998) was a long-standing, popular and distinctive writer of mystery thrillers for BBC radio and television who was soon to dominate the professional and amateur