The Paddington Mystery. John Rhode

      

      THE PADDINGTON MYSTERY

      A STORY OF CRIME

      BY

      JOHN RHODE

      PLUS

      ‘THE PURPLE LINE’

      WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

      TONY MEDAWAR

       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 Geoffrey Bles 1925

      ‘The Purple Line’ first published in the Evening Standard 1950

      Copyright © Estate of John Rhode 1925, 1950

      Introduction © Tony Medawar 2018

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

      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: 9780008268848

      Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008268855

      Version: 2018-02-06

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       The Paddington Mystery

       Introduction

       Chapter I

       Chapter II

       Chapter III

       Chapter IV

      

       Chapter V

      

       Chapter VI

      

       Chapter VII

      

       Chapter VIII

      

       Chapter IX

      

       Chapter X

      

       Chapter XI

      

       Chapter XII

      

       Chapter XIII

      

       Chapter XIV

      

       Chapter XV

      

       The Purple Line

       Keep Reading …

      

       The Detective Story Club

      

       About the Publisher

       THE PADDINGTON MYSTERY

      ‘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.

       INTRODUCTION

      THE writer best known as ‘John Rhode’ was born Cecil John Charles Street on 3 May 1884 in the British territory of Gibraltar. His mother was descended from a wealthy Yorkshire family and his father was a distinguished Commander in the British Army who—at the time of his son’s birth—was serving in Gibraltar as Colonel-in-Chief of the Second Battalion of Scottish Rifles.

      Shortly after his birth John Street’s parents returned to England where, not long after John’s fifth birthday, his father died unexpectedly. John and his widowed mother