The Mystery of the Open Window - Couverture souple

Gilbert, Anthony

Couverture souple

ISBN 13 : 9798274490528

Editeur : Independently published, 2026

Synopsis

• ‘An ingenious murder… a good yarn’ New York Times
• ‘The solution of the mystery is ingenious and complicated’ The Scotsman
• ‘A capital, if decidedly gruesome, story, told with a sense of style, an eye for character, and even the saving grace of a humorous touch here and there’ Times Literary Supplement
• Amateur sleuth Scott Egerton’s third case
• This 2026 Spitfire Publishers ebook and paperback edition represent the first republication of this classic of the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ in almost a century
• Includes all the original illustrations, critical to the plot

It was no mere chance that took Scott Egerton, the brilliant young amateur sleuth, to the Poisson d’Or, a dubious inn in an obscure quarter of Paris, on the night that its proprietor expected Sir Hector Ascher, owner of the priceless Ascher Library. On Ascher’s arrival at a late hour, traveling incognito and bringing with him a number of extremely valuable manuscripts, it was obvious that he was in a state of appalling terror. He had been followed his entire journey from London to Paris. Ascher insisted on having his window barred and his door double-locked, but, despite these precautions, on the following morning the window was discovered to have been opened from the inside, although the door was still fastened, while Sir Hector was found stabbed to death near the unused bed. The precious manuscripts had disappeared…

About the Author

Anthony Gilbert was one of four pseudonyms adopted by Lucy Beatrice Malleson, the English novelist who wrote over seventy detective and crime novels between 1925 and 1972. From the age of seventeen, she wrote verse and short pieces for Punch and various literary weeklies. She also wrote as Anne Meredith, J. Kilmeny Keith and Lucy Egerton, but settled on the Anthony Gilbert pen name for her most popular literary creations, earthy, pugnacious, Cockney lawyer-detective Arthur G. Crook and aristocratic amateur sleuth, Scott Egerton. She was an early member of the prestigious Detection Club, and friends with Agatha Christie, who used her Anne Meredith pseudonym as the name for a character in Cards on the Table. Malleson valued her privacy and for many years successfully concealed her identity as the writer of the Gilbert novels, even publishing her memoir, Three-a-Penny, under a pseudonym. Recently reissued under her real name, Three-a-Penny, was selected as a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’. She lived most of her life in London, never married, and died in 1973.

Praise for Anthony Gilbert

‘Unquestionably a most intelligent author. Gifts of ingenuity, style and character drawing’
The Sunday Times

‘Arthur Crook is a lawyer-sleuth worth meeting’
New York Times

‘His stories, like his detective, Mr Crook, have vitality with decent and credible characters and, detection-wise, fair play’
Times Literary Supplement

‘Careful in craftsmanship, scrupulously fair, more than well-written, Anthony Gilbert’s novels show the unsensational type of detective story at its best’
The Daily Telegraph

‘Anthony Gilbert is a master not only of the craft of the crime story, but also of the creation of character and atmosphere’
Irish Independent

‘Mr Gilbert writes extremely well’
E.C. Bentley

‘Anthony Gilbert has real descriptive power’
E.R. Punshon

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Independently published
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798274490528
• Reliure: Tapa blanda
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible