The Hampstead Mystery

This is a murder mystery thriller which follows the progress of DI Chippenfield as he tries to solve the murder of High Court Justice Sir Horace Fewbanks, who is found shot dead in his Hampstead home. The plot includes a butler with a criminal past, a scorned lover and a hint of scandal. Detective Inspector Chippenfield of Scotland Yard must unravel the plot with the assistance of the ambitious Detective Rolfe. The race is on to sort out the tangled threads of this case and arrest the culprit before he is upstaged by the celebrated gentleman detective Crewe. This amazing case plays out across Hampstead, London and Scotland until it reaches a stunning conclusion in the courts of the Old Bailey. The care with which the story is written, the complicated plot, and the clash of the different practices of man-hunters, lift it out of the common run of mystery tales and make this an absorbing book. England is in the grip of the Second World War and the Blitz has made various government offices move from London. One of the ministers involved is Francis Pettigrew who finds himself in Marsett Bay, a seaside resort. In these new surroundings Pettigrew begins to fall in love with his secretary, Miss Brown, who is also being courted by a widowed man who is much older than her. The ministers are bored and need something to do in their spare time, so they start playing a light-hearted game of 'plan the perfect murder' . Pettigrew, remains detached from the silliness - until a real murder happens, and then he is drawn into solving the mystery. This crime novel was written in 1946. Cyril Hare (1900-1958) was the pseudonym of an English County Court Judge and amateur detective, who spent time during the war at the MInistry of Warfare. Some of the characters in this novel are drawn from these wartime experiences

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