To Make an Underworld

by Joan Fleming

When Robert Escrick, the former chairman of the family firm, decides to disappear because the company is being taken over, he retires early, changes his name and sets off for Cornwall, accompanied by his dog Banjo.

His wife won't notice he's gone, and he's had a house built for him in preparation. But there is a young woman waiting for him there, locked in a bathroom and claiming to have been raped, and the locals take her part against the newcomer. Then she is found murdered, and reality starts closing in on the retreat Robert has escaped to ...

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Joan Margaret Fleming was a British writer of crime and thriller novels. She was educated at Lausanne University.

She married Norman Bell Beattie Fleming in 1932. The Turkish detective Nuri Bey Izkirlak features in two of her books, 'When I Grow Rich and 'Nothing is the Number When You Die'.

Her novel 'The Deeds of Dr Deadcert' was made into a film 'RX Murder'. She won the Gold Dagger award twice, for 'When I Grow Rich' in 1962 and for 'Young Man I Think You're Dying' in 1970.

She wrote 33 novels beginning with 'Two Lovers Too Many' in 1949 and ending with 'The Day of the Donkey Derby' in 1978.