What do you think?
Rate this book
The Norwich Victims
Book is in Very Good Condition. No notations or highlights. Stored in a protective poly bag for safe shipping
- GenresMysteryCrime20th Century
Paperback
First published January 1, 1935
About the author
Francis Beeding
84 books5 followersFrancis Beeding is the pseudonym used by two British male writers, John Leslie Palmer (1885-1944) and Hilary St George Saunders (1898-1951). The pseudonym was a joint effort and was apparently chosen because Palmer always wanted to be called Francis and Saunders had once owned a house in the Sussex village of Beeding.
The pair met when undergraduates at Oxford and remained friends when they both worked at the League of Nations in Geneva and it was while there that they decided to collaborate on writing detective novels.
Discussing their collaboration at one time Saunders commented, 'Palmer can't be troubled with description and narrative, and I'm no good at creating characters or dialogue.' Whatever the reason it certainly worked.
Palmer was drama critic for The Saturday Evening Review of Literature and also the Evening Standard. As well as his collaboration on detective novels he wrote such as The Comedy of Manners, Moliere and other books on the theatre. He also wrote novels under the pseudonym of Christopher Haddon.
Saunders served with the Welsh Guards in World War I and was awarded the Military Cross. He worked for the Air Ministry in World War II and was the anonymous author of the popular bestseller The Battle of Britain in 1940. It sold over three million copies in England and was translated into 25 languages. He also wrote The Green Beret (1949), an official history of the British commandos. He was librarian at the House of Commons from 1946 to 1950.
Palmer and Saunders' collaboration on detective fiction began with The Seven Sleepers in 1925. It was the first of 17 spy titles concerning Colonel Alastair Granby, DSO, of the Secret branch of the British Intelligence Service. Many of those titles contained a number from one to 13 but they did not run consecutively; for example The Six Proud Walkers was published in 1928 while The One Sane Man was published in 1934. Overall they produced 31 mysteries.
Perhaps their most famous novel was Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931), a title that the Sherlock Holmes scholar Vincent Starrett once described as the best detective novel that he had ever read.
Their novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927) was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as Spellbound in 1945, starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman.
Gerry Wolstenholme
December 2011
The pair met when undergraduates at Oxford and remained friends when they both worked at the League of Nations in Geneva and it was while there that they decided to collaborate on writing detective novels.
Discussing their collaboration at one time Saunders commented, 'Palmer can't be troubled with description and narrative, and I'm no good at creating characters or dialogue.' Whatever the reason it certainly worked.
Palmer was drama critic for The Saturday Evening Review of Literature and also the Evening Standard. As well as his collaboration on detective novels he wrote such as The Comedy of Manners, Moliere and other books on the theatre. He also wrote novels under the pseudonym of Christopher Haddon.
Saunders served with the Welsh Guards in World War I and was awarded the Military Cross. He worked for the Air Ministry in World War II and was the anonymous author of the popular bestseller The Battle of Britain in 1940. It sold over three million copies in England and was translated into 25 languages. He also wrote The Green Beret (1949), an official history of the British commandos. He was librarian at the House of Commons from 1946 to 1950.
Palmer and Saunders' collaboration on detective fiction began with The Seven Sleepers in 1925. It was the first of 17 spy titles concerning Colonel Alastair Granby, DSO, of the Secret branch of the British Intelligence Service. Many of those titles contained a number from one to 13 but they did not run consecutively; for example The Six Proud Walkers was published in 1928 while The One Sane Man was published in 1934. Overall they produced 31 mysteries.
Perhaps their most famous novel was Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931), a title that the Sherlock Holmes scholar Vincent Starrett once described as the best detective novel that he had ever read.
Their novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927) was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as Spellbound in 1945, starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman.
Gerry Wolstenholme
December 2011
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 9, 2023
Another hidden little gem of the Golden Age of Mystery!. The author,(or should I say "authors"), Francis Beeding, is the nom de plume of Hilary St.George Saunders and John Palmer who were very popular in the 1930'-early 40's and had several of their books adapted for the screen.
In this tale, an unmarried, middle aged English school teacher is given a French lottery ticket by her nephew as a joke. To her surprise, she wins a large amount of money but must go to France to collect her winnings. She enlists the help of several people as she is unworldly and has never left her home town. Plans are made and off she goes. Thus begins a well written and complex story that leads to three murders and a twist that may take the reader totally by surprise.
Written in 1932, the book has not dated as badly as one would expect and although it is an Inspector Martin mystery, that character does not play a particularly large part in the story. It is a delight for the fan of early British mystery!
In this tale, an unmarried, middle aged English school teacher is given a French lottery ticket by her nephew as a joke. To her surprise, she wins a large amount of money but must go to France to collect her winnings. She enlists the help of several people as she is unworldly and has never left her home town. Plans are made and off she goes. Thus begins a well written and complex story that leads to three murders and a twist that may take the reader totally by surprise.
Written in 1932, the book has not dated as badly as one would expect and although it is an Inspector Martin mystery, that character does not play a particularly large part in the story. It is a delight for the fan of early British mystery!
March 15, 2021
The killer in this book commits his crimes by strangulation. In a like manner author Beeding has done all he can to squeeze all the life out of his story. It isn't that the characters aren't fleshed-out; it's that none of the characters are interesting enough for the fleshing to do any good. The story is needlessly flat and drawn out. There's constant repetition as though Beeding doesn't feel the reader is intellegent enough to remember what's gone on before. The 4th attempted murder on which the story hangs makes no sense. Presumably he tries to off her because he left a personal item at the scene of the 3rd murder and feared Victim 4 would recognize it. Only how? She had no way of knowing it was left behind so the motive wasn't there. A dull tale, needlessly prolonged, with uninteresting characters and a master plan that stretches credulity. Oh, and doesn't Scotland Yard have a medical examiner? A ME could have cleared up the time of the 1st murder easily, yet the brilliant detective only consults him for the 2nd murder. Sloppy and careless.
August 4, 2017
This is a difficult book to review without giving away the plot. Rather strange that other reader reviews range from 1 to 5 stars and all between. I suppose this just demonstrates that people are looking for different things from a book.
As I like police procedurals, I enjoyed this book immensely although I felt it was a bit slow to get going. Interesting characters, ingenious plot with plenty of clues. However I didn't realise that they were all clues until very late on when I was almost taken by surprise by the ending.
As I like police procedurals, I enjoyed this book immensely although I felt it was a bit slow to get going. Interesting characters, ingenious plot with plenty of clues. However I didn't realise that they were all clues until very late on when I was almost taken by surprise by the ending.
March 21, 2015
This was one of the best police procedurals I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The writing is perfectly matched to the pace of the story, rather in the tradition of Agatha Christie.
March 4, 2017
Brilliant
March 18, 2016
some books go out of print for a reason....I've recently moved to Norwich and am trying to thrilled about it. This book didn't help
June 13, 2017
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
July 18, 2021
This book was original (for its time) by two innovations : photographs in the front of the book, purporting to be the main characters, and the fact that it's clear from the beginning who the murderer is. It starts with a schoolteacher setting off from Norwich to Paris to collect the small fortune she's won in the French lottery, courtesy of a mischievous nephew. She never quite makes it, and the reader follows along with the plotters as they strive to relieve Miss Haslett of her fortune. Inspector Martin, who happens to be engaged to the niece of the owner of the school where Miss Haslett taught, is assigned the case. But it seems Miss Haslett simply disappeared for 24 h before she turned up dead and naked in a different part of the country ! It takes some solid police work, but also some coincidences to solve the confusion, while additional murders follow. Towards the end it became clear that there was actually something else going on, and while I suspected the final solution, I had rejected it as too far-fetched. I still think it's too far-fetched, and actually physically almost impossible.... but this is fiction!
June 24, 2023
What an excellent novel!!It was so convoluted,so clever.I love the way it was written,it just flowed so enjoyably.A great plot,a great whodunit in a way.We know who has done what almost from the beginning.....or do we?Ha....I will definitely have to seek out the other novels now by Francis Beeding ( a pseudonym for John Leslie Palmer & Hilary St.George Saunders ).This will definitely appeal to any fans of golden age crime fiction.I.think it's definitely one of the most enjoyable I've ever read..... brilliant
January 14, 2019
A book that I'd have enjoyed more had I not read glowing reviews of it prior to my getting hands on it. As it is, I could anticipate the twist and thus the book lost its knock-out-quality. On top of it, I am not too convinced about the twist. Nevertheless, a nice read and I esp liked the photos of the characters at the beginning esp, those of Hermione Taylor and John Throgmorton.
*
First Line: "Why not the Tivoli?....
*
*
First Line: "Why not the Tivoli?....
*
September 26, 2018
Excellent read with a stunning conclusion which came as a complete surprise.
The characterisation is excellent and it is good to have positive depictions of strong women.
The narrative carries the reader on compellingly.
Highly recommended.
4.5 stars.
The characterisation is excellent and it is good to have positive depictions of strong women.
The narrative carries the reader on compellingly.
Highly recommended.
4.5 stars.
April 10, 2022
Picked up out of curiosity and found this to be a nice little murder mystery, which chatters along at a good pace, and although old, is not dated.
A rewarding read and an enjoyable piece of escapism .
A rewarding read and an enjoyable piece of escapism .
August 12, 2017
A cast iron classic. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com
March 11, 2021
Rarely am I out plotted. Very good mystery.
December 14, 2023
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
The Norwich Victims is a clever crime novel by Francis Beeding - a pseudonym for English authors John Palmer and Hilary St George Saunders, who met at Oxford and together wrote over 30 novels, including the popular Death Walks in Eastrepps. Each also wrote prolifically under other names through the 1930's.
Spinster schoolmarm Miss Haslett has won the French lottery, and takes a weekend to collect her prize. Amongst the people who know it are the school headmaster, his niece the lovely teacher Elizabeth and Mr. Throgmorton, a stockbroker who instructs her on investments. Within a day, she turns up dead in a sack in the train yard, without possessions. The interesting plot is told as it happens, and we are there when she consults the broker, takes the trip, and is murdered. We know who did it and why, and follow Inspector Martin Green (beau to young Elizabeth) as he interviews various witnesses (aware or unaware of what they have seen) to find an airtight case - Haslett was murdered for her money upon return to England... or was she?
This police procedural appears to be an open book - we see every move and hear the conversations as the story unfolds - but - there is an ingenious twist at the end you will not see coming! A few more murders and a few dead leads keep us entertained until then, not to mention a teacher heavily in debt to the broker and an antique Borgia cameo for sale to keep you distracted. If you are a fan of old mysteries, you'll find this an intriguing puzzle. We know who-done-it right from the start, but even though it is obvious - you were there when he did it - you would be wrong!
Inspector Martin Green appears again in Francis Beeding's No Fury and He Could Not Have Slipped. The partners also had a consecutive titled series including One Sane Man, Two Undertakers, Three Fishers, Four Armourers, Five Flamboys, Six Proud Walkers, Seven Sleepers, Eight Crooked Trenches, Nine Waxed Faces, Ten Holy Horrors, Eleven Were Brave, Twelve Disguises, and There Are Thirteen. Predating Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries and James Patterson's number series, it's interesting to see this gimmick used as early as the 1920's.
The Norwich Victims is a clever crime novel by Francis Beeding - a pseudonym for English authors John Palmer and Hilary St George Saunders, who met at Oxford and together wrote over 30 novels, including the popular Death Walks in Eastrepps. Each also wrote prolifically under other names through the 1930's.
Spinster schoolmarm Miss Haslett has won the French lottery, and takes a weekend to collect her prize. Amongst the people who know it are the school headmaster, his niece the lovely teacher Elizabeth and Mr. Throgmorton, a stockbroker who instructs her on investments. Within a day, she turns up dead in a sack in the train yard, without possessions. The interesting plot is told as it happens, and we are there when she consults the broker, takes the trip, and is murdered. We know who did it and why, and follow Inspector Martin Green (beau to young Elizabeth) as he interviews various witnesses (aware or unaware of what they have seen) to find an airtight case - Haslett was murdered for her money upon return to England... or was she?
This police procedural appears to be an open book - we see every move and hear the conversations as the story unfolds - but - there is an ingenious twist at the end you will not see coming! A few more murders and a few dead leads keep us entertained until then, not to mention a teacher heavily in debt to the broker and an antique Borgia cameo for sale to keep you distracted. If you are a fan of old mysteries, you'll find this an intriguing puzzle. We know who-done-it right from the start, but even though it is obvious - you were there when he did it - you would be wrong!
Inspector Martin Green appears again in Francis Beeding's No Fury and He Could Not Have Slipped. The partners also had a consecutive titled series including One Sane Man, Two Undertakers, Three Fishers, Four Armourers, Five Flamboys, Six Proud Walkers, Seven Sleepers, Eight Crooked Trenches, Nine Waxed Faces, Ten Holy Horrors, Eleven Were Brave, Twelve Disguises, and There Are Thirteen. Predating Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries and James Patterson's number series, it's interesting to see this gimmick used as early as the 1920's.
December 7, 2014
Don't bother. Very silly crime novel. I'm a huge fan of Francis Beeding but this one was a big disappointment.
Coincidences were too forced. Nothing was quite believable. The writing was a bit tired.
Just boring
Coincidences were too forced. Nothing was quite believable. The writing was a bit tired.
Just boring
December 16, 2023
In this tale, one is told who was doing the murders but reading how the murderer was caught was the fascinating part of this book. I quite enjoyed it and was surprised by the ending which was a little unbelievable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews