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Arthur Crook #12
The Mouse Who Wouldn't Play Ball
A 1943 mystery thriller novel by the British writer Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson. It was the twelfth in a long-running series featuring her unscrupulous London lawyer Arthur Crook, the famous detective from Death in the Blackout. It was released in the U.S. the following year under the alternative title of Thirty Days to Live.
While escaping a false fire alarm at his country house, a miserly but wealthy old man falls down the stairs. Everard Hope was dead. This, at least, was certain. Among those close to him, in the dark, in his dilapidated house, no one mourned him; he had been a greedy and hard man; the heirs presumptive awaited his end with avid impatience.
But Hope's death did not bring them serenity. When his will is examined his greedily expectant relatives are shocked to discover they won't receive any money at all. Instead the entire estate of £100,000 will go to Dorothea Capper, someone none of the disinherited have ever heard of. However to secure her inheritance of the money and the house, she must spend thirty days in the house, despite a clear threat to her life. To help her she calls in Arthur Crook.
Tried and true Mr. Crook apprehending -- without a legal conviction -- a family liquidator, in taking the case of the beleaguered, if dull spinster, Miss Capper, heiress of £100,000 -- if she lives 30 days. Mr. Crook unearths two previous killings while warding off hers, and "snooping" around for information. Mr. Crook quiets his client, and precipitates all issues by a drummed up murder plot.
Film adaptation
In 1944 it was made into a film Candles at Nine directed by John Harlow and starring Jessie Matthews, John Stuart and Beatrix Lehmann.
While escaping a false fire alarm at his country house, a miserly but wealthy old man falls down the stairs. Everard Hope was dead. This, at least, was certain. Among those close to him, in the dark, in his dilapidated house, no one mourned him; he had been a greedy and hard man; the heirs presumptive awaited his end with avid impatience.
But Hope's death did not bring them serenity. When his will is examined his greedily expectant relatives are shocked to discover they won't receive any money at all. Instead the entire estate of £100,000 will go to Dorothea Capper, someone none of the disinherited have ever heard of. However to secure her inheritance of the money and the house, she must spend thirty days in the house, despite a clear threat to her life. To help her she calls in Arthur Crook.
Tried and true Mr. Crook apprehending -- without a legal conviction -- a family liquidator, in taking the case of the beleaguered, if dull spinster, Miss Capper, heiress of £100,000 -- if she lives 30 days. Mr. Crook unearths two previous killings while warding off hers, and "snooping" around for information. Mr. Crook quiets his client, and precipitates all issues by a drummed up murder plot.
Film adaptation
In 1944 it was made into a film Candles at Nine directed by John Harlow and starring Jessie Matthews, John Stuart and Beatrix Lehmann.
- GenresMystery
350 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
About the author
Anthony Gilbert
145 books39 followersAnthony Gilbert was the pen name of
Lucy Malleson
an English crime writer. She also wrote non-genre fiction as
Anne Meredith
, under which name she also published one crime novel. She also wrote an autobiography under the Meredith name, Three-a-Penny (1940).
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 11, 2024
A classic mystery with a bit of a twist. Quite good- loved the character descriptions.
March 26, 2023
"Rich old gentlemen shouldn't die by mysterious accidents when all their relations are on the premises. Poor taste!" A cry of "Fire!" rings out in the night and miserly Everard Hope takes a stumble down the stairs in the dark, but instead of leaving his money to his sycophantic relatives or to his companion-housekeeper, it all goes to an unknown spinster in London with one condition: she must be alive in the 30 days after the will was read. One of the best in the series. Crook takes a bit of a backseat in this one, only turning up with a neat trick by the end, but it was enjoyable reading how feisty Dorothea Capper fends off the attempts on her life.
October 30, 2025
Classic British mystery....still not sure. Arthur Crook is mostly a pushy, fast-talking, lower-class lawyer who solves as many crimes as he defends people....but he has that heart of brass, and a conviction for truth, so you have to respect him. Story is well-written.
May 27, 2022
Delightful. Vintage Gilbert. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews