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Arthur Crook #33
Death Against the Clock
In a small English town, family conflict can be murder...
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
If the bus hadn't been in an accident . . . if Dinah James hadn't been late . . . if it hadn't been for the silver pencil . . . everything might have happened very differently.
In any event there was a murder, an arrest, a conviction; conclusive evidence as the prosecution and the jury very reasonably thought. When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, was found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night was found in brash young Lennie Hunter's possession, it was he who was to be hanged for the crime.
To clear his name, Hunter's fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook who has some very lively explanations of his own as to what sort of evidence he considers conclusive. He charges into the case with his old bounce and vitality; discrepancies and new suspicions begin to emerge. Soon Crook discovers that the victim was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer.
'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
If the bus hadn't been in an accident . . . if Dinah James hadn't been late . . . if it hadn't been for the silver pencil . . . everything might have happened very differently.
In any event there was a murder, an arrest, a conviction; conclusive evidence as the prosecution and the jury very reasonably thought. When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, was found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night was found in brash young Lennie Hunter's possession, it was he who was to be hanged for the crime.
To clear his name, Hunter's fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook who has some very lively explanations of his own as to what sort of evidence he considers conclusive. He charges into the case with his old bounce and vitality; discrepancies and new suspicions begin to emerge. Soon Crook discovers that the victim was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer.
'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express
- GenresMystery
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Anthony Gilbert
147 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 26, 2023
The Arthur Crook series is dependable. The writing is always good, there is humour and the characterisation is excellent. The clueing is often ingenious but usually the culprit is not difficult to spot:I have learned to live with the latter since it rarely now spoils my overall enjoyment.
Here the victim is another of Gilbert’s well-realised spinsters, this time of the very unloveable and unloved variety. Emily Foss is mean in mind, spirit and action and, naturally, a pillar of one of the local churches. Regular in habit, and not reticent about it, she proves an easy victim -and the murderer is soon identified and convicted.
This novel dates from 1958 when hanging was still in force as the penalty for murder. Hence the title since Crook has just three weeks in which to prove that Lennie Hunter is innocent.
There are a few suspects and backgrounds to be checked, before the true culprit is revealed in a dramatic finish.
As always, very readable but not too puzzling.
3.5 stars.
Here the victim is another of Gilbert’s well-realised spinsters, this time of the very unloveable and unloved variety. Emily Foss is mean in mind, spirit and action and, naturally, a pillar of one of the local churches. Regular in habit, and not reticent about it, she proves an easy victim -and the murderer is soon identified and convicted.
This novel dates from 1958 when hanging was still in force as the penalty for murder. Hence the title since Crook has just three weeks in which to prove that Lennie Hunter is innocent.
There are a few suspects and backgrounds to be checked, before the true culprit is revealed in a dramatic finish.
As always, very readable but not too puzzling.
3.5 stars.
August 29, 2025
Solid murder mystery from 1958. Lennie, an uncouth Teddy Boy slopes away from a cinema without waiting for Dinah, his girl, whose bus has been delayed by a crash. Meanwhile Emily Foss, a 64 year old spinster, haberdasher and nosy parker has dressed up to attend the 21st birthday party of a neighbouring shop-owner’s daughter. She has been broadcasting her invitation and that she would be bringing not only a valuable present but also her shop’s weekly takings so as not to risk them being stolen. She doesn’t make the party and the police rapidly find our previously impecunious Teddy Boy has come into money and incriminatingly posses Miss Foss’s engraved silver pencil. His sullenness and reluctance to put up any sort of defence (apart from baldly maintaining his innocence) leads him inexorably to court. His future appears bleak but he hasn’t reckoned with the determination of Dinah to save her man. She comes to lawyer/detective Arthur Crook and he agrees to help her. Lots to enjoy here: the establishment attitude to the younger generation; the problems of communication when snowbound; some quirky similes — as curious as a “cheese mite” (which is what I usually say to London taxi drivers in a poor attempt to convince them that I’m local); as persistent as a coffin worm. The embarrassing post war anti-semitism of some characters is still very much in evidence but sympathetically dealt with.
September 10, 2024
There is a lot of fate going on in this book. If only there hadn’t been a freak motorcycle accident that held up the bus to a small quaint village. If only Lennie Hayton, one of those likely lads who doesn’t like work and doesn’t mind crime, hadn’t felt like a little ill timed larceny. If only attorney Arthur Crook hadn’t been brought in to save Lennie from hanging…
A pretty average book with a pretty average murder and a pretty average detective. Well-written in the English manner, with a typical provincial town setting. Crook is less annoying than usual, but that means he is somewhat boring. The result — not really worth reading, but not bad enough to stop in the middle. 2.5 stars, rounded up.
A pretty average book with a pretty average murder and a pretty average detective. Well-written in the English manner, with a typical provincial town setting. Crook is less annoying than usual, but that means he is somewhat boring. The result — not really worth reading, but not bad enough to stop in the middle. 2.5 stars, rounded up.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews