Crime at Guildford

8vo., publisher’s instantly-recognisable orange cloth, lettered in black to upper cover and spine; pp. [vi], 7-315, [v, ads]; spine and lower board lightly sunned, slight pushing to spine tips; endpapers browned and a little offset; else a bright, clean copy, lacking the scarce dustwrapper. 

First edition, which was published in the U.S. under the title ‘The Crime at Nornes’.  

The prolific crime writer Freeman Wills Crofts was born in Ireland, but moved to Blackheath near Guildford in 1929, and therefore began to set many of his novels in and around the area. The Hogs Back Mystery was published in 1933, and two years later this, Crime at Guildford followed. His 13th Inspector French novel, the plot follows the accountant of a jewellers firm, who is found mysteriously murdered while attending a meeting at his managing directors house in Guildford - at exactly the same time that the shop is burgled. Coincidence? We think not. 

A lovely novel by one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. 

SKU: 1800164