He’s a retired business man former stockbroker, I believe quite well off, interested in crosswords and economics, chattily explains Major Markham as he offers Bobby a cheroot of almost unimaginable strength. Yet Punshon never forgets (and neither should his readers) that, even in cases of putatively cozy English country house crime, darkness may come.Īt the behest of Major Markham, formerly of the Indian cavalry, and now Chief Constable of Deneshire, Bobby’s mentor, Superintendent Mitchell, has deputed the young man to serve as a sort of bodyguard for wealthy George Winterton at his domicile Fairview, a Georgian house overlooking Suffby Cove. A little beyond the bridge, a turning from the main road led to Suffby village on the left, and beyond that to the low Georgian house Bobby had seen from the high ground beyond the creek, writes Punshon, surely suffusing the typical devoted Golden Age mystery reader in a warm glow of pleasurable anticipation of murder in stately surroundings. pass degree only), with investigating nefarious goings-on at a country house, that holy of holies in British mystery fiction. In the novel, which pleasingly includes both a sketch map of Suffby Cove and village and a crossword puzzle with clues and a solution, Punshon for the first time tasks his series sleuth, Constable Bobby Owen, B.A. More than any detective novel Punshon had yet published Crossword Mystery beautifully balances puzzle appeal and character interest, the detection of crime and the probing of criminal personality, leading to a remarkable conclusion that readers are unlikely to forget. Crossword Mystery (1934), Punshon’s third Bobby Owen detective novel, not only abides by the Detection Club’s aesthetic precepts, it also validates the accolade that the admiring Sayers had bestowed upon him. Sayers’ glowing commendation for him as a writer first and foremost. Punshon’s induction into the Detection Club in 1933 surely would have come as no surprise to anyone who earlier that year had seen in the Sunday Times Dorothy L. Punshon, all of whom pledged to honor in their detective fiction both the King’s English and the principle of fair play in clue presentation. These initiates were Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson) and E.R. Austin Freeman, inducted, for the first time, several new members. In 1933 Britain’s Detection Club, a social organization founded three years earlier by some of the most renowned detective novelists in the country, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Punshon’s acclaimed Bobby Owen mysteries, first published in 1934 and part of a series which eventually spanned thirty-five novels. Oxon, pass degree only) arrives in the picturesque village of Suffby Cove, he is faced with the mystery of an appallingly ingenious murder – one whose ramifications reach out of England to the continent, and touch the lives of many men and women.Ĭrossword Mystery is the third of E.R. George Winterton turned out to be part of a game for high stakes – it was the creation of a man whose brother had just drowned and who feared for his own life. And yet its cunning formula could still be turned to sinister purpose. What could be more innocent than a crossword puzzle? A game to while away an idle hour, a diversion for the lonely. Punshon we salute it every time." Dorothy L. We recognized it in Sherlock Holmes, and in Trent's Last Case, in The Mystery of the Villa Rose, in the Father Brown stories and in the works of Mr. "What is distinction? The few who achieve it step - plot or no plot - unquestioned into the first rank. This edition features a new introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans. Punshon's acclaimed Bobby Owen mysteries, first published in 1934 and part of a series which eventually spanned thirty-five novels. Oxon, pass degree only) arrives in the picturesque village of Suffby Cove, he is faced with the mystery of an appallingly ingenious murder - one whose ramifications reach out of England to the continent, and touch the lives of many men and women. George Winterton turned out to be part of a game for high stakes - it was the creation of a man whose brother had just drowned and who feared for his own life. Description What could be more innocent than a crossword puzzle? A game to while away an idle hour, a diversion for the lonely.
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