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A unique anthology for crime aficionados - seven of the world's most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation. A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier's mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand... Seven of the world's greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world's most spine-tingling mysteries - all of them astonishingly TRUE. This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction.… (more)
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• Death of Henry Kinder - Helen Simpson: Henry Kinder was the principal teller in the City Bank of Sydney. Initially, it was thought that he had committed suicide by shooting himself. However, it quickly became obvious that he had been murdered by his friend Louis Bertrand, who had been having an affair with his wife.
• Constance Kent - John Rhode: A famous murder case (and inspiration for many authors, including Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone) and Charles Dickens (The Mystery of Edwin Drood)). Young Francis Saville Kent, almost four years old, vanishes one night and his body is found in a privy on the property. Eventually, his half-sister Constance confessed to the crime.
• The Case of Adelaide Bartlett - Margaret Cole: Adelaide Bartlett was tried for the murder of her eccentric, health fanatic husband, Edwin Bartlett. The prosecution was unable to prove just how she had done it.
• An Impression of the Landru Case - E.R. Punshon: A verbose account of the French serial killer, who is known to have taken the lives of at least 10 women and a teenage boy.
• The Murder of Julia Wallace - Dorothy L. Sayers: A very detailed account of the murder of Julia Wallace. Sayers believed that Mrs Wallace's husband, William Wallace, was innocent.
• The Rattenbury Case - Francis Iles: Alma Rattenbury and her young lover (and chauffeur), George Stoner, were charged with murdering her much older husband, Francis Rattenbury.
• A New Zealand Tragedy - Freeman Wills Crofts: Crofts is deeply disturbed by this double murder (he calls it an "abominable murder") and details the fate of the killer with some satisfaction.
Original cover on the boards under the dustjacket.