by George Bellairs (Author)

When a doctor is found murdered in a secret room of his mansion, a Scotland Yard detective uncovers a host of deadly secrets in this classic mystery.

As the last stronghold of snobbery in the dying little city of Caldicott, Upper Square is home to the last remnants of old family dynasties. Doctor Beharrell, a prominent physician, is found murdered in a secret room in his home there. And Superintendent Littlejohn is already on the case--because someone warned him of the crime before it was discovered.

Before he solves the case, Littlejohn must bring to light the strange history of the upper ten of Caldicott: a twisting tale of repressions, inbreeding, hatred, and madness. Littlejohn, whom David Holloway, of the News Chronicle, called "the most courteous of all fictional detectives," finds all his good manners are needed to navigate this rarified world of eccentric characters.

Author Biography

George Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1985), an English crime author best known for the creation of Detective-Inspector Thomas Littlejohn. Born in Heywood, near Lancashire, Blundell introduced his famous detective in his first novel, Littlejohn on Leave (1941). A low-key Scotland Yard investigator whose adventures were told in the Golden Age style of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Littlejohn went on to appear in more than fifty novels, including The Crime at Halfpenny Bridge (1946), Outrage on Gallows Hill (1949), and The Case of the Headless Jesuit (1950).

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