The Cheltenham Square Murder (British Library Crime Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1464206694 ISBN 13: 9781464206696

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2017

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder

"An absorbing head-scratcher." ―Booklist

In the seeming tranquility of Regency Square in Cheltenham live the diverse inhabitants of its ten houses. One summer's evening, the square's rivalries and allegiances are disrupted by a sudden and unusual death―an arrow to the head, shot through an open window at no. 6.

Unfortunately for the murderer, an invitation to visit had just been sent by the crime writer Aldous Barnet, staying with his sister at no. 8, to his friend Superintendent Meredith. Three days after his arrival, Meredith finds himself investigating the shocking murder two doors down. Six of the square's inhabitants are keen members of the Wellington Archery Club, but if Meredith thought that the case was going to be easy to solve, he was wrong...

The Cheltenham Square Murder is a classic example of how John Bude builds a drama within a very specific location. Here the Regency splendour of Cheltenham provides the perfect setting for a story in which appearances are certainly deceiving.

About the Author:

JOHN BUDE was the pseudonym of Ernest Elmore (1901–1957), an author of the golden age of crime fiction. Elmore was a cofounder of the Crime Writers' Association, and worked in the theatre as a producer and director.

Review:

"Originally published in 1937, this reissue in the British Library Crime Classics series is a clever closed-circle-of-suspects whodunit." (Publishers Weekly)

"Bude, a popular British mystery writer during the 1930s and beyond, crafted a number of impossible murder novels that the British Library has reissued as part of a flood of resurrected mysteries written during the Golden Age of Murder.... An absorbing head-scratcher." (Connie Fletcher Booklist)

"The Cheltenham Square Murder is an intriguing murder mystery of the gentle, cerebral variety. It is not fast paced the detective work could perhaps accurately be described as plodding but it is compelling. There is a real puzzle element to the murder that just demands to be cracked. It is a crime novel for those who enjoy unravelling complex plots, breaking seemingly airtight alibis and using the little grey cells to determine who is psychologically most likely to be a murderer." (Erin Britton nudge-book)