The Methods of Sergeant Cluff (Paperback)

Gil North

ISBN 10: 0712356479 / ISBN 13: 9780712356473

Published by British Library Publishing, London, 2016

About this Item

Paperback. After battling for justice, at great personal risk, in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff made a swift return to duty in this book. The story opens one wet and windy night, with the discovery of a young woman's corpse, lying face down on the cobblestones of a passageway in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw. The deceased is Jane Trundle, an attractive girl who worked as an assistant in a chemist's shop. She yearned for the good life, and Cluff finds more money in her handbag than she would have earned in wages.There are echoes of Sherlock Holmes ('You know my methods, Watson') in the title, and in an exchange in the first chapter between Cluff and Superintendent Patterson, but Cluff is very much his own man. Little that goes on in and around the mean streets of Gunnarshaw escapes him. He is scornful of detectives who rely solely on supposed facts: 'More than facts were in question here, the intangible, invisible passions of human beings.' Understanding those passions leads him gradually towards the truth about Jane's murder. An attractive young woman is found dead with a handbag of more money than she would've earned in wages. Sergeant Cluff is bought in to gradually find out the truth about the murder. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780712356473

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Methods of Sergeant Cluff (Paperback)
• Publisher: British Library Publishing, London
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712356479
• ISBN 13: 9780712356473
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

It is a wet and windy night in the town of Gunnarshaw, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. The body of young Jane Trundle, assistant in the chemist’s shop, is discovered lying face down on the cobblestones. Sergeant Caleb Cluff is not a man of many words, and neither does he play by the rules. He may exasperate his superiors, but he has the loyal support of his constable and he is the only CID man in the division. The case is his. Life in Gunnarshaw is tough, with its people caught up in a rigid network of social conventions. But as Cluff’s investigation deepens, Gunnarshaw’s veneer of hard-working respectability starts to crumble. Sparse, tense, and moodily evoking the unforgiving landscape, this classic crime novel keeps the reader guessing to the end.

About the Author

GIL NORTH was the pseudonym of Geoffrey Horne (1916-1988), a writer from Skipton who worked as a civil servant in colonial Africa for many years, before returning to his native Yorkshire. The best-known of his novels are the eleven detective stories featuring Sergeant Cluff.