Pit-prop Syndicate

When Seymour Merriman stopped at the side of the road twenty-six miles outside Bordeaux, little did he know how his life was about to change.

The events that followed would take him through an adventure wrought with mystery, smuggling, murder and love. As this classic tale unfolds, it follows two amateurs in their attempt to unlock the mystery of changing number plates, and all else that surrounds the pit prop syndicate, before the case is handed over to Inspector Willis of Scotland Yard, who through thorough chasing of clues, finally manages to unravel the scheme.

Born in 1879, Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish engineer and one of the preeminent writers of Golden Age detective fiction. Educated in Belfast, he was apprenticed at eighteen to his uncle, who was chief engineer of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. Marrying in 1912, he was to hold various positions in railway engineering before becoming Chief Assistant Engineer, and it was during an illness-induced absence from work that he wrote his first novel, The Cask (1920) which became an international success. Considered a classic of the detective genre, it was followed by a steady production of more than thirty novels, most of which featured the meticulous Inspector French of Scotland Yard. An influential and key pioneer of the genre, Crofts became an early member of the legendary Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley and other established mystery writers. He also wrote numerous plays for the BBC, dozens of short stories, a number of true crime works, and a religious book. Known for tight plots and scrupulous attention to detail, his work set new standards in detective fiction plotting. In 1939, the author was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In retirement from engineering he continued to write and pursued music, carpentry, gardening and travel. He died in 1957.