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Murder at the Keyhole: An English Country House Mystery
‘Walling’s name is a guarantee of an absorbing mystery’ New York Times‘Exceptionally well told and skilfully constructed… satisfying and interesting to the last word’ New York Sun‘Has far more movement and bustle than most tales of this kind’ J.B. PriestleyGolden Age of Crime writer R.A.J. Walling’s third-ever crime novel, republished here for the first time in almost a centuryThis 2025 Spitfire Publishers edition includes a complete bibliography of R.A.J. Walling’s crime novels
June 1928, the south coast of England. There were eight men in the library at Newplace Abbey, the country seat of the Redslade family. The door was bolted – the window closed. Seven men heard a the eighth fell dead. Just as they were, they waited for the police. And each man eyed his neighbour furtively, for in their midst there was a murderer. But when the Scotland Yard Inspector came and searched them, to the amazement of all, except young Martin Somerfield, no weapon could be found. Somerfield pointed casually to the great keyhole in the massive oak door and in his cool American voice suggested that perhaps after all the murderer was not one of the seven in the library…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R.A.J. Walling was an English crime novelist and West Country newspaper editor. Robert Alfred John Walling was born in Exeter in 1869, and between 1927 and 1949 he wrote twenty-eight detective novels. He was especially popular in the US, the prestigious New York publishing house, William Morrow & Co, publishing most of his books. Wallings’s novels were also translated into French and Italian by leading European publishers. He is best known for his serial character, Philip Tolefree, a private investigator masquerading as an insurance agent, who starred in twenty-two books. His other serial characters, Noel Pinson, an English barrister and amateur sleuth and retired detective superintendent Joe Grainger featured in Walling’s first published detective novel, The Strong Room (Jarrolds, London 1927). Pinson and Grainger had previously teamed-up in several serial-only detective stories written by Walling, The Fatal Glove and The Fourth Man. Walling died in 1949 at his home in Plymouth, South Devon, aged 80.
PRAISE FOR THE R.A.J. WALLING
‘R.A.J. Walling is an extremely skilful maker of plots and surprises’ Dorothy L. Sayers, The Sunday Times
‘Here is an author who can write rings around most of his rivals, who knows the plot, and never misses a clue’ New York Herald Tribune
‘He writes like a man of the world and his work is for the intelligent, discriminating reader’ New York Telegram
‘Thrills and suspense, a pot puri all ready for the appetite of the most exacting reader of detective fiction’ Boston Transcript
‘R.A.J. Walling handles his clues very carefully’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Contemporary detective stories come no finer than this’ New York World
‘A master of the technique of this type of fiction, and his books are peopled with real human beings instead of puppets’ New York Times
‘The man who invented these incomparable stories is a novelist as many-sided, as gifted, and as significant as any man writing today’ Eden Phillpotts
June 1928, the south coast of England. There were eight men in the library at Newplace Abbey, the country seat of the Redslade family. The door was bolted – the window closed. Seven men heard a the eighth fell dead. Just as they were, they waited for the police. And each man eyed his neighbour furtively, for in their midst there was a murderer. But when the Scotland Yard Inspector came and searched them, to the amazement of all, except young Martin Somerfield, no weapon could be found. Somerfield pointed casually to the great keyhole in the massive oak door and in his cool American voice suggested that perhaps after all the murderer was not one of the seven in the library…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R.A.J. Walling was an English crime novelist and West Country newspaper editor. Robert Alfred John Walling was born in Exeter in 1869, and between 1927 and 1949 he wrote twenty-eight detective novels. He was especially popular in the US, the prestigious New York publishing house, William Morrow & Co, publishing most of his books. Wallings’s novels were also translated into French and Italian by leading European publishers. He is best known for his serial character, Philip Tolefree, a private investigator masquerading as an insurance agent, who starred in twenty-two books. His other serial characters, Noel Pinson, an English barrister and amateur sleuth and retired detective superintendent Joe Grainger featured in Walling’s first published detective novel, The Strong Room (Jarrolds, London 1927). Pinson and Grainger had previously teamed-up in several serial-only detective stories written by Walling, The Fatal Glove and The Fourth Man. Walling died in 1949 at his home in Plymouth, South Devon, aged 80.
PRAISE FOR THE R.A.J. WALLING
‘R.A.J. Walling is an extremely skilful maker of plots and surprises’ Dorothy L. Sayers, The Sunday Times
‘Here is an author who can write rings around most of his rivals, who knows the plot, and never misses a clue’ New York Herald Tribune
‘He writes like a man of the world and his work is for the intelligent, discriminating reader’ New York Telegram
‘Thrills and suspense, a pot puri all ready for the appetite of the most exacting reader of detective fiction’ Boston Transcript
‘R.A.J. Walling handles his clues very carefully’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Contemporary detective stories come no finer than this’ New York World
‘A master of the technique of this type of fiction, and his books are peopled with real human beings instead of puppets’ New York Times
‘The man who invented these incomparable stories is a novelist as many-sided, as gifted, and as significant as any man writing today’ Eden Phillpotts
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 19, 2025
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About the author
R.A.J. Walling
74 books6 followersRobert Alfred John Walling (11 January 1869, Exeter – 4 September 1949 Plympton) was an English journalist and author of detective novels, who signed his works "R. A. J. Walling".
See also Robert Alfred John Walling.
See also Robert Alfred John Walling.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 24, 2025
Good reading, but I didn't think it one of Walling's best; it never achieved the tautness of narrative I hoped for, and the sprinklings of humor were too far between. Don't expect it to be fair-play, either; Walling is still drawing on the tradition of mystery novel as adventure story rather than armchair puzzle.
February 28, 2025
Entertaining !
The best of Walling's tales I have read. A rather odd book, harking back a couple of generations to an older style. I liked it.
The best of Walling's tales I have read. A rather odd book, harking back a couple of generations to an older style. I liked it.
August 15, 2025
This is a waste of time. It is rambling, confusing, and by the end, just plain dull. Don’t bother.
December 11, 2025
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews