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Arthur Crook #8
The Vanishing Corpse
Laura Verity is an elderly lady with not much money and no past - not someone things happen to. But suddenly her life is plunged into danger, and without lawyer-sleuth Arthur Crook's timely interference, she might have lost it altogether.
One thing she will never lose, though, is her head: the police don't believe her - she proves them wrong. The wine might be poisoned - she'll keep it for Crook to test. Does that car belong to the murderer? She'll just get in and see where he takes her. Together, brave Miss Verity and Arthur Crook uncover the truth about a murder.
One thing she will never lose, though, is her head: the police don't believe her - she proves them wrong. The wine might be poisoned - she'll keep it for Crook to test. Does that car belong to the murderer? She'll just get in and see where he takes her. Together, brave Miss Verity and Arthur Crook uncover the truth about a murder.
- GenresDetective
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1941
About the author
Anthony Gilbert
145 books39 followersAnthony Gilbert was the pen name of
Lucy Malleson
an English crime writer. She also wrote non-genre fiction as
Anne Meredith
, under which name she also published one crime novel. She also wrote an autobiography under the Meredith name, Three-a-Penny (1940).
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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June 13, 2025They Met in the Dark (1943)
May 21, 2019
“You may talk of your Wimseys and Frenches.
Your Priestleys and Poirots and such,
But an ornery yellow
Low dog of a fellow
Called Crook has ’em beaten at touch."
Gilbert was, of course, a stalwart of the Detection Club which she helped to keep going during the difficult years of WW2 and in this bit of doggerel she is poking a little gentle fun at her fellow members, Dorothy L Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts, John Rhode and Agatha Christie. She is also underlining the indisputable fact that her series detective, Arthur Crook, is totally unlike any other detective of the time.
In this, a rather feisty spinster, Laura Verity, becomes involved in solving a case concerning a couple of women who have disappeared. It is easy and engaging to read, and displays touches of ingenuity, but I found the solution a bit of a let-down.
3.5 stars.
Your Priestleys and Poirots and such,
But an ornery yellow
Low dog of a fellow
Called Crook has ’em beaten at touch."
Gilbert was, of course, a stalwart of the Detection Club which she helped to keep going during the difficult years of WW2 and in this bit of doggerel she is poking a little gentle fun at her fellow members, Dorothy L Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts, John Rhode and Agatha Christie. She is also underlining the indisputable fact that her series detective, Arthur Crook, is totally unlike any other detective of the time.
In this, a rather feisty spinster, Laura Verity, becomes involved in solving a case concerning a couple of women who have disappeared. It is easy and engaging to read, and displays touches of ingenuity, but I found the solution a bit of a let-down.
3.5 stars.
May 14, 2024
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Laura Verity thought she was the last person that things would happen to: a little grey-haired lady with not much money and no past, but as my 1941 hardcover Crime Club edition of The Vanishing Corpse declares, "here is a really good, exciting, well-told tale to defeat the black out and repel all thoughts of invasion."
Laura is a 56 year old spinster, and for mainly this reason, there is not much left to live for so she decides to rent a far off cottage to kill herself in. Yes, it's pretty much over at 56. She rents a desolate place in the countryside near Brighton from secretive Mrs. French, and thus settled in for the night she discovers a dead woman in the bedroom, a torn scrap of love letter in her hand. Running off to the nearest town, she returns with the police and friendly lawyer Arthur Crook to find - no body! They think she is a crank (she does run off with flights of fancy and attacks of nerves) but they place her in a local resort hotel and begin to investigate. Never staying in such a place, she is fascinated by the widows and lotharios who reside there, while she herself tracks down who the mysterious lover was, who the dead girl was, where her body disappeared to, who to trust and who continues to attempt to poison her, and whatever happened to Mrs. French who can no longer be found? The public is also riveted with the papers calling it The Brighton Mystery, The Wood Mystery, The Nook Murder, The Case of the Missing Manicurist, with reporters as well as the murderer following the only living witness to the crime. Escaping out of many traps - malicious and accidental - the truth arises, and (although there is a blatant clue submerged within the first pages) I guarantee you will never guess the actual culprit - it's a doozy.
This was fun and involving, although compared to mysteries of the time which tend to be streamlined, this was incredibly talky. Lots of description and what about this what about adding up to a bunch of Who Shot John, as it were. Laura was a real character, and A. Crook an able lawyer cum detective who stars in another Gilbert mystery I have, Death Lifts The Latch. I enjoyed this and for fans of English wartime mysteries and Crime Club titles, it's a solid entry.
Laura Verity thought she was the last person that things would happen to: a little grey-haired lady with not much money and no past, but as my 1941 hardcover Crime Club edition of The Vanishing Corpse declares, "here is a really good, exciting, well-told tale to defeat the black out and repel all thoughts of invasion."
Laura is a 56 year old spinster, and for mainly this reason, there is not much left to live for so she decides to rent a far off cottage to kill herself in. Yes, it's pretty much over at 56. She rents a desolate place in the countryside near Brighton from secretive Mrs. French, and thus settled in for the night she discovers a dead woman in the bedroom, a torn scrap of love letter in her hand. Running off to the nearest town, she returns with the police and friendly lawyer Arthur Crook to find - no body! They think she is a crank (she does run off with flights of fancy and attacks of nerves) but they place her in a local resort hotel and begin to investigate. Never staying in such a place, she is fascinated by the widows and lotharios who reside there, while she herself tracks down who the mysterious lover was, who the dead girl was, where her body disappeared to, who to trust and who continues to attempt to poison her, and whatever happened to Mrs. French who can no longer be found? The public is also riveted with the papers calling it The Brighton Mystery, The Wood Mystery, The Nook Murder, The Case of the Missing Manicurist, with reporters as well as the murderer following the only living witness to the crime. Escaping out of many traps - malicious and accidental - the truth arises, and (although there is a blatant clue submerged within the first pages) I guarantee you will never guess the actual culprit - it's a doozy.
This was fun and involving, although compared to mysteries of the time which tend to be streamlined, this was incredibly talky. Lots of description and what about this what about adding up to a bunch of Who Shot John, as it were. Laura was a real character, and A. Crook an able lawyer cum detective who stars in another Gilbert mystery I have, Death Lifts The Latch. I enjoyed this and for fans of English wartime mysteries and Crime Club titles, it's a solid entry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews