Sudden Death: A Peter Clancy Murder Mystery

by Lee Thayer

Sudden Death, first published in 1935 as part of the Red Badge Mystery Series, features private detective Peter Clancy, assisted by his valet Wiggars. Author Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973) published 60 novels during her long career, all but one featuring detective Peter Clancy. Synopsis from the original edition: The body of Marvin Hayden was discovered in his own library, dead from a bullet wound in his head. The pistol was undoubtedly his. The Medical Examiner testified that the shot could have been fired by his own hand. But the old butler, Gillespie, scoffs at the idea of suicide. He knows what he knows. “. . . Caught red-handed. Yes! The two of them together. And blood on his hands! Let them squirm and lie. The truth will out. Even if Mr. Valentine did drag in the smart red-headed detective, Mr. Peter Clancy. But of course he wanted to protect his sister. And if she was in it, so was Mr. James, mind you. And no one but a man’s own old faithful servant to see that justice was done! The master never killed himself, mark you. His sudden death was not suicide but—MURDER!” Lee Thayer’s latest is a thrilling and fiendishly ingenious story—the mystery of the minute. Read the first few pages and you will be unable to put it down.

189 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 27, 2016

About the author

Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973) was an American artist who published sixty mystery novels beginning with "The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor" (1919) and ending, at the age of ninety-two, with "Dusty Death" (1966). All but one feature the red-headed detective Peter Clancy and his valet Wiggar.

Thayer was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Cooper Union and Pratt Institute, New York City. She married Henry W. Thayer in 1909. As an artist and illustrator, she had paintings displayed at Chicago World's Fair, and produced designs for book jackets.