Tune to a Corpse: A Golden Age Mystery

by Peter Drax

He called out, ‘Abie!’ The word was swallowed up in the depths of the hall. It was like a morgue. Captain Eric Macrae is down on his luck, living in a cheap London boarding house and on his wits. When chance puts a string of valuable pearls his way, he can’t resist stealing them. But the pursuit of easy money is derailed first by Peggy, a neighbourhood girl who begins to suspect Macrae is up to no good. And then a well-known fence winds up dead … enter Chief Inspector Thompson of Scotland Yard. Tune to a Corpse was first published in 1938, and has remained out of print until this new edition. It includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans. ‘London underworld life is described with colour and realism. The steps in the weakling killer’s descent to Avernus are thrillingly traced.” Saturday Review of Literature ‘I have the highest opinion of Peter Drax’s murder stories … The secret of Peter Drax’s success is his ability to make the circumstances as plausible as the characters are real’ Sunday Times

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Eric Elrington Addis was born on 19 May 1899 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the youngest child of the marriage formed by Emily, the daughter of an officer in the British Indian Army, and David F. Addis, a retired Indian civil servant. Drax attended Edinburgh University, and served in the Royal Navy. In 1926, she married with Hazel Iris Wilson. By his job, the couple lived in New Zealand until his retirement in 1928. They moved to Norfolk, where they had their two children: Valerie A. in 1929 and Jeremy Cecil in 1931, before moved to Charlwood. He studied law and he began practising as a barrister to the Admiralty bar. He recalled to the Navy upon the outbreak of the Second World War, he served on HMS Warspite and was mentioned in dispatches. Her family moved to New Zealand, and his wife started to wrote novels under the pseudonyms Hazel Adair, H. I. Addis and A. J. Heritage, he also started to write under the pseudonym of Peter Drax. He was killed during the war on 31 August 1941, at 42. Between 1936 and 1939, he published six crime novels, his later novel, Sing a Song of Murder, unfinished by him on his death, was completed by his wife, and published in 1944.