Inspector Stoddart's Murder Mysteries (4 Intriguing Golden Age Thrillers): Including The Man with the Dark Beard, Who Killed Charmian Karslake & The Crime at Tattenham Corner

by Annie Haynes

This carefully edited collection of Inspector Stoddart mysteries has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The Man with the Dark Beard – Basil Wilton is accused of murdering his own father but is he the real killer or is the-man-with-the-dark-beard someone else known to him who is on a murdering spree? How is Basil's to-be father-in-law related to the whole affair? Who Killed Charmian Karslake? – The riddle around the murder of Charmian Karslake, an American actress, gets murkier at every step. Can Inspector Stoddart solve this puzzle? The Crime at Tattenham Corner – A gruesome death just before an important horse race looks out of place until Inspector Stoddart is called in to look into the matter. The Crystal Beads Murder – A broken necklace is the sole clue for Inspector Stoddart to solve a high-profile murder until it's too late! Annie Haynes (1865-1929) was a renowned golden age mystery writer and a contemporary of Agatha Christie, another famous crime writer, which often led to her comparison with the latter, and unfavourably so. Haynes's fictions are now lauded for their quick-pace action and sustaining aura of suspense till the end.

926 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2017

About the author

Annie Haynes was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, UK, in 1864. After her father abandoned the family, she lived with her grandparents, mother and brother on the country estate of Coleorton Hall in Leicestershire, where her grandfather Montgomery Henderson was the landscape gardener.

After her mother's death in 1905 she moved to London, where she lived with a friend, Ada Heather-Bigg. Interested in detective novels and subjects related to crime and criminal psychology, Haynes visited murder scenes and attended trials.

Her first novel, The Bungalow Mystery, was published in 1923, but she had already had several long stories serialised in newspapers, some of which were published as books later. The last of her twelve novels, The Crystal Beads Murder, published after her death, was completed by an anonymous writer.

Haynes died in 1929, having suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis for some fifteen years.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, if you like to read a series in the order of publication, then please be aware that in this volume the order in which to read is 1, 3, 2, 4.

I enjoyed these less on second reading after a 2 1/2 year gap. I feel that the author is somewhat overrated. The first novel, especially, reeks of high Victorian melodrama, and all have a flavour of an age earlier than the late 1920s.

None of the solutions is at all difficult to work out although the last of the four took me a little longer. The fourth novel was finished by another writer after Haynes' death-Anthony Gilbert has been suggested- and the perpetrator was apparently in accord with Haynes' wishes.

However, the motive, that Sybil murdered Saunderson as he had been a witness to her marriage and was, therefore, in a position to stop her making an advantageous marriage to Harold Courtney, is tenuous, since, at the time when she murdered Saunderson, there was only the very remotest chance of Courtenay inheriting a title and estate, and he was, at that time, a very poor prospect.

Nonetheless, very readable and very good value.

[Angela Moslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book

Not bad kept me interested. Will not delete. I can not think of anything more to say I am afraid

[Wayne Snowden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read, have read a lot better.