What do you think?
Rate this book
Arthur Crook #9
The Woman in Red
They took her identity - they wanted her life - but they couldn't take her spirit.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When Julia Ross, a jobless and penniless young woman, is sent to meet a prospective employer, she is oblivious to the trap that awaits her. As she rings the bell to 30 Henriques Square, the door opens on a London household ruled by a woman dressed in red with murderous intentions. For Julia is exactly what she needs - someone with no family, no connections, who will not be missed...
Two days later, Julia awakes in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity. And no one will believe anything she says.
But the woman in red hadn't reckoned on a secret admirer even Julia didn't know she had -- and the indefatigable sleuth Arthur Crook.
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club
When Julia Ross, a jobless and penniless young woman, is sent to meet a prospective employer, she is oblivious to the trap that awaits her. As she rings the bell to 30 Henriques Square, the door opens on a London household ruled by a woman dressed in red with murderous intentions. For Julia is exactly what she needs - someone with no family, no connections, who will not be missed...
Two days later, Julia awakes in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity. And no one will believe anything she says.
But the woman in red hadn't reckoned on a secret admirer even Julia didn't know she had -- and the indefatigable sleuth Arthur Crook.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
About the author
Anthony Gilbert
149 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 1, 2015
What a plot-spoiling poster!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWzM... At just over an hour long this was a fab gothic mystery.My Name Is Julia Ross is a 1945 film noir, having also some elements of Gothic fiction, directed by Joseph H. Lewis and based on the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert.
November 9, 2021
What a brilliant mixture of a novel, part crime, part psychological thriller, a hint of romance and a twist of a spy thriller.
A great read that had me hooked from the start, a very clever plot that makes me question even more who I work for...
A great read that had me hooked from the start, a very clever plot that makes me question even more who I work for...
August 16, 2022
I just couldn’t get into this :(( I’m surprised I finished this cause it was only 194 pages but I struggled to stay focused because of how compact the writing and paragraphs were. I felt like the writing was going off tangents a lot which I found made me lose my place in the book.
Want to Read
July 17, 2025My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
February 17, 2020
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
October 14, 2025
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
for over 900 book reviews in all genres
'Anthony Gilbert' is a pillar of detective fiction, alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson, there are over 65 "Arthur Crook" mysteries, The Woman in Red (aka The Mystery of the Woman in Red) being number nine. This theme has certainly been done since, but this feels like the classic first.
Julia Ross is an unemployed twenty-three-year-old in wartime London, where jobs are at a premium. On her last shilling, her only hope is a temp agency that has but one position to fill: secretary companion to a Mrs. Ponsonby, Mayfair. The plump, red-wigged lady is imperious, eccentric, and insists her employee have no family ties, no fiancé or husband, indeed no entanglements at all—the last woman left abruptly for her sick mother. The rate is 100 per year plus board, and weak from missing meals, Julia has no choice but to accept. She begins that night but is told not to unpack; they are leaving for a country home in the morning. They drive for hours to a quiet place where there are no neighbors—and they have forgotten her bags. Right away, she feels trapped, and between Peters, the butler, and Sparkes, the cook, she is never left alone. They lend her toiletries and clothing, all monogrammed 'S.P.' The next day, everyone insists she is Mrs. Ponsonby's niece, Sheila Campbell—all evidence points to it, including her identification. She is told she is suffering from a breakdown, so if she thinks she is another person or suddenly screams, that is only to be expected. Panicked to escape, she realizes she is a complete non-entity, a pawn in a game she doesn't understand. Julia Ross has disappeared.
There is one flaw: Julia befriended a man in a tea room, Colin, awaiting his Irish bride. When he reads an obituary in the paper of a Julia Ross, he contacts freelance detective Arthur Crook of Bloomsbury Court. Unsophisticated and slightly unethical, Crook and his assistant Bill Parsons pull out all the stops to find her, discover what happened to Sheila Campbell, and thwart Mrs. Ponsonby's appalling plan.
One of my favourite classic noir films is My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) starring Nina Foch. The Woman In Red was the basis for the film but changes direction with a different motive. Dead of Winter (1987) starring Mary Steenburgen is a loose remake, again twisting the theme in a unique way.
Malleson also wrote 22 mysteries under the name Anne Meredith - Portrait of a Murderer and Death in Fancy Dress have been reprinted by the British Library's Crime Classics.
This has been republished in 2019 and is widely available in print and ebook.
for over 900 book reviews in all genres
'Anthony Gilbert' is a pillar of detective fiction, alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson, there are over 65 "Arthur Crook" mysteries, The Woman in Red (aka The Mystery of the Woman in Red) being number nine. This theme has certainly been done since, but this feels like the classic first.
Julia Ross is an unemployed twenty-three-year-old in wartime London, where jobs are at a premium. On her last shilling, her only hope is a temp agency that has but one position to fill: secretary companion to a Mrs. Ponsonby, Mayfair. The plump, red-wigged lady is imperious, eccentric, and insists her employee have no family ties, no fiancé or husband, indeed no entanglements at all—the last woman left abruptly for her sick mother. The rate is 100 per year plus board, and weak from missing meals, Julia has no choice but to accept. She begins that night but is told not to unpack; they are leaving for a country home in the morning. They drive for hours to a quiet place where there are no neighbors—and they have forgotten her bags. Right away, she feels trapped, and between Peters, the butler, and Sparkes, the cook, she is never left alone. They lend her toiletries and clothing, all monogrammed 'S.P.' The next day, everyone insists she is Mrs. Ponsonby's niece, Sheila Campbell—all evidence points to it, including her identification. She is told she is suffering from a breakdown, so if she thinks she is another person or suddenly screams, that is only to be expected. Panicked to escape, she realizes she is a complete non-entity, a pawn in a game she doesn't understand. Julia Ross has disappeared.
There is one flaw: Julia befriended a man in a tea room, Colin, awaiting his Irish bride. When he reads an obituary in the paper of a Julia Ross, he contacts freelance detective Arthur Crook of Bloomsbury Court. Unsophisticated and slightly unethical, Crook and his assistant Bill Parsons pull out all the stops to find her, discover what happened to Sheila Campbell, and thwart Mrs. Ponsonby's appalling plan.
One of my favourite classic noir films is My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) starring Nina Foch. The Woman In Red was the basis for the film but changes direction with a different motive. Dead of Winter (1987) starring Mary Steenburgen is a loose remake, again twisting the theme in a unique way.
Malleson also wrote 22 mysteries under the name Anne Meredith - Portrait of a Murderer and Death in Fancy Dress have been reprinted by the British Library's Crime Classics.
This has been republished in 2019 and is widely available in print and ebook.
October 3, 2024
Tense thriller set during WWII. Julia Ross applies for a job as secretary to the sinister Mrs Ponsonby. Despite her misgivings, she accepts the post and before long is taken to a different house with a new identity, and Mrs Ponsonby is telling everyone she is mentally unstable. Luckily her one friend in London has contacted the determined Arthur Crook who will stop at nothing to find out what is going on…
This thriller had everything you could want - a premise straight from a nightmare, chilling villains, psychological terror, an unsentimental but rather touching romance, and a dubious detective who treads a fine line between honest and dishonest. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can see how it was made into a popular film - the tension builds up through several exciting scenes to a really dramatic finale.
Much better than the previous book I read by Anthony Gilbert - Death in Fancy Dress - and I would definitely read more of the Arthur Crook series.
This thriller had everything you could want - a premise straight from a nightmare, chilling villains, psychological terror, an unsentimental but rather touching romance, and a dubious detective who treads a fine line between honest and dishonest. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can see how it was made into a popular film - the tension builds up through several exciting scenes to a really dramatic finale.
Much better than the previous book I read by Anthony Gilbert - Death in Fancy Dress - and I would definitely read more of the Arthur Crook series.
May 22, 2019
Although Arthur Crook is involved in this tale of murder, abduction and attempted murder, it is really a thriller about spies, rather than a detective novel. It is well-written and tense, and has a great atmosphere of menace and chill.
London, and England more generally, at a time of great national peril in 1940, is presented evocatively
and the author skilfully plays on the uncertainty and fears of those times.
It is a much better book than the film, "My Name is Julia Ross", which is loosely based on it. The film retains elements of the novel and some of the names, but contrives a domestic murder plot from it. Despite some fine actors, and some noir-ish cinematography, the film is weaker and more melodramatic.
London, and England more generally, at a time of great national peril in 1940, is presented evocatively
and the author skilfully plays on the uncertainty and fears of those times.
It is a much better book than the film, "My Name is Julia Ross", which is loosely based on it. The film retains elements of the novel and some of the names, but contrives a domestic murder plot from it. Despite some fine actors, and some noir-ish cinematography, the film is weaker and more melodramatic.
February 13, 2022
Wow....what a fantastic read!!I really didn't expect too much after reading the blurb ...but gosh the story really does pull you in!I almost couldn't put it down for wanting to know what was going to happen next!Poor Julia was my constant thought!What would I have done in her position?Mrs Ponsonby is such a vile evil character.... constantly playing on Julia's psychology and emotional state .The fellow conspirator Sparkes is also a horrid person.You really do find yourself hating them both and desperately wanting Julia to escape!!I had an idea this was going to be an almost typical murder mystery of the era but boy was I wrong.i feel now I must definitely seek out all the other novels by Anthony Gilbert because this was just brill....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2024
I had intended to do a bit of housework but instead spent the entire afternoon engrossed in this fast-paced thriller by Lucy Malleson aka Anthony Gilbert.
There is a splendidly Gothic opening where you being to wonder if the occult might be coming into play, genuine dread for Julia and a suitably scary ending which through using switching viewpoints keeps the reader absolutely on the edge of their seats.
I’m not surprised that films have been made of this although it seems a shame that they got rid of the anti-Whimsey Mr Crook. Maybe someone needs to do a new version (can I suggest Eddie Marsan?) restoring Crook and Bill to the story.
Absolute page turner set in the darkness of World War 2 (is there such a thing as WW2 Gothic?) I was riveted until the last page.
There is a splendidly Gothic opening where you being to wonder if the occult might be coming into play, genuine dread for Julia and a suitably scary ending which through using switching viewpoints keeps the reader absolutely on the edge of their seats.
I’m not surprised that films have been made of this although it seems a shame that they got rid of the anti-Whimsey Mr Crook. Maybe someone needs to do a new version (can I suggest Eddie Marsan?) restoring Crook and Bill to the story.
Absolute page turner set in the darkness of World War 2 (is there such a thing as WW2 Gothic?) I was riveted until the last page.
January 12, 2024
Out of the Agatha Christie plot box, Julia Ross goes for interview and finds herself locked in a room with her captives insisting she is someone else. Is she going out of her mind? A fun read for those who love the genre.
April 11, 2022
I really liked this book! Couldn’t see how & why - was an excellent suspense story. Different.
Woman hired as secretary. Boss starts setting scene for woman to lose her identity.
Woman hired as secretary. Boss starts setting scene for woman to lose her identity.
October 30, 2025
A classic British AMystery
August 6, 2026
What started as an intriguing kidnap plot morphs into an unconvincing spy story that has a juvenile feel and a weak ending. Not recommended.
July 10, 2022
it was a good book that got me hooked from the start, but since I was busy with school life, when I was free, I read it and finished it within three days. The book is fast-paced.
March 24, 2026
All the elements that make the Crook mysteries so much fun. I didn't know this one was made into a movie. It should be fun also.
Want to Read
April 27, 2019Synopsis: Julia Ross had vanished and Arthur Crook, eccentric lawyer, persists in finding answers.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews