Ludovic Travers Mystery
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The Plumley Inheritance
by Christopher Bush
Part 1 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Have you heard the news, sir?" the waiter said.
"I'm afraid I haven't. What is it?"
"Plumley's dead, sir. Henry Plumley. We just got the news over the 'phone. Suicide they say it was. Anything else you want, sir?"
Out-of-print for over nine decades and one of the rarest classic crime novels from the Golden Age of detective fiction, The Plumley Inheritance, first of the Ludovic Travers mysteries, is now available in a new edition by Dean Street Press.
When the eccentric magnate Henry Plumley shockingly collapses and dies, a great adventure begins for Ludovic Travers, the dead man's secretary, and his comrade Geoffrey Wrentham — a romp with not only mystery and mischief in the offing but murder too.
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Dead Man Twice
by Christopher Bush
Part 3 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"And that's not all. Somers is dead too ... He poisoned himself ... in the lounge!"
The great English boxer Michael France looks set to become the new Heavyweight Champion of the world. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for the forthcoming and decisive match. Ex-CID officer John Franklin is no exception — but once the boxer is apparently murdered (twice), Franklin must join forces with Ludovic Travers once more in a layered and ingenious mystery where Michael France's closest friends are the primary suspects — yet have cast-iron alibis. The final solution involves an ingenious and plausible murder technique, a fine demonstration of Christopher Bush's imaginative and suspenseful plotting at its best.
Dead Man Twice was originally published in 1930. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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Murder at Fenwold
by Christopher Bush
Part 4 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"And that's not all. Somers is dead too...He poisoned himself...in the lounge!"
When the wealthy Cosmo Revere is, killed by a falling tree, ex-CID officer John Franklin and Ludovic Travers chance to be staying in the vicinity. After examining the scene, Franklin determines it was no accident. At the family lawyer's request Franklin and Travers, go undercover at Fenwold Hall, where the dramatis personae, among others, include a bewitching niece, a blustering colonel, and a vicar with a passion for amateur theatricals. Fenwold is a country house beset by secrets...and devious murder.
Murder at Fenwold was originally, published in 1930. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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Dancing Death
by Christopher Bush
Part 5 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
However thorough your search was, I'm convinced the murderer, or the burglar-call him what you will-is still in the house.
Little Levington Hall, the site of the seasonal house party in Dancing Death, is owned by Martin Braishe, inventor of a lethal gas. Unfortunately for Braishe and his houseguests, their fancy-dress ball might more accurately be described as a fancy-death ball. After the formal festivities have taken place place, nine guests remain at the snowbound Hall, along with a retinue of servants. It is at this point that dead bodies most inconveniently begin to turn up at Little Levington Hall, like so many unwanted Christmas presents. It will be up to the eccentric Ludovic Travers, with his companions John Franklin and Superintendent Wharton of Scotland Yard, to solve this most intricate and ingenious of Yuletide mysteries.
Dancing Death was originally published in 1931. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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Dead Man's Music
by Christopher Bush
Part 6 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"If you don't think I'm taking a liberty in saying so, my opinion is that he was knocked down first and hanged after!"
Ludovic Travers starts an investigation of unnatural death by means of an automobile mishap on a rural road. His associate Superintendent Wharton is investigating a suspicious suicide by hanging at the nearby village of Pawlton Ferris. When the supposed suicide turns out to be a case of murder, Travers realizes he recognizes the corpse, despite attempts to alter the dead man's appearance. The plot is thickened by a strange letter sent to Travers by the eccentric and musical Claude Rook. As Travers and Wharton are drawn further into the investigation of the murder, they begin to fit more and more pieces into a weird puzzle, unlocking the strange secret of the dead man's music.
Dead Man's Music was originally published in 1931. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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Cut Throat
by Christopher Bush
Part 7 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Travers looked down at the face. On the collar was a red patch and a long streak. Across the throat was a gash.
Two rival London newspaper tycoons are at daggers drawn. But when Sir William Griffith's corpse turns up in a hamper, his throat cut from ear to ear, the enmity appears to turned deadly. Or is it instead a case of domestic terrorism? Superintendent Wharton of the Yard brings Ludovic Travers into the case and together they investigate a gallery of additional suspects: explorer Tim Griffiths; Sir William's financial secretary, Bland, and his wife; local vicar Reverend Cross; an archetypally sinister butler ... and an intrusive crime reporter, who always seems to find himself in the thick of a crime scene. Wharton and Travers come to believe they have identified their murderer — but how can they break a cast-iron alibi?
Cut Throat was originally published in 1932. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Unfortunate Village
by Christopher Bush
Part 8 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"It was some sort of sudden death?"
Travers made a face. "It certainly was sudden. I'll say it's ten to one it was murder."
Ludovic Travers is asked by an old school friend, Henry Dryden, to investigate the cause of the agitation in the formerly placid village of Bableigh — not to mention the gunshot death, ruled an accident, of Dryden's friend Tom Yeoman, the local impoverished squire. Even after Travers and ex-CID associate John Franklin arrive in Bableigh, however, the spell of unfortunate village "accidents" continues. And now there are rumours of a witches' coven, right in the heart of the community... Can Ludo and Franklin solve the mystery of the strange malaise that has afflicted the unfortunate Bableigh, and return the community to its previous state of pastoral grace?
The Case of the Unfortunate Village was originally published in 1932. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the April Fools
by Christopher Bush
Part 9 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Let us know when you're dead!"
Ludovic Travers had known it was a publicity stunt, all that business about the anonymous threatening letters. He expected a hoax but what he found was two men lying dead on the floor of Crewe's bedroom. To be confronted with murder at eight in the morning was no joke. Norris, the quiet, steady Inspector of Scotland Yard, certainly didn't think so, although during the weeks he and Travers sought to puzzle it all out, he many times remarked, "It was on April Fool's Day, don't forget that." This is one of Bush's masterpieces – an intricate and baffling country house murder mystery.
The Case of the April Fools was originally published in 1933. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Three Strange Faces
by Christopher Bush
Part 10 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Old Hunt slithered in the most amazing way and then fell to the floor. He lay between the seats, face upwards.
Ludovic Travers is on his way by train from Toulon to Marignac. Along for the ride are several suspicious characters, two of whom die en route. Although the murders seem at first unrelated, Travers is able to prove the connection between the two, while diverting the eye of official suspicion from himself. After Travers learns that one of the victim's country house has been burgled soon after the murderous act, the inquisitive sleuth decides to look into the case himself when he returns to England. Soon Travers, his Isotta now replaced with a Bentley, is working in tandem with Superintendent Wharton to solve one of the strangest cases which he has yet encountered. It is one in which some of the darkest of human impulses are exposed, and a twist is guaranteed in the tail.
The Case of the Three Strange Faces was originally published in 1933. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the 100% Alibis
by Christopher Bush
Part 11 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Send someone here quick. There's been a murder!"
Mr Lewton is dead. Stabbed through the back, no possibility of suicide-and no sign of a knife either. The deceased made a phone call summoning a doctor immediately before his own death. And the servant who supposedly reported the murder wasn't even at the scene of the crime, and denies all knowledge. These are among the bizarre opening features of a classic labyrinthine whodunit from a master of the genre-an adventure into which master sleuth Ludovic Travers must plunge himself. This is a tale of cake and conundrum in which every suspect has a water-tight alibi. But trust Travers to solve a virtually unbreakable mystery.
The Case of the 100% Alibis was originally published in 1934. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Seldom, if ever, has the alibi problem been handled so deftly or in such an entertaining manner as Mr. Bush has done in this grade A yarn,"--New York Times
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The Case of the Dead Shepherd
by Christopher Bush
Part 12 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Travers turned to Wharton. "I ask you, George, as a man of the world-do schoolmasters and mistresses have souls full of glamour and passion and intrigue? Are they torn by the same emotions that rend people like us?"
At first the old schoolmaster's poisoning was judged a suicide. But there were too many suspicious circumstances to satisfy Inspector Wharton of Scotland Yard. Why, for instance, had the dead man clung to a large book as he expired? And where is Flint, the school caretaker? Wharton, accompanied as ever by inspired amateur sleuth Ludovic Travers, journey to the grim pile of Woodgate Hill school to find a shocking and unpredictable solution to this murder . . . and then another.
The Case of the Dead Shepherd was originally published in 1934. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Thoroughly engrossing, well written and full of legitimate puzzlement."-Dorothy L. Sayers
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The Case of the Chinese Gong
by Christopher Bush
Part 13 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Murder is easy. It's child's play to commit murder and get away with it."
Unpleasant uncle Hubert is murdered, while playing cards-and surrounded by any number of relatives, who stand to gain by his death. An impossible crime, it seems, though it turns out three of his nephews were intending to despatch the old tyrant anyway! In this classic country house whodunit, the redoubtable Ludovic Travers will have to wade through a quagmire of clues and red herrings, and employ his most impressive deductive powers if he is to unmask and prove the murderer.
The Case of the Chinese Gong was originally published in 1935. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Monday Murders
by Christopher Bush
Part 14 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Murder on Mondays! Greatest prophecy of the century! T.P. Luffham was murdered!
Ferdinand Pole of the Murder League claims that, since 1918, thirteen murders have been committed on a Monday. A sleazy economist has now been slain, followed the next week by a blameless actress-both on Monday. While the press have a field day, it is up to Inspector Wharton of Scotland Yard, along with his inspired amateur co-investigator Ludovic Travers, to see if London has a new Jack the Ripper at work. The eccentric parrot-owning Pole seems to be out to implicate himself in the murders, though whether this is bravado or fact remains very much in question . . . This sly, often satirical, whodunit shows a master of classic mystery on top form.
The Case of the Monday Murders was originally published in 1936. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
Travers: "As for my methods of crime detection-well, I haven't any. For that my only tool is a brain that has been called agile, sharpened on crosswords rather than chess."
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The Case of the Bonfire Body
by Christopher Bush
Part 15 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"It's terrible. It's a body . . . the head cut off . . . and the hands."
Who is-or was-the headless, handless corpse, found discarded on a bonfire? This baffling case of identity leads to a dead doctor who, according to information received, committed murder himself and was in turn murdered by his victim. A contradiction in terms-or is it? The solution to this mystery involves a taciturn match-seller, unbreakable alibis and several double identities on the part of both the murderer and the victim. The case is dazzling in its ingenuity, as well as being one of the more chilling cases in Ludovic Travers's colourful investigative career. This is a story containing surprises which will satisfy all fans of golden age detective fiction.
The Case of the Bonfire Body was originally published in 1936. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
Travers: "As for my methods of crime detection-well, I haven't any. For that my only tool is a brain that has been called agile, sharpened on crosswords rather than chess."
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The Case of the Missing Minutes
by Christopher Bush
Part 16 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Travers looked down at the thing that sprawled. The head gave a last movement, and there was a faint sound like a tired moan. The time was eight minutes to eight.
Ludovic Travers is approached by his sister after tales of strange doings and horrible night shrieks in a country house called Highways. Travers makes an investigatory visit, where he finds stabbed to death the bizarre old man who was living at the house with his 10-year-old granddaughter. Among the prime suspects are the child's tutor, and a classical pianist who happens to be in the village on holiday. But airtight alibis abound, hinging on an ingenious manipulation of time. Chief Constable Major Tempest and his subordinates Inspector Carry and Sergeant Polegate are delighted to have the resourceful Travers's help in finding the murderer.
The Case of the Missing Minutes was originally published in 1937. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Refreshingly different from that of the general run of detective novels. . ."--Times Literary Supplement
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The Case of the Hanging Rope
by Christopher Bush
Part 17 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"You needn't look impatient, sir. He'll be finished with you long before dinner.ˮ
Who has murdered the beautiful Sonia Vorge in her bridal bed? Why is the sinisterly looped rope hanging from the oak-beam? And what has the ghost of Montage Hall to do with it all? These are the problems confronting Ludovic Travers, and he rapidly finds that there is much more in this than meets the eye-and that there are things even Superintendent Wharton must not be told.
Belgian hares, missing masterpieces, the mysterious man from Odessa-Travers, with methods as unorthodox as they are brilliant, finally sees their significance and solves the case.
The Case of the Hanging Rope was originally published in 1937. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
Travers: "As for my methods of crime detection-well, I haven't any. For that my only tool is a brain that has been called agile, sharpened on crosswords rather than chess."
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The Case of the Tudor Queen
by Christopher Bush
Part 18 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
'I judge him to have been dead just about twenty-four hours. Suicide, almost certainly.'
Ludovic Travers polished his eyeglasses. Inspector Wharton grunted, sure signs of impending mystery. And, they were right.
The car took the wrong turning and landed them in double murder dressed as suicide. In one room, made up for her principal success, Mary Tudor, was Mary Legreye, poisoned on her throne. In the next, the handyman-dead on the floor. Nothing initially justifies arrest-but Travers pursues his hunch, breaks a cast-iron alibi, and justifies, as never before, his reputation for unerring intuition.
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The Case of the Leaning Man
by Christopher Bush
Part 19 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Palmer saw him out, and gave that little deprecatory cough.
"If you'll pardon me, sir, is it another murder?"
"Looks like it," Travers told him from the door.
This affair of Ludovic Travers and George "the General" Wharton is packed full with sleuthing excitement, during which three men die, and the careers of four people are ruined before the round-up is accomplished. The leaning man, the kingpin of the plot, meets his death outside a London theatre.
Travers soon finds a link between this case and the murder of a Maharajah, and is curious to know why the actor, Sir Jerome Haire, is involved. In finding out, he brings under suspicion Joy and Bernice Haire, Sir Jerome's daughters and music-hall stars in their own right. The travels of a priceless emerald ring add mystery to an already perplexing problem, elucidated by the keen deduction of Ludovic Travers.
The Case of the Leaning Man was originally published in 1938. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Mr. Bush has produced another good detective story, this time with emotional complications such as the experts say should have no place in this type of fiction. But the experts are not always right."--New York Times
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The Case of the Green Felt Hat
by Christopher Bush
Part 20 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Ludovic Travers and his wife choose to spend part of their honeymoon in the quiet town of Edensthorpe, one place, where they can be sure of peace and quiet, and where an eminent author and his famous wife might not be recognised.
Unfortunately, for them, however, another fugitive has sought anonymity in the nearby village of Pettistone, a swindler named Brewse, who has just completed a prison sentence for fraud. Brewse has made an unfortunate choice of home, because the leading citizens of Pettistone all suffered serious financial losses, as a result of his fraudulent dealings, and they unite in an effort to drive him away from the village. Before they can do so, however, somebody decides upon a more permanent method of getting rid of Brewse.
Ludovic Travers cannot, once again, resist the temptation to use his powers of insight and detection to discover the murderer of the man in the green hat.
The Case of the Green Felt Hat was originally published in 1939. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Flying Donkey
by Christopher Bush
Part 21 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
As Travers's finger touched the dead hand, he felt the warmth, and wondered if the man were still alive. Then he saw the knife that stuck sideways in the ribs.
It was three years after Ludovic Travers had acquired a painting by the famous contemporary French artist, Henri Larne, that a mysterious art dealer named Braque turned up, showed great interest in the picture, and invited Travers to visit him in Paris. But all Travers saw of Braque in Paris was his dead body: a knife—almost warm from the murderer's hand-was stuck in his ribs.
Travers and his old friend Inspector Gallois soon found some very pertinent questions to answer. What was Braque's "gold mine"? Why had he been so interested in paintings by Larne? What were his relations with Pierre Larne, and with Elise, the model? But not until Travers suddenly realised the significance of the flying donkey was the murderer's astonishing identity revealed.
The Case of the Flying Donkey was originally published in 1939. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Climbing Rat
by Christopher Bush
Part 22 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
An attendant had come in with the cage. He stooped and held the rope taut. The cage door was opened, Jules called from high in the roof and at once the rat began to climb. Then something went wrong. All at once Auguste scampered down and shot back into his cage.
When Ludovic Travers arrives in the South of France to say a few well-chosen words to his wife's shady relative, Gustave Rionne, he finds them unnecessary: a knife-thrust a few minutes before had put an end to Rionne's career.
Also down on the Riviera, on business connected with the notorious murderer Bariche, is Inspector Gallois of the Sûreté. Joining forces, they are soon confronted with a second even more baffling murder. What is the connection, if any, between the two crimes? Who are the masked trapezists in the circus, and what is the significance of their performing rat? The car smash-was it deliberate? Had Madame Perthus been Letoque's lover? Ludovic Travers has been involved in some curious cases but none so strange and absorbing as that of the Climbing Rat.
The Case of the Climbing Rat was originally published in 1940. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Murdered Major
by Christopher Bush
Part 23 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
The tea had brought a pleasant warmth and Travers snuggled down in bed. Once more, he was busy with something that had vastly cheered him of late-a perfect scheme for the murder of Stirrop.
There were difficulties from the first day the blustering and objectionable Major Stirrop set foot in the Prisoner-of-War camp. Captain Ludovic Travers, his adjutant, saw trouble, dire trouble, looming ever nearer. For there was something sinister about the camp, and there were strange happenings among the prisoners. One day, when Travers was making his count, there was one prisoner too many; the next the numbers tallied rightly, only to be wrong again within an hour or two.
An escape plan is uncovered, and then Major Stirrop was murdered. And not only the Major-for another strange death is later brought to light. Travers will join forces once more with his old friend Superintendent George Wharton, to get to the bottom of this mystery, one of Christopher Bush's most intriguing and thrilling.
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The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel
by Christopher Bush
Part 24 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
The curtain had been, drawn back and there was the bed. Wharton and a stranger were standing by it, and when Wharton moved to meet me, I saw on the bed the body of Penelope Craye.
"She's dead," I said.
Wharton merely nodded.
Once again, we meet our old friend Ludovic Travers-now Major Travers, and commandant of Camp 55 in England during World War Two. Nearby lives the rather mysterious Colonel Brende-mysterious because he is in possession of certain fact relating to aerial defense.
Travers's suspicions that all is not, well are intensified when Penelope, the colonel's flashy secretary, is murdered. Then George Wharton appears on the scene-the Scotland Yard man who has already solved some strange mysteries. In the rush of exciting events, which follow, Travers plays a major part in solving the baffling happenings. Christopher Bush, Ludovic Travers, and George Wharton-at their best!
The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel was originally, published in 1942. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Fighting Soldier
by Christopher Bush
Part 25 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
What was I to be this time? A Commandant again of a Prisoner of War Camp? Was I to get a sedentary job at the War Office itself, and begin the slow process of fossilization? Was I due for some wholly new job of, which the rank and file, had never even heard? As it turned out, I most certainly was.
Ludovic Travers reports to room 299 of the War Office to receive new orders. He is, sent up to Derbyshire to be a training officer for the local Home Guard, and to be plunged headlong into a new wartime mystery. It is not long before he meets the 'fighting soldier' of the title, a tough veteran of the Spanish Civil War and dozens of other bloody battlefields.
But when chewing-gum is discovered wedged into the barrel of a bomb launcher, it is obvious there's an individual-or more than one-in the camp out to make sure someone doesn't live to fight another day. And, it's not long before their diabolical intent leads to explosive murder. Once again, it will be down to Travers's quick wits to make sense of it and bring the guilty to justice-with able support from George Wharton of Scotland Yard.
The Case of the Fighting Soldier was originally, published in 1942. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Magic Mirror
by Christopher Bush
Part 26 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Good God!" I was staring like a lunatic. "Murdered, you say? When?"
"Less than half an hour ago, sir."
TRAVERS: "I don't know why I should call this case that of the Magic Mirror for there's nothing in it reminiscent of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," even if the mirror did do a certain amount of magical revelation.
"As a matter of fact the title is my obstinate own. In the first place, of the many murder cases with which I have been officially connected, this one which I am about to relate was easily the most unusual. On the face of it, one could at first hardly, call it a case at all, for its solution presented no difficulties. Then curious doubts arose, and the obvious was far from what it seemed, and finally, the whole thing seemed, incapable of any solution at all. Then when, the solution did come, it was so absurdly simple that one doubted one's sanity for not having seen it from the very first."
The Case of the Magic Mirror was originally, published in 1943. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Running Mouse
by Christopher Bush
Part 27 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Is he bad, sir?"
"Worse than that," I said. "In fact, he's dead."
1943. Ludovic Travers, consulting specialist for Scotland Yard, is on a fortnight's well-earned leave in London from his military posting. Anticipating relaxation, he is instead, thrown into a fresh mystery by a letter from one Peter Worrack, the owner of a genteel gambling club.
Worrack's business partner, Georgina, has disappeared. Or, has she? Ludo rapidly has doubts, but the reasons for any deception remain obscure until he takes on the case, and finds that the clues he'll, need to consider include, the jokes of a radio comedian, a handful of jaded club-goers, the novelty of a mouse in the wainscoting-and someone desperate enough to commit murder most foul.
The Case of the Running Mouse was originally, published in 1944. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Platinum Blonde
by Christopher Bush
Part 28 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"It's about a murder...Here. Five Oaks, they call it...A man, he's murdered...Oh, no, it isn't a joke. I wish it was...I said I wished it was...You'll send someone at once?"
Ludovic Travers, still in the army, is obliged to combine his military duties with being an invaluable private sleuth on behalf of Scotland Yard. Now Inspector Wharton has asked Ludo to track down a man in a village rife with blackmail and skulduggery. A problem soon arises however-murder, and that of the very man Travers was, sent to find. Travers eventually faces a moral quandary about what to conceal and what to reveal about his discoveries-which could lead to someone's execution.
This classic English village murder mystery involves a large number of suspects, and a breathtaking series of twists, some if not all involving the Chief Constable's wife-the novel's "platinum blonde".
The Case of the Platinum Blonde was originally, published in 1944. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Corporal's Leave
by Christopher Bush
Part 29 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
It wasn't I who discovered the body. I want to make that perfectly clear, if only for the benefit of a couple of club acquaintances of mine.
Ludovic Travers, special investigator for Scotland Yard, commits murder? No-but at the end of this novel you will understand why he might claim to have done so.
Sir William Pelle has become a missing person, and Superintendent Wharton of the Yard is prioritizing his recovery. But when Pelle is found murdered, there are serious questions to answer. Was the well-to-do jewellery-handler the victim of a well-planned robbery? And why was the corpse partly covered in sugar?
Several of the enigmatic figures formerly surrounding the deceased are going to repay close scrutiny; as is the importance of the army corporal who keeps weaving in and out of the story. It will take all Travers's customary acuity to bring the case to a successful conclusion-and eventually to explain his assertion of committing murder himself.
The Case of the Corporal's Leave was originally published in 1945. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Missing Men
by Christopher Bush
Part 30 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
""This is something desperately secret," she said. "Something I want you to do for me . . . But I can't tell you now. It's something I'm frightened about."
Ludovic Travers, consulting specialist for Scotland Yard, receives two invitations at once to visit Beechingford. One comes from Cuthbert Daine, his literary agent. Daine is an important and busy man, and it seems strange that he would want to see Travers personally about a matter that might have been handled by mail. The other invitation comes from Austin Chaice, the successful mystery writer. He is, he says, preparing a manual for detective story writers, and needs advice on certain points.
The puzzlement aroused in Travers's mind by these two letters is crystallized by a half-hysterical telephone call from Chaice's attractive wife.
Travers is prepared to find a delicate and involved situation at Beechingford-but not prepared for the murder of his host!
The Case of the Missing Men was originally published in 1946. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Second Chance
by Christopher Bush
Part 31 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
'Anything doing?'
'Maybe,' he said guardedly, and then as a kind of afterthought: 'Just slipping along to Hampstead. Charles Manfrey's dead.'
Ludovic Travers is on army leave in London when actor and theatrical impresario Charles Manfrey is murdered, so it is not surprising that Superintendent Wharton, 'the General' to the initiated, pulls him in to help investigate the crime. All the suspects are examined, the rival actor, the housekeeper, the beautiful and calculating secretary, all seem to have a watertight alibi, yet there is a clue, which Travers and Wharton have overlooked.
It is only months later, while investigating a case of blackmail, that something very unexpected happens, and gives Travers a second chance of finding the killer of Charles Manfrey.
The Case of the Second Chance was originally, published in 1946. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Curious Client
by Christopher Bush
Part 32 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Near the right temple was a hole, and down the forehead and along the nose was dried blood.
"Shot, by God! No wonder the poor old devil couldn't hear."
When the telephone bell rings in Bill Ellice's Broad Street Detective Agency, it happens to be Ludovic Travers who takes the call. The new client is certainly out of the ordinary, for he claims that his life is in danger. He wants the firm to trace a nephew who would be a protection. Travers finds the Curious Client puzzling-and that night the client is murdered.
All that confronts the police is a series of perfect alibis and yet the enquiry has to go on. It leads to a night-club and a country house and to the queer business of a mink coat and a poultry-farm. And after that to a second murder.
Here are both Ludovic Travers and Christopher Bush at their best. To the legion of their admirers there is no need to say more.
The Case of the Curious Client was originally published in 1947. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"There is something fine . . . about Bush's writing that stands his work apart from the helter-skelter concoctions of the majority of his competitors." Hoofs and Horns
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The Case of the Housekeeper's Hair
by Christopher Bush
Part 34 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"I have an idea that a certain man is going to commit murder. He told me so-in so many words."
If Ludovic Travers hadn't been so sure the man was serious, he might not have gone snooping. If he hadn't kept his eyes peeled, he might have noticed what happened to the housekeeper's hair. It is even less likely he would have uncovered those dark deeds that took place in France, deeds that led to three violent deaths.
The Case of the Housekeeper's Hair was originally published in 1948. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Seven Bells
by Christopher Bush
Part 35 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
The murderer was clever and the planning was perfect. There was apparently nothing that had been overlooked and nothing that didn't go to plan. There was nothing that could be called a slip. Why then was the murderer caught?
Too few answers chasing too many questions is the problem facing Ludovic Travers and Superintendent George Wharton when a famous actress is murdered. The crime-investigator always looks for unusual circumstances, departures from customary routines. Travers' trouble is that in the odd-behavior department he finds himself confronted by a definite surfeit of riches....
The Case of the Seven Bells was originally published in 1949. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Happy Warrior
by Christopher Bush
Part 37 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"At first it may seem an astounding coincidence that two members of a family should have considered it necessary to ask for the services of the same detective agency. I think I can prove otherwise, and even if I can't, the facts remain. Alice Stonhill and Peter Wesslake did precisely what I have said, and what's more . . ."
So Ludovic Travers says at the opening of a case in which he joins with Bill Ellice and Superintendent George Wharton to solve the mystery of a novelist, his two wives, and a murder that happened contrary to expectations-not to mention the identity of the Happy Warrior. This is one of Christopher Bush's crispest brain-teasers told in the smooth and friendly Travers manner loved by the author's devotees.
The Case of the Happy Warrior was originally published in 1950. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Christopher Bush is one of the good ones. Although he has written so many mysteries, the strange thing is that they all sound fresh, wide-eyed and dewy, as if he had written hardly any." New York Herald Tribune
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The Case of the Corner Cottage
by Christopher Bush
Part 38 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
I was thinking of offering Godfrey Prial some sort of partnership. I'm pretty sure now of at least two things-that he liked me, and that he'd have accepted. If he'd lived.
When Ludovic Travers took over Bill Ellice's Broad Street Detective Agency, he was glad to welcome back from war service the Agency's star operative, Godfrey Prial. But when something happened to Prial whilst holidaying in an East Anglian town, Travers decided that a case was one he must tackle on his own. The trail led him to a year-old murder, the violent death of a retired jeweller, the theft of some particularly valuable diamonds, to a mad old man and to a young lady who didn't somehow ring true. The Case of the Corner Cottage shows Christopher Bush at his most astute and entertaining.
The Case of the Corner Cottage was originally published in 1951. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Happy Medium
by Christopher Bush
Part 40 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"Famous Spiritualist Dead . . . Gun Found in Flat"
In The Case of the Happy Medium Ludovic Travers is at the top of his considerable form. When Ludovic and his wife set out to attend a séance, they are in a mood of amiable scepticism. But the atmosphere swiftly changes when Travers is plunged headlong into a case where he, and Scotland Yard supremo George Wharton, must tussle with murder, suicide and traffickers in forbidden goods. There is action, dry humour, and a more than fair chance for the armchair detective to join in the hunt.
The Case of the Happy Medium was originally published in 1952. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Bush gets better and better . . . And Ludovic Travers is becoming one of our favourite sleuths" San Francisco Chronicle
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The Case of the Counterfeit Colonel
by Christopher Bush
Part 41 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
His head went sideways, like a hopping sparrow's on a lawn.
The man who saves Henry Clandon's life, during the campaign in Sicily visits him once in hospital, gives his name as David Seeway, makes vague and apparently pointless reference to somebody else called Archie Dibben and a country town called Bassingford, and then virtually disappears. Eight years later, Henry Clandon, now a director of a London publishing firm, sets out to try and find his rescuer.
This is how he comes to be, shown into Ludovic Travers' office at the Broad Street Detective Agency. Something about the case provokes Travers into following a trail by way of dusty newspaper files and the intricacies of theatrical gossip, to a pleasantly prosperous house, in which a gentleman of military aspect had just, died with his boots on. Travers polishes his spectacles and puts through a phone call to George Wharton at the Yard, for now there is a taker as well as a saver of life to find.
The Case of the Counterfeit Colonel was originally, published in 1952. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Burnt Bohemian
by Christopher Bush
Part 42 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Isn't it a tremendous coincidence that his murderer should also have had large front teeth?
Ludovic Travers has, received a good many queer requests and enquiries at the Broad Street Detective Agency, but a psychiatrist in fear of his life and in search of a bodyguard is something new. An appointment is, made for the following day, but Travers has barely completed a few discreet enquiries concerning his new client when he receives another call. This time it is a summons from George Wharton of Scotland Yard. Would he please come to a flat in Chelsea where an artist has just been stabbed, and an attempt made to destroy evidence by burning the body.
It looks like a routine matter, until suddenly, the long arm of coincidence stretches out and ties the Cases of the Nervous Psychiatrist and the Burnt Bohemian into one knot of Gordian complexity. Christopher Bush is a proven master of the true detective story, and in this one, he is at his urbanely intriguing and ingenious best.
The Case of the Burnt Bohemian was originally, published in 1953. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Silken Petticoat
by Christopher Bush
Part 43 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Between the acting of a dreadful thing, and the first motion...
Ludovic Travers sees it happen. He sees a strange young woman assault Clement Foorde, and all because he had expressed his dislike for a certain best-selling novel. Is it a publicity stunt? The matter escapes Travers's mind until he hears on the radio one night that the author of the novel in question has been, drowned. Everyone, including the police, thinks the affair to be no more than a tragic accident; everyone except the dead man's brother who comes to see Travers at the Broad Street Detective Agency with a piece of information that places the case in an entirely new light. Christopher Bush again proves himself a master of the true detective story, with plenty of hard thinking and fast action before the solution is, reached.
The Case of the Silken Petticoat was originally, published in 1953. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Three Lost Letters
by Christopher Bush
Part 44 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
I liked him. When I heard of his death, I was quite upset.
Henry Baldlow is a nervous man. An apparent invalid, he plans to emigrate for his health, yet claims to require a detective to guard his life in the interim. Ludovic Travers isn't initially convinced, but when, one of his operatives turns up dead, and then Baldlow himself, he takes charge. A series of visitors were, asked to call at specific times on the afternoon of Baldlow's death was, one of these the culprit? Investigating the case entails Travers reluctantly romancing a femme fatale, peeking in at the jewelry business, and exploring the murky world of show business, before he brings the crime home to the murderer.
The Case of the Three Lost Letters was originally, published in 1954. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Red Brunette
by Christopher Bush
Part 45 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Providence, they say, is good to drunkards and children. Maybe there's a third category-the unorthodox detective.
A new case finds Ludovic Travers travelling to the respectable English Midlands town of Mainford. He is, commissioned to investigate the death, under compromising circumstances, of Harry Landlace, a man of civic virtue. There is the suggestion of a smear and as Travers attempts to clear Landlace's name, he uncovers something the dead man was on the verge of revealing. Is it to do with the undercover gambling syndicate Travers comes upon, or the youth club with which the deceased was closely involved? Travers is relentless in pursuit of the guilty party-or parties. But, the case will not end before more than one person have met their deaths.
The Case of the Red Brunette was originally, published in 1954. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Benevolent Bookie
by Christopher Bush
Part 47 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
We've got to have a body.
That's what detective Ludovic Travers says, after being contacted by one Lord Tynworth. Tynworth's wife has vanished and his lordship wants her found, yet strangely doesn't seem especially keen on getting her back. When Travers walks into the case, he enters a hall of mirrors. In it are thoroughbred horses, their trainers, at least one man determined not to tell the truth...and a burnt corpse.
The missing woman is a former crooner, and once again Travers must investigate the world of show business on his way to discovering the truth. Meanwhile the cash-strapped Tynworth disappears to America, and then just disappears entirely. Travers narrowly escapes with his life before he brings the diabolical affair to a head, and solves the case.
The Case of the Benevolent Bookie was originally, published in 1955. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Extra Man
by Christopher Bush
Part 48 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
I never did like missing people. Far too often, we've found them dead.
When that cheerful soul, Doris Bosford, asked Ludovic Travers of the Broad Street Detective Agency to trace her missing husband the case soon involved matters less innocent than a mere disappearance. Andrew Bosford had been a crooner, but investigation showed that his latest source of income seemed concerned with a smuggling racket that had its headquarters in France. With the discovery of a body on the seashore-the body of the last man to employ Andrew as a singer, Ludovic felt the time had come for him to drop Mrs. Bosford as a client.
But, the threads were to be put back into his hands as the result of two apparently quite unconnected events, and Ludovic found himself in a situation where it was far from easy to serve the interests both of his clients and those of Scotland Yard. This results in one of the best and most distinctive of Christopher Bush's mystery novels.
The Case of the Extra Man was originally, published in 1956. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Flowery Corpse
by Christopher Bush
Part 49 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Whoever was driving that car was either drunk or mad.
The Case of the Flowery Corpse takes Ludovic Travers to the English rural idyll of Marstead in Suffolk, visiting his old friend Henry Morle. The quiet village seems hardly the place for mystery. Yet, following a car crash, a blackmail case emerges, and worse, not one, but two murders. There are multiple suspects, including a pair of twin doctors and a femme fatale, not to mention the looming presence of a US Army base. Travers enlists the help of Inspector Jewle and Sergeant Allman of Scotland Yard, and together they relentlessly, chase down all the baffling clues, unpeel the mystery, and bring the villain to justice. Welcome to a classic bucolic detective story, written in Christopher Bush's best style.
The Case of the Flowery Corpse was originally, published in 1956. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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The Case of the Russian Cross
by Christopher Bush
Part 50 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
That happened to be, the last that either of us, actually, saw of Alysia Rimmell, alive.
Ludovic Travers, associate of Scotland Yard, and the director of his own detective agency, is brought into a new case, and finds something very much wrong with an attempt at blackmail, an unsolved theft, and a murder... they all seem to link up. The more he studies them the more he is, convinced that the diamonds, from an elaborate pendant Russian Cross are the root of the whole business, not the pornographic pictures also mixed up in it. By the time the whole, diabolical mystery has unraveled, the reader will agree that the novel, the author's fiftieth Ludovic Travers mystery, is as intriguing and entertaining as ever.
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The Case of the Treble Twist
by Christopher Bush
Part 51 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
Enough words and enough speed and you can get away with murder.
There was something unique about the Case of the Treble Twist. It isn't often one gets a preview of a case or hovers round its fringes four years before it breaks, but that was just what happened here. The preview began the evening Ludovic Travers had a drink with Chief Inspector Jewle, and first heard the name of Harry Tibball, suspect involved in a series of big-scale robberies. Then a few months later Tibball's body was found in a wrecked car not far from a newly burgled house in Bedfordshire. The surviving accomplice was caught and gaoled, but nothing was recovered and nothing more discovered concerning Tibball's past history. Three years went by, and Travers had virtually forgotten the whole business when a pleasant-voiced woman from America rang the Broad Street Agency and asked him to undertake a highly confidential assignment. It proved to be a voice from the past, for it belonged to the daughter of the last man Tibball had robbed.
The Case of the Treble Twist was originally published in 1958. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Ludovic Travers disentangles his fifty-first mystery, involving jewel robbery, impersonation, eventual murder, and a most ingenious series of double, not to say treble, crosses." Tablet
"Particularly good." Birmingham Post
"A dry wine, Ludovic, for sophisticated palates." Western Mail
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The Case of the Running Man
by Christopher Bush
Part 52 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
I think murder is practically a certainty.
William Weddall was eccentric even in Ludovic Traver's wide experience. There was about him an aura of secrecy and subterfuge at odds with the quiet atmosphere of his estate. Hinchbrook Hall, show-place for his antiques and paintings. He had sent Travers to Paris on the seemingly pointless errand of mailing a letter. And Travers later saw him deliberately miss a boat.
Then William Weddall plunged from a window to his death. A running man was seen leaving Hinchbrook Hall after the fatal accident, a man identifiable only by the scar on his chin. Weddall's American chauffeur, Sam, asked Travers to investigate. It was Sam's guess that Weddall was pushed. Suave and urbane, with a connoisseur's eye for antiques, Travers stepped in.
An unwholesome nephew, an ambitious housekeeper, faked-antique swindles in a Bohemian underworld-these are the elements that combine to give Christopher Bush's 52nd mystery an electric atmosphere of suspense.
The Case of the Running Man was originally published in 1958. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"Throws incidental information on art and antiques into an ingenious plot as Ludovic Travers pursues the murderer of a collector." Daily Telegraph
"As neatly fashioned a puzzle as Ludovic Travers has ever tackled." Guardian
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The Case of the Careless Thief
by Christopher Bush
Part 53 of the Ludovic Travers Mystery series
"How's it going, George?"
"Sheer murder."
When Ludovic Travers went to Sandbeach-"the Blackpool of the South Coast"-his purpose was to investigate on behalf of an insurance company a jewel robbery at one of that lively resort's leading hotels. The victim of the robbery was Mona Dovell, the flighty wife of an elderly and highly respected magistrate. Ludovic was not long on the job before he discovered that Mona was heavily involved with a bookmaker of dubious reputation, and that her relations with certain members of the local C.I.D. were unconventional to say the least of it. After that, even the robbery itself began to smell fishy, and Ludovic started to wonder if there was not also a strong whiff of corruption in the air.
The Case of the Careless Thief was originally published in 1959. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"One can only wonder how he keeps up the standard...as ingenious and full of meat as ever." Guardian
"In crime writing it's not true that a good wine needs no Bush. The Case of the Careless Thief is another dry sherry by Christopher Bush, one of the best story-tellers in the world.' Western Mail
'Ingenious and energetic double-murder set in a garish south coast resort. Ludovic Travers, a polished private eye, investigates a jewel-theft insurance-swindle and uncovers the nastiest bunch of seaside characters since Graham Greene visited Brighton.' Sydney Morning Herald.