Martin Edwards

The Golden Age of Murder


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The Detection Club library bookplate, designed by Edward Ardizzone.

      

       Copyright

      Published by Collins Crime Club

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Copyright © Martin Edwards 2015

      Jacket illustration © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 2015

      Martin Edwards asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008105969

      Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780008105976

      Version: 2015-04-20

       Dedication

       To the members of the Detection Club, past and present.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Introduction

       Members of the Detection Club elected 1930–49

       Author Gallery

       Part Two: The Rules of the Game

       Setting a Good Example to the Mafia

       The Fungus-Story and the Meaning of Life

       Wistful Plans for Killing off Wives

       The Least Likely Person

       The Best Advertisement in the World

       Part Three: Looking to Escape

       ‘Human Life’s the Cheapest Thing There Is’

       Echoes of War

       Murder, Transvestism and Suicide during a Trapeze Act

       A Severed Head in a Fish-Bag

       ‘Have You Heard of Sexual Perversions?’

       Clearing Up the Mess

       What it Means to Be Stuck for Money

       Neglecting Demosthenes in Favour of Freud

       Part Four: Taking on the Police

       Playing Games with Scotland Yard

       Why was the Shift Put in the Boiler-Hole?

       Trent’s Very Last Case

       A Coffin Entombed in a Crypt of Granite

       Part Five: Justifying Murder

       Knives Engraved with ‘Blood and Honour’

       Touching with a Fingertip the Fringe of Great Events

       Collecting Murderers

       No Judge or Jury but My Own Conscience

       Part Six: The End Game

       Playing the Grandest Game in the World

       The Work of a Pestilential Creature

       Frank to the Point of Indecency

       Shocked by the Brethren

       Part Seven: Unravelling the Mysteries

       Murder Goes On Forever

       Appendices

       Constitution and Rules of the Detection Club

       Bibliography

       Index

       Index of Titles

       Acknowledgments

       About the Author

       About the Publisher

       Introduction

      The origins of my quest to solve the mysteries of the Detection Club date back to when I was eight years old. A rich American called John L. Snyder II, who retired to the picturesque Cheshire village of Great Budworth after making a fortune in Hollywood, hosted the annual summer fete at his country house, Sandicroft. He decided to show a film in a marquee in Sandicroft’s extensive grounds – and set about pulling strings with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A remarkably persuasive man, Snyder secured permission to present the world premiere of MGM’s brand new movie, Murder Most Foul.

      This stranger-than-fiction initiative guaranteed publicity in the local and national Press. Snyder’s ambition was demonstrated by his search for a celebrity to open the fete. He began by approaching Brigitte Bardot, but when Brigitte declared herself unavailable