Author:Nicholas Blake
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY
Several days after private detective and poet Nigel Strangeways dines with Dr Piers Loudon and his family, the doctor vanishes, only for his legless corpse to be fished out of the river Thames. When his family ask Nigel to protect their interests during the police investigation, it soon becomes apparent that each member of the deceased's family, from his adopted son to his daughter's unpleasant fiancée, had a strong motive for killing him.
As the winter fog swirls outside, Nigel must find his way through a maze of conflicting stories, missing diaries and red herrings.
A Nigel Strangeways murder mystery - the perfect introduction to the most charming and erudite detective in Golden Age crime fiction.
Mr Blake tirelessly and entertainingly baffles his readers
—— Times Literary SupplementThe Nicholas Blake books are something quite by themselves in English detective fiction
—— Elizabeth BowenA master of detective fiction
—— Daily TelegraphIt is one of Blake's very best - and his best is better than almost anyone's
—— Louis UntermeyerThe Vault, as a sort-of-sequel is a bold attempt to combine Rendell's two chosen specialties: the police procedural and the psychological thriller. No one hides the clues better than her; no one else creates such a pervasive atmosphere of almost comic disgust and dread.
—— Evening Standard