Titles by Leo Bruce

<div>Carolus Deene, history master at Queen&#39;s School, Newminster, manages on the side to dabble in the art of gentlemanly detective work. In Leo Bruce&#39;s beloved <em>A Bone and a Hank of Hair</em>, Deene is approached by Mrs. Chalk, who is convinced her heiress cousin has been murdered. The suspect is, of course, Mr. Rathbone, the lady&#39;s wily widower. On the way to the truth, Deene encounters a host of friendly characters and oafish constabulary, leading readers in a delightful romp through the English landscape. <br /> </div>

In the cleverly plotted Case for Sergeant Beef, Mr. Wellington Chickle, a retired watchmaker, plans the perfect murder, but he chooses the wrong victim. The dead man's sister refuses to accept the idea that her brother committed suicide and calls in the unprepossessing Sgt. Beef who unravels the plot with the aid of the local police. Meanwhile, Townsend, Beef’s indefatigable chronicler, comes to a completely different—and completely wrong—conclusion. A delightful read by one of the best mystery plotters who ever lived.

<P>Possibly the most unusual mystery ever written. A murder is committed, behind closed doors, in bizarre circumstances. Three amateur detectives take the case: Lord Simon Plimsoll, Monsieur Amer Picon, and Monsignor Smith (in whom discerning readers will note likeness to some familiar literary figures). Each arrives at his own brilliant solution, startling in its originality, ironclad in its logic. Meanwhile Sergean Beef sits contemptuously in the background. "But, " says Sergean Beef, "I know who done it!"

<DIV></DIV><P>One of the rarest mysteries in the author's Sergeant Beef series, <I>Case with Four Clowns</I>, which has only been published once in the US—more than fifty years ago - is now available in paperback for the first time. </P><P>    It is regarded by critics as one of Leo Bruce's most baffling mysteries.  A murder is yet to be committed—that much is certain—but who will be the victim? And who will be the murderer? It is Sgt. Beef's job to discover these facts, if he can, in time to prevent the deed from being done.</P><P>       But when he reaches the small traveling circus where the murder is to take place, he finds that practically everyone there is seething with hatred, each has a motive which might make him a killer; and any one of a dozen people could easily be the victim. </P><P>        The doughty Sgt. Beef has broken some pretty tough cases, and this one—with mystery entagled within mystery—stirs the bulldog within him. The clues are there, but unless the reader is very astute, he or she will overlook them; but Sgt. Beef misses nothing.

<DIV>Once again Lionel Townsend, Beef's Dr. Watson, faithfully records the redoubtable Sergeant's escapades. Beef has left the Braxham police and gone into business for himself. Beef gets a client: Stewart Ferrars, who has been arrested for the Sydenham Murder. Beef is hired by Stewart's brother Peter to prove Stewart is innocent of the murder of Dr. Benson, who has been found stabbed in the throat in the library of Peter's gloomy Victorian mansion, The Cypresses. An ornamental dagger with Peter's fingerprints on it has been left on a table near the dead man's armchair.</DIV>

<div>The coroner’s jury found that the boy hanged in the school gymnasium had killed himself, but Sergeant Beef disagrees. He takes a job as a temporary school caretaker, abetted by the reluctant Townsend, Beef’s biographer, whose brother is a master at the school. Beef’s methods entail endless games of darts and beer all around in the local pub, much to Townsend’s dismay of course. But when another remarkably similar murder occurs elsewhere, Beef bestirs himself to uncover the guilty.</div>

This is one of Sgt. Beef's most interesting and perplexing cases. It involves a murder, but one in which no body can be found. Young Rogers announces to Beef and others assembled in a local pub that he has committed a murder—then takes his own life. But where is the victim? How did it happen? "I always supposed," says Beef. "a murder case started with a corpse, and then you had to find out 'oo done it. This time we know 'oo's done it, but we can't find the corpse."

<div>Cosmo Ducrow was a wealthy heir known to friends and family for his friendly though reclusive nature. When he is found dead on his grounds,  bludgeoned by a croquet mallet, the evidence damningly points to his nephew. The deceased&#39;s closest confidant, Theo Gray, however, suspects a setup. Sergeant Beef is called upon to find the truth of who had the access and motive to so viciously murder the man. </div>

<DIV>Everyone knew there'd been a murder, everyone knew who the murderer was, and when this murderer committed suicide by jumping overboard from the cargo boat Saragossa, they thought "Good riddance." Everyone, that is, except Carolus Deene.</DIV>

<DIV>In this "rousing mystery" (Booklist), Gentleman Detective Carolus Deene, the schoolmaster created by Bruce and featured in so many of his other books, has his work cut out for him . A respectable solicitor has vanished into thin air in the remote village of Hallows End. Deene senses foul play, and when he goes on the hunt for the missing lawyer, the wealthy client himself suffers a heart attack in what proves to be too much of a coincidence for Deene. Deene ferrets out the culprits in his own inimitable style. Julian Symons of the Sunday Times has said of this series, "Mr. Leo Bruce is one of the few criminal practitioners who keep the tattered old flag of pure detection flying high."</DIV>

<DIV>There are strange goings-on at St. Asprey's, an expensive boys' preparatory school: footsteps in passages at night . . . strange lights . . . rabbits with battered skulls. Carolus Deene has some spine-tingling experiences before he solves the mystery.</DIV>

<DIV>In a gloomy London suburb, a modern Jack the Ripper stalks at night, killing at random with brutal knife thrusts from behind. Three women fall victim, and the terrorized residents wait to see who will be next.</DIV>

<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Carolus Deene’s housekeeper, the stoic Mrs. Stick, announces one evening that her husband has seen the body of a youth lying in a ditch with his hair shorn and his wrists slashed. Carolus knows that he has, at last, met a supreme challenge to test his powers of deduction. The redoubtable schoolmaster-turned-detective then becomes involved in a lively series of adventures infiltrating <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s provincial cockney underworld and gaining insight into the dead boy’s unhappy background and surroundings. Realizing that it is all too easy to blame the obvious suspects, skinheads and greasers, Carolus must call upon his ingenuity and determination to persevere. One of Leo Bruce’s most exciting novels, <I>Death of a Bovver Boy</I> gives the reader an insight into the milieu of rebellious 1970s <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>, a world where prejudice is the order of the day and hostility and violence are the only means of survival.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

<DIV>"Five men occupied their usual places in a first-class carriage, but the sixth place was empty..." It is most unusual for the sixth man, Mr. Parador, to be late. The five commuters are wondering what happened to him, when a strange-looking man enters the compartment, dressed in black and wearing dark glasses. When he is told that the sixth seat is taken, he replies, in a deep sepulchral voice, "He won't be coming." He was right. Parador does not come, and his companions never see him alive again. And if Carolus Deena had not taken an interest in the case, the coroner's verdict of suicide would not have been questioned.</DIV>