- 'An ingenious country house mystery... keeps the reader on tenterhooks from the very first page' NEW YORK TIMES - 'J. Jefferson Farjeon is quite unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures' DOROTHY L. SAYERS - The much-revered crime writer J. Jefferson Farjeon's second crime novel back in print for the first time in almost a century. To Brambles, a dilapidated yet comfortable English country house, come the uninvited guests: a motley crew, who appear at the most unexpected hours and on the most impossible errands. Singly and in procession they arrive to trouble the calm of Ambrose Blythe, sexagenarian owner of Brambles, and of Peter Haslam, his house guest. Add to these an imperturbable butler, a tragic-eyed damsel and the super-logician Detective Grant to complete the ingredients of the perfect Golden Age of Crime story. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Jefferson Farjeon was born into a literary family in Hampstead, north west London in 1883. He was a prolific crime writer, writing over sixty novels over the course of thirty years, many published by William Collins & Sons and featuring in their hugely popular Collins Crime Club. Dorothy L. Sayers said of his work, 'every word is entertaining.' His best-known novel (and play) NUMBER 17, was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. He died in 1955. PRAISE FOR J. JEFFERSON FARJEON: 'Jefferson Farjeon writes thrills enhanced by good writing, good humour, and good character sketches' THE SUNDAY TIMES; 'A Sherlock Holmes novel of the first degree' NEW YORK POST; 'This delightful writer delivers the goods once again' THE DAILY HERALD; '"Mystery in White" is the perfect book for a winter's evening, a cosy chair and an open fire' THE DAILY MAIL; 'An undiluted joy... Ben is the plum of the book; his personality impresses itself upon the imagination' LIVERPOOL POST; 'A top-hole thriller by a writer who knows his job' THE DAILY EXPRESS.

"An inspector and four uniformed constables arrive one morning, unannounced, at Greystones, the imposing and remote country house of the Elderly family. Inspector Biggs brushes past the immaculate and outraged butler and demands to see John Elderly, head of the family. Behind the dark oak library door is the scene of a struggle; overturned and disarranged furniture, the telephone receiver is off the hook... Where has the master gone? Who has cut the telephone wires and disabled the motor-cars? What is the inspector holding back from the assembled guests and country house staff?"--

A fine August morning in Fowey on the Cornish Riviera, a noble yacht appears round the western point of the estuary, and enters the broad river. The Rajah of Puht is arriving. In the early afternoon, as the palatial yacht lies at anchor, Lady Constance Bolliver and sundry other distinguished guests will arrive by train, to be rowed across to her. On board is half-a-million pounds in diamonds. This tranquil scene has been preceded by a cat-and-mouse pursuit by Detective Inspective Edward Strood - one of Scotland Yard's finest - of a master criminal, a person unknown, intent on grand larceny of the exquisite stones." -- Back cover.