The Bells at Old Bailey by Dorothy Bowers

The Bells at Old Bailey by Dorothy Bowers

It was not until the fifth death that Miss Tidy made up her mind to go to the police. It was not a sense of civic duty that compelled her but the arrival of two letters that made it clear her life was in danger. Soon there is another death and Inspector Raikes of Scotland Yard is on the scene.

When a series of threatening anonymous notes drives Bertha Tidy to the police, she is put off with the statement, "These things are worth usually no more than the paper they're written onYou were prompt to put the matter in our hands and we'll see you come to no harm."  Twenty-four hours later this proprietress of a hatshop, tearoom and beauty parlor is murdered.  Scotland Yard in the person of Detective Inspector Raikes goes determinedly to work on the case, which may be related to five other deaths under suspicious circumstances.  Skillfully plotted against an authentic English background, the story draws to a climax not wholly unexpected.  It proves that a whodunnit can be a literate and entertaing excursion into murder rather than a hackneyed, pace-ridden dialogue-laden cliche.

-- Jack Glick, The New York Times * Transatlantic Mayhem *

“Skillfully plotted against an authentic English background….[the story] proves that a whodunit can be a literate and entertaining excursion into murder”

* The New York Times *

“A really good detective story. Five suicides (or murders?) in one village may seem a little extravagant; but Detective-Superintendent Raikes goes about the business unravelling the tangle with more than competence. This is good writing, with the telling, character-revealing phrase skilfully used. Readers who prefer the detective story pure and simple should make a note of this one.”

-- Laurence Meynell * The Sunday Times *

The Bells at Old Bailey is a village job with sinister spinsters on the slopes of schizophrenia, and plenty of gossip in the tea shoppe.

-- Maurice Richardson * The Observer *

DOROTHY BOWERS (1902-1948) was a champion of "fair play" mysteries in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the story.  The daughter of a bakery owner, she attended Oxford university, and later became a History teacher, supplementing her income by compiling crossword puzzles.  A member of the Detection Club, Bowers wrote five crime thrillers before her early death from tuberculosis.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781899000111
ISBN 10	1899000119
Title	The Bells at Old Bailey
Author	Dorothy Bowers
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Moonstone Press
Year published	2019-09-02
Number of pages	285
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.