The Secret of High Eldersham

First published in 1930, this entry in the British Library Crime Classics series evokes a time when stouthearted chaps did their duty for king and country, and the village had only one telephone. When Samuel Whiteheard, the landlord of a pub in the remote English hamlet of High Eldersham, is found stabbed to death in his hostelry, baffled Det. Insp. Robert Young calls on his old chum Desmond Merrion, “a bachelor of independent and very considerable means” and “a living encyclopedia upon all manner of obscure subjects,” to help him unravel the mystery. The cast includes suspicious yokels, nervous aristocrats, uppity servants, and puzzled policemen. Beautiful and plucky Mavis Owerton, who’s being courted by one of High Eldersham’s wealthier inhabitants, catches more than Merrion’s eye. This book marks the first appearance of amateur sleuth Merrion, who went on to feature in nearly 60 novels from Burton (1884–1964). (June)