Author Description

London:: Collins,, (1980). Very near fine in black boards with gilt lettering on spine and gilt illustration on the front cover in a fine dust jacket (bookplate on front endpaper with name crossed out). First thus. Mystery featuring Superintendent Roderick Alleyn by this New Zealand-born author who was considered (along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers) one of the four "Queens of Crime" during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Alleyn, Trey and their young son Ricky go to the coast of southern France in a trip that is meant to combine work - Alleyn is working undercover with the French Surete - and pleasure with a planned visit to a distant cousin of Trey's (one of the spinsters in jeopardy) only to find themselves caught up in Satanism, the occult and drug dealing. Originally published in 1954, this is a title in the Golden Jubilee Collection, one of twelve titles selected to mark the Crime Club's Golden Jubillee. Includes a new introduction by Julian Symons. 279 pp