Thomas Littlejohn Books
A body in a trunk draws Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard to a peculiar English village On a cobblestoned street almost too quaint to be believed, two antique dealers named Grossman and Small have set up shop. Grossman is short and meek, while Small is large and brutish, but their partnership seems happy enough until the day when old Miss Adlestrop purchases the large oak chest in the window and finds Mr. Grossman stuffed inside it—stone dead. The cozy English hamlet is thrown into an uproar, overwhelming the local constabulary and requiring the services of Detective-Inspector Thomas Littlejohn. Cool-headed and never in a hurry, Littlejohn has solved his fair share of village murder cases. But when the key to the fatal chest goes missing, Littlejohn discovers the community to be so infested with jealousies and secrets that he begins to envy the dead man.
The Mayor of the popular resort of Westcombe, Sir Gideon Ware, is no stranger to making enemies. What was once a quaint little harbour is now miles of level, concrete promenade, and acres of pleasure-beach, embracing every kind of device for human entertainment and sensation. Sir Gideon Ware has put Westcombe on the map through bribes, intimidation and threats. When Ware drops dead in the middle of his annual lunch, no one is surprised to hear that murder is suspected. But with so many enemies surrounding Ware, Inspector Littlejohn has his work cut out shifting through Ware’s past to find the likely killer. Especially with the Chief Constable so keen on covering up vital facts in the investigation. It becomes clear that Ware was poisoned. But everyone else ate and drank the same things, and no one appeared to have been near enough to Ware to have done the deed. Before Littlejohn can get to the bottom of it, a second murder is committed… Can he crack the case before more lives are put in jeopardy? Or will the long list of suspects help the killer to get away with it…? ‘He’d Rather Be Dead’ is a classic detective mystery by one of the masters of the genre. George Bellairs was the nom de plume of Harold Blundell (1902-1985), a crime writer and bank manager born in Heywood, near Rochdale, Lancashire, who settled in the Isle of Man on retirement. He wrote more than 50 books, most featuring the detective Inspector Littlejohn, including ‘Crime in Leper’s Hollow’, ‘A Knife For Harry Dodd’, ‘Death Drops the Pilot’ and ‘Dead March for Penelope Blow’.
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring British classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction. "A decent, hardworking chap, with not an enemy anywhere. People were surprised that anybody should want to kill Jim." But Jim has been found stabbed in the back near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body, clearly dumped in the usually silent ('dumb') river, has been discovered before the killer intended?disturbed by a torrential flood in the night. Roused from a comfortable night's sleep, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is soon at the scene. With any clues to the culprit's identity swept away with the surging water, Bellairs' veteran sleuth boards a train heading north to dredge up the truth of the real Jim Teasdale and to trace the mystery of this unassuming victim's murder to its source. The Body in the Dumb River , like all of Bellairs' crime books, delves into the complex inner-workings of an insulated country community. With all the wittiness and suspense of classic British mysteries, this is a story that explores the long-buried secrets of a small town?and the disastrous events that take place when they finally come to light. Also in the British Library Crime Classics: Smallbone Deceased Continental Crimes Blood on the Tracks Surfeit of Suspects Death Has Deep Roots Checkmate to Murder
To solve a murder case, Thomas Littlejohn contends with ghosts, Nazis, and crooked real estate speculators.Known across London as one of the premier slumlords of the East End, Solomon Burt has never fallen in love with a property the way he has with Harwood, a faded manor house halfway between London and the sea. When the owner refuses to sell, Burt uses every trick he knows to buy the house out from under the man and convert it into apartments. Now Burt owns the property lock, stock, and barrel—but he will have to share it with the ghosts.When Burt is found murdered, the tenants fear a ghost might be responsible. Detective-Inspector Littlejohn is called down from London to solve the case and restore reason. But what he find lurking in the back corners of Harwood is far more dangerous than a poltergeist.
At the height of World War II, Thomas Littlejohn investigates a factory boss’s murder Once, Henry Worth’s sprawling factory was filled with looms and textile workers, but since the onset of World War II, the space has been given over entirely to military production. Worth is walking the grounds late one night when he smells gas coming from an unused shed. When he enters to investigate, the door slams and locks behind him. He is dead in minutes. Detective-Inspector Littlejohn is called down from London to investigate the murder and finds the entire town upended by the question of Worth’s inheritance. Three children and a wife are feuding over the man’s fortune, and they are not afraid to kill to get their share. As British troops fight and die overseas, Littlejohn finds that the fiercest battlefield of all may be on the home front.
Intrigue and murder surround the county fair at Stainton-Meredith. Many people had reason to dislike Canon Nicodemus Hartley-Crump, the elderly, autocratic and lubricious vicar of the parish, but who would kill him? And what, if any, was the connection with his death and the murder by strangulation of an Austrian refugee, governess to some of the local nouveaux riches? A story as much of how Constable Sadd got his sergeant's stripes as how Inspector Littlejohn found the murderer.
First published in 1962, Death Before Breakfast is a Chief Inspector Littlejohn mystery full of intrigue, mysterious motives, and ingenious speculation. On her way to church early one morning, Mrs. Jump sees a dead body in the gutter in July Street. Frightened, she hurries on, but her conscience convinces her to return, only to find the body gone. Doubting herself, she nevertheless tells her boss, Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard, who decides to investigate further. He soon discovers that July Street is full of unusual people. Everyone has a motive. Everyone is a suspect. From London to Paris and back, Littlejohn unravels the tangled web of connections between this curious cast of characters to expose the murderer.
Thomas Littlejohn investigates a murder committed by the glow of a lighthouse The waterfront pub is closing up and the sailors are staggering home. World War II means a blackout in the English port town of Werrymouth, but the locals have no trouble finding their way over the Halfpenny Bridge, where a small toll shaves a mile off their drunken walk. A group of them are about to cross when a ship comes into the channel, and the lighthouse snaps on to guide its way. As the beams rake across the harbor, the sailors see two men struggling by the shore. One overpowers the other, killing him in the surf. The murderer escapes, and Detective-Inspector Littlejohn ventures down from London to find him. Two more murders follow, bringing this center of shipping to a halt just when England needs it most.
First published in 1948, Death on the Last Train is a Chief Inspector Littlejohn mystery full of false leads, dead ends and old-fashioned charm. Detective Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is travelling to an assignment, exhausted after an arduous journey of delayed connections, when he catches the last train. A murder occurs in his carriage, putting on hold any other plans he may have had. The local police, out of their depth, commandeer the detective to help them solve the case. Delving into unrequited love, betrayal, and poison pen letters, Littlejohn must pick apart a tangle of grudges. Many men and women seem primed with motives, but which of them has it in them to kill?
In Melchester, Thomas Littlejohn hunts the killer of a strangled poet The war is over and blackouts are a thing of the past, except in the village of Melchester, where the local council has refused to sully its streets with unsightly lamps. The night is pitch black, but hardly quiet. Young lovers are rendezvousing, a police constable is helping himself to a few of his neighbor’s partridges, and a poet is going to visit his beloved, a new verse on his lips. She will never hear it, sadly, for the young man is stopped along his way—stopped forever, by the tight grip of the garrote. The local constabulary wastes no time reaching out to Scotland Yard, which sends its best man: the easygoing detective-inspector Littlejohn. In Melchester he will find unspeakable secrets—and one citizen whose soul is as dark as the village night.
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction. "At 8 o'clock in the evening on the 8th of November, there was a terrific explosion in Green Lane, Evingden." The offices of the Excelsior Joinery Company have been blown to smithereens; three of the company directors are found dead amongst the rubble, and the peace of a quiet town in Surrey lies in ruins. When the supposed cause of an ignited gas leak is dismissed and the presence of dynamite revealed, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is summoned to the scene. But beneath the sleepy veneer of Evingden lies a hotbed of deep-rooted grievances. The new subject of the town's talk, Littlejohn's investigation is soon confounded by an impressive cast of suspicious persons, each concealing their own axe to grind. First published in 1964, Bellairs' novel hearkens back to the classic British mysteries and crime books. A masterpiece of misdirection, Surfeit of Suspects is a story of small-town grudges with calamitous consequences that revels in the abundant possible solutions to its central, explosive crime. Other books in the British Library Crime Classics: Death in Fancy Dress Smallbone Deceased It Walks by Night Measure of Malice The Body in the Dumb River Death Has Deep Roots The Notting Hill Mystery
On New Year’s Eve a string of grisly deaths strike a remote English hamlet For centuries Cobbold-in-the-Marsh has been haunted by the ghost of a Jesuit priest who lost his head rather than deny his faith. Since then, there hasn’t been much bloodshed in this peculiar little village, but all that changes during the icy week just after Christmas. First a policeman is found drowned in the canal, a tragic death that shows signs of foul play. Then, as the whole town gathers for midnight mass on New Year’s Eve, the prodigal son of the manor house staggers down the aisle. The congregation thinks he’s drunk—until they notice the blood seeping down his side. Detective-Inspector Thomas Littlejohn and Detective-Sergeant Robert Cromwell are called in from Scotland Yard to oversee the investigation. As they dig into the quirks and secrets of this eerie little enclave, they find that Cobbold is haunted by more than a decapitated priest.
The Blow’s old house stands proudly in post-war Nesbury. But the building harbours strange secrets. The owner, Mr William Blow, has left a financial mystery in the wake of his death. When Miss Penelope becomes the latest member of the Blow family to die, it sparks one of Scotland Yard’s most complex investigations. Who would kill Miss Penelope, a kind, Christian woman known best by Claplady, the local vicar, and Nesbury’s Salvation Army? Was jealousy the cause of her death, or simply madness? As Scotland Yard come under pressure to prosecute Miss Penelope’s killer, more witnesses crawl out of the woodwork to give their side of the story. How many crimes must be committed before the mystery of the Blow family is finally solved? "One of the subtlest and wittiest practitioners of the ...British detective story" - The New York Times "Sure-fire, that's Bellairs." - New York Herald Tribune "When you get a George Bellairs story you get something worth reading." - Norfolk Ledger-Despatch. ‘Dead March for Penelope Blow’ is a witty crime thriller by one of the masters of the genre. George Bellairs was the nom de plume of Harold Blundell (1902-1985), a crime writer and bank manager born in Heywood, near Rochdale, Lancashire, who settled in the Isle of Man on retirement. He wrote more than 50 books, most featuring the detective Inspector Littlejohn. He also wrote four novels under the alternative pseudonym Hilary Landon.
Benjamin Joliclerc became an estate agent after retiring without much credit from his family bank of Joliclerc & Co, in the pleasant Norman town of Montjoie. On the annual fete of St. Lupin, M. Joliclerc staggered out of his house and died in the street. He had been shot. Chief Superintendent Littlejohn, of Scotland Yard, was invited to the funeral. He didn’t know why, but tendered his apologies and condolences to the widow. A letter from his old friend Luc, retired Inspector of the Paris Sureté, hastened him to Normandy, however for M. Joliclerc’s last public utterance seemed to have been that he must send for his friend Littlejohn, which was an exaggeration, for they hardly know one another. The arrival of two celebrated senior detectives on the scene was warmly welcomed by the French police, but not by the law officers and the local aristocrats, who hindered them all they could. However, Littlejohn and Luc, in their rather plodding, old-fashioned way, finally tied-up the Joliclerc affair and that of another body which inconveniently turned up. George Bellairs loves France and the French and here he finds himself surrounded by a lot of ripe characters, suave scoundrels and some of the usual food, drink, and local specialities, which make his followers hungry as they read.
First published in 1972, this is a Chief Inspector Littlejohn mystery full of secrecy, duplicity and twisted loyalties. The Todds, governed by the widowed matriarch, Mrs Todd, are well-known in Fordinghurst. When Heck, the philandering youngest son, is found murdered on his boat, they do their best to hush up the scandal. With the local constabulary depleted through illness and strained by an epidemic of illegal immigration, Chief Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard and his new recruit, Hopkinson, are called in to investigate. Faced with a tangle of family jealousy, marital betrayal and racial prejudice, Littlejohn persists, leading to a slew of confessions.
Falbright Jenny, the last ferry from Elmer's Creek to Falbright suddenly takes the bit between her teeth and ends up with her nosein the air on a sandbank. The pilot, missing from her bridge, is later found under Falbright pier, stabbed in the back. Chief Inspector Littlejohn from Scotland Yard finds the case difficult right from the beginning, as the seedy gentry and their shifty tenants stick together and tell as many lies as possible.
A Yard Coroner who had retired to a manor house in the country, said to be haunted, gets mixed up with two characters until an untimely death made them flee.