Whoever was driving that car was either drunk or mad.
The Case of the Flowery Corpse takes Ludovic Travers to the English rural idyll of Marstead in Suffolk, visiting his old friend Henry Morle. The quiet village seems hardly the place for mystery. Yet, following a car crash, a blackmail case emerges – and worse, not one, but two murders. There are multiple suspects, including a pair of twin doctors and a femme fatale, not to mention the looming presence of a US Army base. Travers enlists the help of Inspector Jewle and Sergeant Allman of Scotland Yard, and together they relentlessly chase down all the baffling clues, unpeel the mystery, and bring the villain to justice. Welcome to a classic bucolic detective story, written in Christopher Bush’s best style.
The Case of the Flowery Corpse was originally published in 1956. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
“Many small ingenuities of detection” New York Times
“The best mystery novel I have read in the last six months . . . interesting backgrounds and rich characterization.” Knoxville Sentinel
A propos de l’auteur
Christopher Bush was born Charlie Christmas Bush in Norfolk in 1885. His father was a farm labourer and his mother a milliner. In the early years of his childhood he lived with his aunt and uncle in London before returning to Norfolk aged seven, later winning a scholarship to Thetford Grammar School.
As an adult, Bush worked as a schoolmaster for 27 years, pausing only to fight in World War One, until retiring aged 46 in 1931 to be a full-time novelist. His first novel featuring the eccentric Ludovic Travers was published in 1926, and was followed by 62 additional Travers mysteries. These are all to be republished by Dean Street Press.
Christopher Bush fought again in World War Two, and was elected a member of the prestigious Detection Club. He died in 1973.