‘No one could prove we had reason to suspect murder. We can afford to be thought fools. So we’ll go on behaving as if such a thought never entered our minds.’
‘I’m sorry, gents. I thought for a moment I’d been coshed.’ An odd sort of way in which to thank two helpful strangers after a nasty accident in a City street, and one bound to provoke speculation; especially when the strangers happen to be Ludovic Travers and his senior operative, Mr. Hallows, of the Broad Street Detective Agency. There was in fact something altogether a bit furtive and even familiar about the well-dressed man who had measured his length on the slippery road surface; so much so for Hallows that he tried a spot of spontaneous ‘tracking’, only to be eluded with a skill that could have been practised. But this curious brief encounter seemed to have no real significance until by a quirk of fate it tied in with Travers’ investigations into the matter of Julian Matching’s young wife who had disappeared with some valuable jewellery belonging to the family business, and so became part of the case of the extra grave. Here is Christopher Bush at his most urbanely baffling, with a tale of murder and robbery that will please all connoisseurs of the genuine detective story.
The Case of the Extra Grave was originally published in 1961. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
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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 193I 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.