Author: David A. Rees

1Hampstead Mystery

By Arthur J. Rees and John R. Watson

A murder whodunit... <br />Location:</b> Hampstead, England. <br /><b>Victim:</b> Sir Horace Fewbanks, a distinguished High Court judge. Cause of death: gun shot wound. <br /><b>Investigator:</b> Private Detective Crewe, a wealthy bachelor who has taken up crime detection as a hobby, because it provides intellectual challenges more satisfying even than playing twelve simultaneous boards against Russian chess champion Turgieff. <br /><b>His sidekick:</b> Joe is a fourteen year old Cockney boy, whom Crewe saved from a life of crime by hiring him as a messenger-boy and shadower. <br /><b>Other whodunit elements:</b> clues galore, suspects in abundance, an inquest, a trial, and an elegant resolution. (Summary by Maikki)

2Shrieking Pit

By Arthur J. Rees

The Shrieking Pit is one of Arthur Rees's earlier works, and is a good old fashioned murder mystery story. Grant Colwyn, a private detective, is holidaying in East Anglia when he notices a young man at a nearby table behaving peculiarly. The young man later leaves the hotel without paying his bill, and turns up in a nearby hamlet in the Norfolk marshes where he takes lodgings at the village inn. The next day, another guest at the inn is found dead, and the young man is missing. Can Colwyn sort out the mystery and prove the young man's innocence one way or the the other? (Summary by Kevin Green)

3Mystery of the Downs

By Arthur J. Rees and John R. Watson

"The storm had descended swiftly, sweeping in suddenly from the sea, driving across the downs to the hills at high speed, blotting out the faint rays of a crescent moon and hiding the country-side beneath a pall of blackness, which was forked at intervals by flashes of lightning." - Book's opening sentence

4Hand in the Dark

By Arthur J. Rees

An ancient English country house with a storied and bloody history is the setting for this intriguing mystery. It is the autumn of 1918. The War to End All Wars is still raging in Europe, but in this peaceful setting a bored young wife hosts a party for friends from London, including war workers, servicemen, and a famous explorer and expert on jewels. Hours later she is dead of a gunshot wound, an heirloom pearl necklace is missing, and Scotland Yard is homing in on possibly the wrong suspect. Can the famous private detective Mr. Colwyn bring the murderer to justice? - Summary by Jacquerie

5Moon Rock

By Arthur J. Rees

Robert Turold has a monomania - An English title which had fallen into abeyance hundreds of years ago. Just when he was about to stake his claim, he is killed, and his daughter is the suspect. She too disappears under mysterious circumstances after Robert confides to his relatives that his daughter is illegitimate. Who killed Robert Turold? What hold did his manservant Thalassa had over him? - Summary by Yoganandh T