About The Bleston Mystery
‘Skilfully handled… enjoyable’ Martin Edwards‘Mr Kennedy runs a risk of burgeoning into a detective best-seller’ The Observer‘The best detective story I have read for some time’ Liverpool PostThis 2025 Spitfire Publishers ebook and paperback edition represent the first republication of this classic of the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ in almost a centuryPhilip Kennedy stood amongst the wreckage of the interior of ‘The Laurels’, his newly inherited house in the London suburb of Heathden. Carpets and floorboards had been ripped up, walls drilled in search of voids, a bowler hat slashed. In the library every single book and every cover had a hole pierced right through it. The mutilated books had been thrown into one corner, the covers into another. In the last seventy-two hours two strangers had demanded from Captain Kennedy a diary belonging to his cousin, the relative who had bequeathed him the house and its contents. But the apparently highly-prised folio was far too large to be hidden in another book or the lining of a bowler hat… And then the murders began.
About the AuthorRobert Milward Kennedy was a joint pseudonym used by Milward Roden Kennedy Burge and A. G. Macdonell. Milward Roden Kennedy Burge was an English crime novelist and literary critic. He was born in 1894, educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford and served with British Military Intelligence during the First World War. He was the youngest male founding member of the Detection Club and reviewed mystery fiction for The Sunday Times and The Guardian. As ‘Milward Kennedy’ he wrote fifteen detective novels between 1928 and 1952 and contributed to both Detection Club collaborative novels, The Floating Admiral and Ask a Policeman. He wrote three additional detective novels under his Evelyn Elder pseudonym. Among the characters he created were Inspector Cornford and the suave confidence tricksters, Sir George and Lady Bull. He died in 1968. Today he is rather a forgotten figure of the Golden age of detective fiction. Archibald Gordon Macdonell was a Scottish author, broadcaster and journalist. He was born in India to a Scottish family and subsequently lived in Aberdeen. He was educated at Winchester and Newnham College, Cambridge and after serving in the First World War worked as a journalist in London. His best-known work is the satirical novel, England, Their England which gained considerable critical and popular acclaim and won the James Tait Black Award. He wrote six mystery novels under the pen name Neil Gordon. He died in 1941. Milward KennedyAsk a Policeman (with members of the Detection Club)‘A touch of genius’Times Literary SupplementThe Murderer of Sleep‘Milward Kennedy’s masterpiece’Barzun and Taylor‘Undoubtably his best book so far… deals in real people, and he writes with an easy absence of effort’The ObserverThe Scornful Corpse‘Has originality of treatment, and a real plot… the end of the tale is certainly surprising’New York TimesCorpse Guard Parade‘Offers a genuine detective puzzle… an easy and pleasant read’Martin Edwards‘It will be a seasoned crime-story fan who can guess which of these dark horses finally comes in ahead’TimeCorpse on the Mat‘Ingenious and entertaining’Vogue‘Those who are eager in their search for problematical murderers will enjoy this story… it is good fun’The GuardianA. G. MacdonellEngland, Their England‘One of the most amusing satires it has ever been my luck to read’The Daily Express‘As fun it is immense’The Observer‘A joy to read… a book which must certainly not be missed’The Sunday Times