β Scribed by Brian Flynn
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
βDid you hear, during these last few days, any mention from your brother of an animal?β Amazingly, she nodded! βYes . . . I heard him refer onceβto a spiked lion.β John Pender Blundell, a codebreaker in the Great War, is found dead in Bushey Park. He met his end, despite the savaged appearance of his body, from cyanide poisoning. Another similar death is soon discovered, and then yet another. With no apparent connection, Bathurst finds himself faced with a serious puzzle. How do the events link to the recently returned-from-apparent-death heir to the title of Lord Trensham? And what exactly is the spiked lion? The Spiked Lion was first published in 1933. This new edition features an introduction by Steve Barge. βBathurstβs solution, a characteristic shared with the other excellent Flynn novels, is construed with unerring logic and its every step accompanied by an unfailing interest.β New York Times
Brian Flynn was born in 1885 in Leyton, Essex. He won a scholarship to the City Of London School, and from there went into the civil service. In World War I he served as Special Constable on the Home Front, also teaching Accountancy, Languages, Maths and Elocution to men, women, boys and girls in the evenings, and acting in his spare time. It was a seaside family holiday that inspired Brian Flynn to turn his hand to writing in the mid-twenties. Finding most mystery novels of the time mediocre in the extreme, he decided to compose his own. Edith, the author's wife, encouraged its completion, and after a protracted period finding a publisher, it was eventually released in 1927 by John Hamilton in the UK and Macrae Smith in the U.S. as The Billiard-Room Mystery. The author died in 1958. In all, he wrote and published 57 mysteries, the vast majority featuring the super-sleuth Anthony Bathurst.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
"Murder as a fine art, as a pure expression of sadism is almost unknown." Thus spoke Anthony Bathurst to his friend, Chief Inspector MacMorran, but he will soon come to regret the statement. Julian Skene arrives to ask his assistance in the case of the disappearance of Mark Kenriston. Kenriston w
"This man Merivale admits that he killed his wife. Makes no bones about it whatever. Confesses that he strangled her. But he says that he was fast asleep at the time that he was doing it. That all he did, he did in a dream." Chief Inspector MacMorran is up against the most extraordinary case of h
_The wedges are fixed for the Sussex Cuckoo. Hurry if you would be in time. Even then I fear that you may be too late. Terms as arranged. NEHEMIAH._ Thus reads an announcement in the _Times_ Agony Column, catching the eye of Anthony Lotherington Bathurst on the morning he visits botanist James Frith
I never thought it would fall to my lot to write what is popularly known as a βthrillerβ, but Lois insists that I am the right person to do it and when Lois sets her mind on anythingβ Young Cecilia Cameron takes up reins as narrator in one of Brian Flynnβs most diabolical and surprising mysteries
"The murderer must have crept stealthily behind Pearson and taken him all unawares-unsuspecting." Leonard Pearson was not a pleasant individual - a likely blackmailer - so it came as no surprise when he met a sticky end. Attacked from behind, his head smashed with a blunt instrument, the only tan
"The gentleman in Number Fifty-four-Mr. Griggs-'e's been murdered!" Albert Griggs, the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, is considering an important case. Two brothers have killed a servant-girl in the course of a robbery. Griggs looks at the facts carefully and comes to his final decision - h