Author | J.J. Connington |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Mark Brand |
Genre | Detective |
Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton |
Publication date | 1940 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | |
Preceded by | The Counsellor |
The Four Defences is a 1940 detective novel by the British author J.J. Connington, the pen name of the chemist Alfred Walter Stewart. [1] It was published in London by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Little, Brown and Company. [2] [3] It is a sequel to the 1939 novel The Counsellor featuring radio personality Mark Brand in a brief hiatus for Connington's best-known series detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. It was inspired by the real-life Alfred Rouse case of 1930. Written and set just before the outbreak of the Second World War, it was released in wartime.
After the burning wreck of a car is discovered with an unidentifiable corpse in it Brand's assistance is called for by the coroner to help him demonstrate to the dubious police that it is a case of suicide. Instead, he quickly establishes that it is a clear case of murder.
With his usual enthusiasm, Brand takes up the dominant role in the investigation alongside Inspector Hartwell of the local force. He manages to identify the body provisionally, but with two other potential candidates for the course he is far from sure. He eventually both unmasks the real identity of the corpse in the car and the ingenious plan by which the murderer planned to have "four defences" should he ever be tried for the killing in court.
In A Catalogue of Crime it is described as "an interesting variation of the Rouse motorcar murder".
The Corpse in the Car is a 1935 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twentieth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. A review by Ralph Partridge in the New Statesman commented "Mr. Rhode has written a humdrum, workaday book in The Corpse in the Car. He belongs to the English school of Freeman Wills Crofts, with which it is impossible to find technical fault." In The Spectator Rupert Hart-Davis considered that "The Corpse in the Car is greatly inferior to his last book, Shot at Dawn."
For Murder Will Speak is a 1938 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the thirteenth in a series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. The title references a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet. It was released in the United States by Little, Brown and Company under the alternative title Murder Will Speak.
Mystery at Lynden Sands is a 1928 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the third in a series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. It was published in London by Gollancz and Boston by Little, Brown and Company. It received a generally positive critical reception, with one reviewer going so far as to say it "may just fail of being the best detective story of the century" comparing it to The Cask and The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In A Catalogue of Crime by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor describe it as "early but not first-class Connington".
Tragedy at Ravensthorpe is an 1927 detective novel by the British writer Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the second in a series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield following on from Murder in the Maze. The American edition was published in Boston by Little, Brown and Company.
Death at Swaythling Court is a 1926 mystery detective novel by the British writer Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It was Stewart's first attempt at a detective novel, having previously produced works including the 1923 science fiction novel Nordenholt's Million. It is a stand-alone novel, revolving around a country house mystery. The following year the author published Murder in the Maze, the first of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age detective Sir Clinton Driffield, for which he is best-known.
The Boathouse Riddle is a 1931 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the sixth in his series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. The title is also written as The Boat-House Riddle.
The Two Tickets Puzzle is a 1930 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It was the second and last book featuring Superintendent Ross, an attempt to replace the author's better-known series character Sir Clinton Driffield who returned in Connington's next novel The Boathouse Riddle. With its story of a police detective trying to break down an alibi using railway timetables, it resembled the style of Freeman Wills Crofts' Inspector French series. Dorothy L. Sayers used a similar plot for her 1931 novel Five Red Herrings, and references Connington's novel in the dialogue.
The Sweepstake Murders is an 1931 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the seventh in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. It uses a tontine murder theme, which recurs in detective and mystery stories.
The Castleford Conundrum is a 1932 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the eighth in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. It makes passing reference to one of the earlier stories Mystery at Lynden Sands.
Sir Clinton Driffield is a fictional police detective created by the British author J.J. Connington. He was one of numerous detectives created during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, making his first appearance in Murder in the Maze in 1927. He appeared in four subsequent novels by 1929 when Connington apparently wished to write him out following Nemesis at Raynham Parva. However, his replacement Superintendent Ross failed to gain the same level of popularity over two novels and Sir Clinton returned in the 1931 mystery The Boathouse Riddle. He went on to appear in a further eleven novels. The last entry Common Sense Is All You Need was published the year of Connington's death in 1947 and is set in wartime Britain.
Nemesis at Raynham Parva is a 1929 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the fifth in his series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield. It was published in the United States by Little, Brown and Company under the alternative title Grim Vengeance.
A Minor Operation is a 1937 British detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the eleventh in a series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield and was published by Hodder and Stoughton in London and Little, Brown and Company in the United States. In a New York Times review Isaac Anderson noted Sir Clinton as being rare among Chief Constables in British mystery stories for his competence noting "If you have not previously met him in Mr. Connington’s other novels, this is a good time to make his acquaintance, for in this book you will see him at his best".
Truth Comes Limping is a 1938 mystery detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the twelfth in a series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in London and Little, Brown and Company in the United States.
The Twenty-One Clues is a 1941 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the fourteenth in a series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in London and Little, Brown and Company in the United States.
Murder in the Maze is a 1927 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It was the first of seventeen novels featuring his best-known character the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield, Chief Constable of an English county. It takes the form of a classic country house mystery. First published in Britain by Ernest Benn, it was released in the United States by Little, Brown and Company.
The Eye in the Museum is a 1929 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It was the first of two books featuring Superintendent Ross, a brief attempt by the author to replace his best-known character Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield. Ross is similar in type to the contemporary Inspector French created by Freeman Wills Crofts. The title is a play on words referring both to a glass eye that is a prominent part of the museum's collection and a camera obscura on the top of the building which provides a vital evidence allowing Ross to solve the case.
The Ha-Ha Case is a 1934 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the ninth in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. A traditional country house mystery, the title refers to a Ha-ha a sunken fence hidden to the naked eye common on country estates. Unlike the other novels in the series which are set when they are written, this is dated a decade before its publication in 1924. In a review in the Sunday Times Dorothy L. Sayers wrote "There is no need to say that Mr. Connington has given us a sound and interesting plot, very carefully and ingeniously worked out."
In Whose Dim Shadow is a 1935 detective novel written by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the tenth in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. The title comes from a line in The Battle of Lake Regillus in Thomas Babington Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. It was published in the United States by Little, Brown under the alternative title The Tau Cross Mystery.
No Past Is Dead is a 1942 mystery detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the fifteenth in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in London and Little, Brown and Company in the United States.
The Counsellor is a 1939 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It was published in London by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Little, Brown and Company. It was the first of two novels in which Connington replaced his usual detective Sir Clinton Driffield with radio personality Max Brand. It was followed the next year by The Four Defences before Connington returned to writing Driffield novels.