You can't expect a murderer to be able to have everything his own way. An expert on twins, James Hardwicke is invited to progressive co-educational Scrope House School to investigate a case of apparent pyromania among the student body. Although inclined to ignore this odd invitation, he is persuaded to accept by his friend Caroline, who wants a job at the school. It is May 1939, German refugees are streaming into England to escape the horrors of the Hitler regime, and the headmaster is worried about the ramifications of a refugee child being the culprit. Soon enough, James' rather desultory investigation encompasses murder too, when sherry is poisoned at a faculty party. James must decide if there is a link between the fires and the murder, and whether the victim - the wife of the English teacher - was the intended victim or an accidental one.
Alan Clutton-Brock (1904 - 1976) was an English artist, art critic and essayist. His only detective novel, Murder at Liberty Hall, was published in 1941. He was was art critic of The Times (1945-55), a trustee of the National Gallery, Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge (1955-58), and wrote several books on art criticism. Alan and his second wife Barbara were the last private owners of Jacobean Chastleton Hall in Oxfordshire, now a National Trust property, where many of his paintings are displayed.
Title: Murder at Liberty Hall
Author: Alan Clutton-Brock
ISBN: 9781899000227
Binding:
Publisher: Moonstone Press
Publication Date: 2020-11-09
Number of Pages: 238
Weight: 0.2201 kg
Humour and Mystery
MURDER AT LIBERTY HALL is yet another detective-story for the connoisseur. Liberty Hall is an advanced co-educational institution where sporadic outbreaks of arson have been causing anxiety, the bictim being the wife of a member of the staff who is poisoned during a sherry-party. Mr Clutton-Brock has a sense of humour and a pretty wit. There is a wildy funny account of a cricket match between Liberty Hall and a public school, and the dialogue is very sprightly
-- Western Mail
A touch of Dorothy Sayers in the dry, English wit, the leisurely pace, the literary fancying-up, and all very clever. Arson and murder break out in an ultra-progressive co-educational school in England, and James Hardwick, persuaded by his girl of the moment, goes down their to straighten matters up. Political and romantic affiliations among the faculty as motivating factors -- and Hardwick, a diffident detective, conjures up a neat solution.
-- Kirkus Reviews
