The Case with Three Threads: An English Country House Murder Mystery

‘Effortless telling of a good story’ The Observer‘Murder most ingeniously contrived’ New York TimesThe third crime novel of the much-revered crime writer Vernon Loder (writing as ‘Anthony Lang’) back in print for the first time in almost a centuryThe English country house known as ‘The Aumbry’ was intensely picturesque. Set amongst woods and with views of the Yorkshire Dales, it had been the family seat of the Gilders family for over two centuries. By 1926 however, it is in the hands of Argentinian widow, Señora Carmen Alvez. Half the mansion is closed-off and running on a skeleton staff. The tall and elegant butler, Julius Hogan, is its linchpin. But the vivacious señora seems on strangely personal terms with her staff. When she invites her new friend, wealthy heiress Miss Peggy Heggins, to her country home, dead bodies begin to pile up and Chief Inspector Hoe of Scotland Yard descends to investigate maleficence most foul.ABOUT THE AUTHORGeorge Varney was one of no less than nine pseudonyms adopted by Anglo-Irish detective fiction author, Jack Vahey. Born John George Hazlette Vahey in Belfast in 1881 he worked first as an apprentice architect, then an accountant before finally turning to writing fiction full-time. He is perhaps best known by his ‘Vernon Loder’ pseudonym used on twenty-two of his novels, many published in the prestigious Collins Crime Club, the first The Mystery at Stowe in 1928, the last, Kill in the Ring, in 1938. Jack Vahey died in 1938.PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR‘A brilliantly-written detective story’The Daily Mail‘Spins out his gruesome tale and does it well’New York Times‘The name of Vernon Loder must be widely known as a reliable and promising indication on the cover of a detective story’Times Literary Supplement‘Character drawing in Vernon Loder’s strong point’Glasgow Herald‘A master story-teller’Manchester Evening News