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A Losing Game (an Inspector French Mystery)
A Losing Game - an Inspector French Mystery Author:Freeman Wills Crofts Albert Reeve's operations in blackmail had long brought him a lucrative income, but there came a day when he ventured too far in his demands and one of his victims turned upon him and killed him. The police investigation that followed uncovered conclusive evidence pointing to young Tony Meadowes, a detective novelist, as the murderer. Tony had b... more »een one of Reeve's victims and when he admitted visiting Reeve's home on the fatal night to beg for mercy, the shadow of the gallows loomed threateningly near - until Inspector French stepped in to crack the iron clad alibi of another suspect and thus trap the real killer!
Albert Reeve, money lender and blackmailer, is found dead in his house by one of his clients, Tony Meadowes. When subsequently Reeve's house is partly destroyed by fire, Tony is charged with the blackmailer's murder. Among those hoping desperately to prove Tony's innocence is his sister, and she seeks the assistance of Inspector French. In his 1941 "curl up by the fire and enjoy a good detective yarn" production, Freeman Wills Crofts leads his reader from a presentation of the crime, on to the accusation of the wrong man, through an investigation of all suspects, to the breaking of an apparently cast-iron alibi, and to the final "thriller" capture. Young Tony is a budding detective fiction writer, and Freeman Wills Crofts throws in along the way a few insights into the craft of which he himself was a master.« less