The Rogues’ Syndicate: The Maelstrom

The Rogues’ Syndicate: The Maelstrom
Frank Froest

This exciting thriller by the late Frank Froest, himself a detective of international fame, will satisfy the most exacting of detective story connoisseurs. Against a familiar London background we have here a tale of breath-taking adventure – knifing, arson, racing-taxicabs, and shooting-to-kill.Lost in a London fog, young Jimmie Hallett is accosted by a frightened woman who hands him a package and flees. Within hours, he is being questioned about the murder of the girl’s father and a dangerous international conspiracy. Can genial detective Weir Menzies, even with all the resources of Scotland Yard behind him, succeed in outwitting a faceless gang of organised thieves and killers?Frank Froëst, the highly decorated Superintendent of Scotland Yard’s C.I.D., began his retirement from the Metropolitan Police by writing The Grell Mystery, acclaimed as the first crime novel to incorporate authentic police procedures. With George Dilnot, co-author of the story collection The Crime Club, Froëst wrote one more novel, the ambitious and thrilling The Rogues’ Syndicate, published in 1916 and also released as a silent movie, Millionaire Hallet’s Adventure. The book was republished in April 1930 by the Detective Story Club, but was inadvertently sourced from an abridged, Americanised version called The Maelstrom.This Detective Club classic restores the full text of the British first edition, and includes an introduction by the Detective Story Club’s original series editor, F. T. Smith.

‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’

Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.,1929

Now the Man with the Gun is back in this series of COLLINS CRIME CLUB reprints, and with him the chance to experience the classic books that influenced the Golden Age of crime fiction.

Copyright (#u2fd2121e-089e-54e3-ac29-908e751c2890)

COLLINS CRIME CLUB

an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Eveleigh Nash 1916

Published by The Detective Story Club Ltd for Wm Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1930

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1930, 2018

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008137717

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008137724

Version: 2018-04-17

Dedication (#u2fd2121e-089e-54e3-ac29-908e751c2890)

DEDICATED TO

WILLIAM ALLAN PINKERTON,

America’s greatest Crime Investigator, to whom one of the writers will be ever indebted for the great and valuable assistance offered him throughout his official career.

Table of Contents

Cover (#uce2e42f3-2f6b-5532-892c-466b8143a4e7)

Title Page (#ud3881e66-e69c-52cc-a2b4-906b2747100d)

Copyright (#u1befac51-3cdd-54f2-957b-62dfa9164acc)

Dedication (#ub543b9f2-3622-5d8f-b4ff-d9ed328cbe90)

Introduction (#u56b02b2e-2ec7-58e3-bdba-98e7db3eba56)

Chapter I (#ud87e9777-d23d-59ea-a6b0-4b3f7028e2ba)

Chapter II (#u2c0675b3-2480-533e-800c-63e53b0c9f54)

Chapter III (#u2d96b391-0c54-5935-a85d-5f4583ea6573)

Chapter IV (#u6f0d0245-9b70-54b6-bdfa-38694b27a235)

Chapter V (#u58123645-943c-5819-acd2-b5a0f34f522e)

Chapter VI (#u009cda17-4824-5a19-8808-6f3d8e1a05cb)

Chapter VII (#u743dfea0-8b39-5f2e-ad0b-613cbba04ab7)

Chapter VIII (#uab966a3b-eeaa-5d6e-863d-c450ddb2d608)

Chapter IX (#u21d99b9b-53c7-5676-9ed4-a5953b5f7cd3)

Chapter X (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XI (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XIII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XIV (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XV (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XVI (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XVII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XVIII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XIX (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XX (#litres_trial_promo)