Below the Clock

Below the Clock
David Brawn

J. V. Turner

A classic Golden Age detective novel set at the heart of Westminster, when the murder of the Chancellor of the Exchequer threatens to topple the whole House of Cards…Many highly dramatic and historic scenes have been enacted below the clock of Big Ben, but none more sensational than on that April afternoon when, before the eyes of a chamber crowded to capacity for the Budget Speech, the Chancellor fell headlong to the floor with a resounding crash. For the first time a murder had been committed in the House of Commons itself – and Amos Petrie faced the toughest case of his career.In Below the Clock, John Victor Turner – a journalist who as David Hume had become known as ‘the new Edgar Wallace’ for creating Britain’s first hardboiled detective series – returned to classic Golden Age writing with an ingenious whodunit set at the heart of the establishment, a novel that did the unthinkable by turning Parliament into a crime scene and all its Members into murder suspects.This Detective Club classic is introduced by David Brawn, who looks at the distinguished crime-writing career of J. V. Turner and his alter egos Nicholas Brady and David Hume, who achieved remarkable success with nearly 50 books in only 14 years.

BELOW THE CLOCK

A STORY OF CRIME

BY

J. V. TURNER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

DAVID BRAWN

Copyright (#uf5e340c6-cb93-51f5-8d7c-ad33f88d27c0)

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 for The Crime Club

by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1936

Introduction © David Brawn 2018

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 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: 9780008280260

Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780008280277

Version: 2018-03-23

Dedication (#uf5e340c6-cb93-51f5-8d7c-ad33f88d27c0)

TO MY FRIEND

JOHN MEIKLE

Table of Contents

Cover (#ue910340c-df9e-5dd7-82e4-15ab98810ef9)

Title Page (#ua2afe0d9-7a6e-56b8-9c4b-eda9ffe61b81)

Copyright (#u98c56689-5b9d-5265-926a-f4ad52209b9c)

Dedication (#u7e0aac70-ea93-5b31-a2cf-437b4eabd5ac)

Below the Clock (#u71432bb0-a946-5ea5-a643-e3152f546ed8)

Introduction (#u5d93aaa7-7425-5c9f-b972-81a3fcee8183)

Chapter I (#u6a1e469d-34ea-5d37-99de-848dbc6bf498)

Chapter II (#ueb097519-a25b-5e1f-8fa6-b886ed8be1b2)

Chapter III (#uf7a1b5d0-1042-5533-ac12-d2ee549dc63a)

Chapter IV (#u3e5eb6ce-b2ea-58bd-80a2-5d2f0264ebea)

Chapter V (#u000461e6-4ca8-57f2-b296-93d5477c4e7c)

Chapter VI (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter VII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter VIII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter IX (#litres_trial_promo)

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)