Inspector French: Sir John Magill’s Last Journey

Inspector French: Sir John Magill’s Last Journey
Freeman Wills Crofts

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the sixth Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.A MURDER MYSTERY WITHOUT A CLUEWhen Sir John Magill, the wealthy Irish industrialist, fails to show up at his home town on a well-publicised visit, neither his family nor the Belfast police can explain his disappearance. Foul play is suspected when his bloodstained hat is discovered, and Scotland Yard is called in. With his characteristic genius for reconstruction, Inspector French evolves a gruesome theory about what happened to the elderly man, but his reputation – and that of Scotland Yard – will depend on finding out who was responsible . . .

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

Inspector French and Sir John Magill’s Last Journey

Copyright (#u547baf7a-4711-591b-8873-197f2e07520f)

Published by 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 Wm Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1930

Copyright © Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts 1930

Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

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: 9780008190736

Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008190743

Version: 2017-01-23

Dedication (#u547baf7a-4711-591b-8873-197f2e07520f)

TO MY MANY GOOD FRIENDS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

For the sake of verisimilitude the scenes of this story have been laid in real places. All the characters introduced, however, are wholly imaginary, and if the name of any living person has been used, this has been done inadvertently and no reference to such person is intended.

Contents

Cover (#ue662414a-ac40-5cac-9e87-578997a9594d)

Title Page (#udaff13c4-c261-57eb-86b5-dcb5d7fc50a0)

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Chapter 1: Scotland Yard

Chapter 2: Knightsbridge

Chapter 3: Belfast

Chapter 4: Belfast

Chapter 5: Lurigan

Chapter 6: Lurigan: London: Belfast

Chapter 7: Lurigan

Chapter 8: Belfast

Chapter 9: Stranraer

Chapter 10: Portpatrick

Chapter 11: London

Chapter 12: Scotland Yard

Chapter 13: London: Barrow: Newcastle

Chapter 14: Castle-Douglas

Chapter 15: Kirkandrews Bay

Chapter 16: Cumberland

Chapter 17: Glasgow

Chapter 18: Campbeltown

Chapter 19: London to Stranraer

Chapter 20: Stranraer

Chapter 21: London to Plymouth

Chapter 22: The Cave Hill