The Pit-Prop Syndicate

The Pit-Prop Syndicate
John Curran

Freeman Wills Crofts

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the third standalone novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.Seymour Merriman’s holiday in France comes to an abrupt halt when his motorcycle starts leaking petrol. Following a lorry to find fuel, he discovers that it belongs to an English company making timber pit-props for coal mines back home. His suspicions of illegal activity are aroused when he sees the exact same lorry with a different number plate – and confirmed later with the shocking discovery of a body. What began as amateur detective work ends up as a job for Inspector Willis of Scotland Yard, a job requiring tenacity, ingenuity and guile . . .Freeman Wills Crofts’ transition from civil engineer on the Irish railways to world-renowned master of the detective mystery began with The Cask when he was fully 40 years old; but it was his third novel, the baffling The Pit-Prop Syndicate, that was singled out by his editors in 1930 as the first for inclusion in Collins’ prestigious new series of reprints ‘for crime connoisseurs’.This Detective Club classic is introduced by John Curran, author of The Hooded Gunman, and includes the bonus of an exclusive short story by Crofts, ‘Danger in Shroude Valley’.

THE PIT-PROP SYNDICATE

A STORY OF CRIME

BY

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

PLUS

‘DANGER IN SHROUDE VALLEY’

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN CURRAN

Copyright (#u768a938e-4f55-5bb1-8839-3140b3bcc859)

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 W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1922

‘Danger in Shroude Valley’ first published in

The Golden Book of the Year by Blandford Press 1950

Copyright © Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts 1922, 1950

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Introduction © John Curran 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: 9780008190552

Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008190569

Version: 2018-02-02

Table of Contents

Cover (#u832dbec9-3136-5212-ac0f-97f3d67858db)

Title Page (#u74228925-80f2-537a-9f13-87e16dce9383)

Copyright (#u83478cd4-22ac-5c1d-a595-b109f36d4f78)

The Pit-Prop Syndicate (#u750bd0e8-202a-5460-a5ad-c7c38704e330)

Introduction (#u6b83d151-73e7-50cd-bc68-04e310f8deee)

Part I: The Amateurs (#u0e854b91-6709-580a-9d43-966f5c1f5901)

Chapter I (#u6030f8e6-c621-5255-8ab4-28d02a012159)

Chapter II (#u3c027b09-38d0-5cef-8109-2176e771519b)

Chapter III (#u735bba6c-735d-581d-8573-73090b3c58f5)

Chapter IV (#uce81f260-0e21-55f4-8cfa-cf592cae69c2)

Chapter V (#u5ce2120b-fdfc-5fcc-918e-75a412f47d24)

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)

Part II: The Professionals (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XII (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter XIII (#litres_trial_promo)