Six Against the Yard

Six Against the Yard
Margery Allingham

Dorothy L. Sayers

Ronald Knox

Christie Christie

Freeman Wills Crofts

A unique anthology for crime aficionados - six ‘perfect murder’ stories written by the most accomplished crime writers of the 1930s, designed to fox real-life Scotland Yard Superintendent Cornish, who comments on whether or not these crimes could have genuinely been solved.Is the ‘perfect murder’ possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable – even to the most astute investigator?In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel…This clever literary battle of wits from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral and Ask a Policeman back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the experts from the Golden Age of detective fiction at their most ingenious.For true crime aficionados, this new edition includes an essay by Agatha Christie, one of the inaugural members of the Detection Club. Unseen since 1929, her article discusses the infamous Croydon Poisonings, a real-life perfect murder, the solution to which remains a mystery to this day…

SIX AGAINST THE YARD (#ue2a55c2a-6a76-5d92-8eae-0eb8a54b3f7c)

Lying idly in his bath, the instigator of this unique volume contemplated murder. There existed one whom he wished dead, and it occurred to him that most people, however Christian, knew of one for whom they desired a similar fate.

Thus it was that this book, with its brilliant band of contributors, grew into being. We wrote to each of them and suggested, quite casually, that they might like to commit, upon paper, a murder which they felt to be as perfect in its execution as they could conceive. With enthusiasm they entered into the idea, and each of them has produced in the form of a short novel an exact description of the circumstances and perpetration of their crime. From its instigation to its final act they have, in their own way, perfected their plans, lured their victims, dispatched them from life and covered their tracks.

But have their plans been as fool-proof as they believe? Have they made, as so many, criminals do make, that tiny slip which will lead to their detection? Is Dorothy Sayers quite certain that she will not hang from the neck until she is dead? Is Father Knox convinced that the jury will acquit him, if he finds himself in the dock? Is Anthony Berkeley prepared to withstand the searching questions of the police?

And it is here that Ex-Superintendent Cornish of the C.I.D. comes along with his vast experience of crime in real life. At the conclusion of each short novel Mr. Cornish deals with the case from the police point of view. He visits the scene of the crime and, with the facts in his possession which he has culled from the story, sets to work to find that flaw in the execution which will enable him to bring about the arrest of Margery Allingham or Russell Thorndike. Is he successful? Has he found those tell-tale clues, and if he hasn’t, can you?

Published by HarperCollinsPublishersLtd

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First published in Great Britain by Selwyn & Blount 1936

Copyright © The Detection Club 1936, 2013

The Tragic Family of Croydon

Copyright © Christie Archive Trust 1929, 2013

Cover design © Bold&Noble.com 2013

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013

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.

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Source ISBN: 9780007513918

Ebook Edition © September 2013 ISBN: 9780007513901

Version: 2018-07-30

Contents

SIX AGAINST THE YARD

Copyright (#ua989e5f9-17f9-59c1-9776-036cd793d46b)

IT DIDN’T WORK OUT

WOULD THE MURDERESS TELL?

THE FALLEN IDOL

MURDER IN UNIFORM

THE POLICEMAN ONLY TAPS ONCE

… AND THEN COME THE HANDCUFFS!

STRANGE DEATH OF MAJOR SCALLION

DETECTIVES SOMETIMES READ

BLOOD SACRIFICE

THEY WOULDN’T BELIEVE HIM!

THE PARCEL

THE MOTIVE SHOWS THE MAN

AFTERWORD: THE ARSENIC POISON MYSTERY

THE TRAGIC FAMILY OF CROYDON

About the Publisher

Margery Allingham

IT DIDN’T WORK OUT (#ue2a55c2a-6a76-5d92-8eae-0eb8a54b3f7c)

THIS IS A CONFESSION. I WANT TO TELL THE whole truth and to explain how it happened.

In the first place my name is not Margery Allingham. I was born Margaret Hawkins, and later on, when I went on the stage, I changed it to Polly Oliver. I don’t suppose you remember the name now, but your fathers might, although I don’t know … it’s no good me pretending.