The Milliner's Hat Mystery: An Inspector Richardson Mystery

by Basil Thomson Sir

Overview

"What are you looking for, sir?" he said.

"Bloodstains."

Scotland Yard is concerned with the murderer, or murderers, of the mysterious Bernard Pitt. The dead man is discovered with a false identity, courtesy of the many forged papers and documents found with him.

The trail leads to France, where we discover why a French milliner chose to ride in a laundry basket, why the two American men are so interested in their wives' hat trimmings, and why it is so difficult for the French police to touch a criminal with high political connections. But the murder of Bernard Pitt was only an incident in the diabolical plot linking a network of criminals on both sides of the Channel.

The Milliner's Hat Mystery was first published in 1937. This new edition, the first for many decades, includes an introduction by crime novelist Martin Edwards, acclaimed author of genre history The Golden Age of Murder.

"Sir Basil Thomson is a past-master in the mysteries of Scotland Yard." Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911095798
Publisher:	Dean Street Press
Publication date:	04/04/2016
Pages:	210
Sales rank:	325,285
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Sir Basil Home Thomson (1861-1939) was educated at Eton and New College Oxford. After spending a year farming in Iowa, he married in 1889 and worked for the Foreign Service. This included a stint working alongside the Prime Minister of Tonga (according to some accounts, he was the Prime Minister of Tonga) in the 1890s followed by a return to the Civil Service and a period as Governor of Dartmoor Prison. He was Assistant Commissioner to the Metropolitan Police from 1913 to 1919, after which he moved into Intelligence. He was knighted in 1919 and received other honours from Europe and Japan, but his public career came to an end when he was arrested for committing an act of indecency in Hyde Park in 1925 - an incident much debated and disputed. His eight crime novels featuring series character Inspector Richardson were written in the 1930's and received great praise from Dorothy L. Sayers among others. He also wrote biographical and criminological works.