Suddenly, at the very last moment, he remembered that he was a gentleman.
Late that night, when they were sitting in front of the fire, Steve said: ‘I began to wonder if you were ever going to turn up, Paul.’
‘I didn’t leave my publishers’ until a quarter past six,’ said Temple. ‘And then I dropped into the Club for an hour.’ He smiled. ‘It’s a good job I did, otherwise I shouldn’t have seen Sir Graham and heard all about “The Nightingale”.’
His wife said: ‘Inspector Vosper looked delighted when he arrested her. I think now he’s really convinced you’re a genius, Paul.’
‘Don’t you think I’m a genius, darling?’
‘It was certainly clever of you to notice that slip – but I really think there’s something you ought to know.’
Temple looked puzzled.
Steve was smiling at him; there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. ‘While you were at your publishers’ this afternoon something happened.’
‘What do you mean?’
Steve laughed. ‘Take a deep breath, darling,’ she said. ‘They repaired the lift!’
By the same author
Beware of Johnny Washington
When a gang of desperate criminals begins leaving calling cards inscribed ‘With the Compliments of Johnny Washington’, the real Johnny Washington is encouraged by an attractive newspaper columnist to throw in his lot with the police. Johnny, an American ‘gentleman of leisure’ who has settled at a quiet country house in Kent to enjoy the fishing, soon finds himself involved with the mysterious Horatio Quince, a retired schoolmaster who is on the trail of the gang’s unscrupulous leader, the elusive ‘Grey Moose’.
Best known for creating Paul Temple for BBC radio in 1938, Francis Durbridge’s prolific output of crime and mystery stories, encompassing plays, radio, television, films and books, made him a household name for more than 50 years. A new radio character, Johnny Washington Esquire, hit the airwaves in 1949, leading to the publication of this one-off novel in 1951.
This Detective Club classic is introduced by writer and bibliographer Melvyn Barnes, author of Francis Durbridge: A Centenary Appreciation, who reveals how Johnny Washington’s only literary outing was actually a reworking of Durbridge’s own Send for Paul Temple.
Dead to the World
Photographer and amateur detective Philip Holt is asked to investigate the unexplained murder of an American student at an English university. With a postcard signed ‘Christopher’ and the boy’s father’s missing signet ring as his only leads, Holt’s investigation soon snowballs into forgery, blackmail, smuggling … and more murder.
Dead to the World is Francis Durbridge’s novelisation of his radio serial Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery, rewriting the Paul and Steve Temple characters as Philip Holt and his secretary Ruth Sanders. This new edition is introduced by bibliographer Melvyn Barnes and includes the Paul Temple Christmas story The Ventriloquist’s Doll.
Design for Murder
The Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard visits a retired detective with the news that an old adversary has struck again, strangling an innocent girl. Wyatt is reluctant to return to police work, but then another body is found – this time at his own home, with a chilling message: ‘With the compliments of Mr Rossiter’.
In Design for Murder, Francis Durbridge adapted his longest Paul Temple serial, Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair, into a full-length novel. All the obligatory elements from the thrilling radio episodes were present, but in a new twist, he renamed the principal characters: Paul and Steve Temple became Lionel and Sally Wyatt, and ‘Mr Rossiter’ replaced the villainous Gregory. Reprinted for the first time in 66 years, fans of Francis Durbridge and of Paul Temple can finally relive this ingenious adventure.
Includes the exclusive 1946 Radio Times short story ‘Paul Temple’s White Christmas’.
About the Author
Francis Henry Durbridge was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1912 and was educated at Bradford Grammar School. He was encouraged at an early age to write by his English teacher and went on to read English at Birmingham University. At the age of twenty-one he sold a radio play to the BBC and continued to write following his graduation whilst working as a stockbroker’s clerk.
In 1938, he created the character Paul Temple, a crime novelist and detective. For thirty years the radio serials were hugely successful until the last of the series was completed in 1968. In 1969, Paul Temple was adapted for television and four of the adventures prior to this had been adapted for cinema, albeit with less success than radio and TV. Francis Durbridge also wrote for the stage and continued doing so up until 1991, when Sweet Revenge was completed. Additionally, he wrote over twenty other well-received novels, most of which were on the general subject of crime. The last, Fatal Encounter, was published after his death in 1998.
Also in This Series
Send for Paul Temple
Paul Temple and the Front Page Men
News of Paul Temple
Paul Temple Intervenes
Send for Paul Temple Again!
Back Room Girl
Paul Temple and the Tyler Mystery
Design for Murder
Paul Temple: East of Algiers
Dead to the World
Paul Temple and the Kelby Affair
Paul Temple and the Harkdale Robbery
Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery
Paul Temple and the Curzon Case
Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery
Paul Temple and the Madison Case
About the Publisher
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HarperCollins Canada
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HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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London, SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
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