The Old Man in the Corner

Description

Mysteries! There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation. So says a rather down-at-heel elderly gentleman to young Polly Burton of the Evening Observer, in the corner of the ABC teashop on Norfolk Street one afternoon. Once she has forgiven him for distracting her from her newspaper and luncheon, Miss Burton discovers that her interlocutor is as brilliantly gifted as he is eccentric - able to solve mysteries that have made headlines and baffled the finest minds of the police without once leaving his seat in the teahouse. As the weeks go by, she listens to him unravelling the trickiest of puzzles and solving the most notorious of crimes, but still one final mystery remains: the mystery of the old man in the corner himself. The Old Man in the Corner is a classic collection of mysteries featuring the Teahouse Detective - a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes, with a brilliant mind and waspish temperament to match that of Conan Doyle's creation.

Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) was a Hungarian-born British author, best known for her Scarlet Pimpernel novels. Her Teahouse Detective, who features in The Old Man in the Corner, was one of the first fictional sleuths created in response to the Sherlock Holmes stories' huge success. Initially serialised in magazines, the stories in this collection were first published in book form in 1908 and have since been adapted for radio, television and film. Two more collections of Teahouse Detective mysteries are forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

A "welcome reissue . . . a must-have for whodunit fans." - Publishers Weekly "Simple but effective... cleverly contrived." - Daily Mail "We are introduced to the undisputed master of Armchair Detectives. . . If you are collecting classics of crime fiction for your personal library, you will certainly want this alongside of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, G. K. Chesterton, and the fictional detective he is most directly derived from: Poe's Dupin." - John Teel, Marshall University, PCA Mystery & Detective Fiction Reading List "The master sleuth... will delight fans of the golden age of British crime." - New Books Magazine "Perfect for cold winter days. I just wanted to snuggle up in a blanket and read these mysteries, trying to guess the endings... I can't recommend them enough." - Umut's Reviews "How gorgeous is the purple and gold cover! I was transported by these stories... worthy of the Golden Age crime writers themselves." - Vincent's Bookcase "The writing is brilliant, and attractive... so cozy and fun... unique." - Umut Reviews (blog) "The first and greatest armchair detective" --Ellery Queen "A literary tour-de-force" --E.F. Beiler