The Silk Stocking Murders

Description

A classic British crime novel from the Golden Age - one of the first to feature a serial killer - by the founder of the Detection Club, marking 50 years since the death of the author. Investigating the disappearance of a vicar's daughter in London, the popular novelist and amateur detective Roger Sheringham is shocked to discover that the girl is already dead, found hanging from a screw by her own silk stocking. Reports of similar deaths across the capital strengthen his conviction that this is no suicide cult but the work of a homicidal maniac out for vengeance - a desperate situation requiring desperate measures. Having established Roger Sheringham as a brilliant but headstrong young sleuth who frequently made mistakes, trusted the wrong people and imbibed considerable liquid refreshment, Anthony Berkeley took his controversial character into much darker territory with The Silk Stocking Murders, a sensational novel about gruesome serial killings by an apparent psychopath bent on targeting vulnerable young women.

Anthony Berkeley was a pen name of Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893-1971), one of the most important figures in the history of British crime fiction. Many of his novels feature the amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham. As well as being the author of many classic detective stories, Berkeley was the founder of the prestigious Detection Club for the finest crime writers.

'Detection and crime at its wittiest - all Berkeley's stories are amusing, intriguing and he is a master of the final twist.' Agatha Christie 'Anthony Berkeley is the supreme master not of the "twist" but of the "double-twist".' Milward Kennedy in the Sunday Times