The Long Arm of the Law

We tend to associate classic crime fiction with amateur sleuths, Wimsey, Sheringham, Marple, and company. In reality, though, police stories abounded during the first half of the twentieth century. The "police procedural" may be thought of as a concept of the Fifities onwards, but Freeman Wills Crofts and others were writing books about meticulous police investigations long before the days of Lawrence Treat, Ed McBain, and Maurice Proctor.

Classic police stories are celebrated in my latest anthology in the British Library's Crime Classics series. The Long Arm of the Law charts the development of the police story over more than half a century. The first entry is a very obscure one, "The Mystery of Chernholt" by Alice and Claude Askew. And we come right up to the (relatively) modern era with Sergeant Cluff featuring in "The Moorlanders" by Gil North.

I really enjoyed putting this book together. It is, believe it or not, the third of my anthologies that the British Library have published this year alone - and there's one more still to come! - and I like to think that this reflects an increasing interest in short crime fiction. Books of this kind, though I say it myself are a great way of discovering new writers and new detective characters. Anthologies are always a mixed bag, and I do aim for quite a high degree of variety, but there's sure to be something for every crime fan - or so I hope.

This book contains, it's fair to say, a higher number of obscure stories than my other anothologies in the series, although several of the authors are well-known names - Crofts, Henry Wade, Christianna Brand, John Creasey, and Nicholas Blake among them. My researches benefited enormously from help given by a number of experts, including John Cooper, Jamie Sturgeon, and Nigel Moss. I leave it to readers to judge the result, but I'm optimistic that this book will provide crime fans with a great deal of entertainment, and some truly fascinating new discoveries.

Murder at Magenta Manor

It's been a crazily busy but hugely enjoyable week. The CWA Daggers Dinner, very glitzy, was a great success, and I had a wonderful time the following evening, after zipping up from London to Yorkshire. I was hosting a Yorkshire supper at the legendary Betty's Tea Room and gave a talk about Gil North, and rural detective fiction for the Ilkley LitFest. And then, on Thursday, it was back to London again. I had a truly fantastic time, as I opened a new Classic Crime pop-up shop at the British Library.

This shop is dedicated to classic detective fiction (and yes, it sells my books too!) and it will be open until the new year. And it has a very special feature, which for all I know is unique in British retailing. The Library offers visitors the chance to participate in a murder mystery competition, with prizes. And guess who was commissioned to write the murder mystery?

When the Library first mooted the project earlier this year, I was intrigued, but slightly daunted by the challenge. The puzzle has to interest customers, but also not be too fiendish, otherwise people will not be able to escape from the shop for hours as they struggle to solve it... But after much thought and trial and error, I came up with the story of Murder at Magenta Manor, the puzzle of who killed Murdo Magenta - and how. Almost inevitably, poisoned chocolates are involved. But what was the poison?

The Library told me they loved the plot. Very encouraging. As a next step, I met the specialist designer from Spain who was tasked with turning my concept into a 3-dimensional shop design. And she and her team did a brilliant job. When, on Thursday, I walked into the shop, I was blown away. The clues are artfully hidden in the shop, and there are all manner of wonderful presents, quite apart from books, to tempt people hunting for Christmas presents. (There are bags bearing the Poisoned Chocolates Case cover artwork, and bags and coasters featuring the artwork for my new winter anthology, Crimson Snow). It really is the most unusual and extraordinary writing

project I've ever worked on.

Thursday was a Press evening, and the Library team were delighted by reaction. The excitement even attracted the interest of two real life police officers who came in for a look around and proved very entertaining visitors, happy to enter into the spirit of the mystery. No photos of them on the blog, for obvious reasons, but they made their own contribution to an unforgettable occasion.

Celebrating Sergeant Cluff

Yesterday saw a very enjoyable launch event at the Grove Bookshop in Ilkley of the latest British Library Crime Classic. The book we were celebrating was Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm, by Gil North, the first novel in North's Yorkshire-based series. September will see the publication of a second book in the series, The Methods of Sergeant Cluff.

I'd got in the mood for the event by touring round scenic spots in Yorkshire, including Skipton, which North fictionalised as Gunnarshaw, Cluff's base. Landscape plays an important part in the books, and I enjoyed visiting Malham Cove, climbing a long way up to the fantastic viewpoint on the Limestone Pavemetnt, and taking a look at lovely Malham Tarn.

The Gil North books represent something of a departure for the British Library, because they were published in the Sixties, rather than during the Golden Age of Murder between the wars (at least that's how I define the Golden  Age,but really it's a concept that means different things to different people). But the Library takes the view that books that are more than 50 years old are certainly eligible to be considered as examples of Classic Crime, and that seems spot on to me..

I have a very, very distant memory of my father watching the Cluff TV series when I was a small boy. Yes, Cluff was a telly cop! He was played by Leslie Sands, well cast as the dour but compassionate Dalesman. The TV series was written by North, and enjoyed considerable popularity, but of course even TV fame is relatively transient. It's good to see these books - clearly influenced by Simenon in terms of style and approach - back in print.

Gil North was a pen-name for Geoffrey Horne, an interesting character about whom I learned a good deal from talking to his son Josh before writing my intros to the two books. I was sorry Josh was unable to attend the launch, but it was good to spend time with Rob Davies of the British Library, Peter Crangle, who represents the estate, and an enthusiastic audience including Catherine, alias that splendid blogger Juxtabook. We missed Lisa Shakespeare of Midas PR, who has been very busy n generating interest in Cluff, but I hope our paths cross before long. Perhaps at the Ilkley Literary Festival in October, to which I've been invited, and where I'll be talking about Cluff and Classic Crime (and a bit about my own books) in October. Really looking forward to it.

Forgotten Book - Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm

Does anybody remember Cluff? This was a detective show on the BBC in the mid-Sixties. I have a vague recollection, but no more, of seeing it when I was young. Apparently the TV series sprang from a pilot episode of that wonderful anthology series Detective - but my memories of Detective really go back to the later shows, screened right at the end of the Sixties. Anyway, I've just read the first book featuring Sergeant Cluff, who was played on TV by Leslie Sands. And Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm is definitely a Forgotten Book that deserves to be read today.

The setting is Gunnarshaw, which is a thinly disguised version of Skipton. The author of the Cluff books,Gil North - whose real name was Geoffrey Horne - was born and grew up in Skipton, and spent his later years there after a long career in the British Colonial Service. Cluff is gruff and bluff, a typical taciturn Yorkshireman, but beneath the stubborn and uncompromising exterior lurks a man with genuine compassion, and a burning desire to see justice done.

In this story, which appeared in 1960, and was the first of eleven Cluff books, Cluff is determined to do justice on behalf of a middle-aged woman who is found gassed in her own bedroom. The obvious conclusion is that she has committed suicide, but Cluff distrusts obvious conclusions, and he determines to find out what has led Amy Wright to such a dreadful end.

The setting is strong, and so is the characterisation. Cluff is a sort of Geoffrey Boycott of detection - cussed and sometimes irritating, but gifted, and reliable in a crisis. There are strong hints of the Maigret books, and although Gil North wasn't anything like as prolific as Simenon, and had a literary style that was, perhaps, an acquired taste (Harry Keating, for instance, wasn't too keen on it) he could certainly write well. This is a short book, but it packs a punch.