AN INSPECTOR FRENCH MYSTERY. The burning down of Simon Averill's house, Starvel Hollow, appears at first to be an accident. The house has been reduced to ash, killing three people (including its owner) and incinerating the contents of the safe in which he kept his entire fortune in cash (over thirty thousand pounds). But when one of these notes appears in circulation, surely it cannot be an accident? Once again, Inspector French doggedly pursues the trail across Europe before finally unlocking the mystery when all appears to be lost.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the third Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Cheyne Mystery" by Freeman Wills Crofts. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

A deadly house fire causes a fortune to go up in smoke in this classic mystery novel by the author of The Cask. A tragic fire in Starvel Hollow has left behind a heap of smoldering ruins. An old man and two of his servants were lost in the flames—along with the fortune he kept in cash. With the bodies charred beyond recognition, there’s no reason to suspect foul play . . . until the supposedly incinerated banknotes are discovered in circulation. Scotland Yard Insp. Joseph French has some questions for Ruth Averill, the elderly man’s niece. Ruth’s life was saved on the night of the fire by a chance invitation from friends. But could she have set her uncle’s house aflame? As French peels back the layers of deceit, he uncovers a twisting case of arson, murder, and body snatching . . .

From the author called the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world ("Time") comes her newest novel featuring Inspector Wexford.

'Young is a sharp and funny writer with a brilliant eye for moral fudging and verbal hypocrisy, and she has a splendid foil in Miss Mole' Sally Beauman WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE 'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments?' Miss Hannah Mole has for twenty years earned her living precariously as a governess or companion to a succession of difficult old women.Now, aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, she returns to Radstowe, the lovely city of her youth. Here she is, if not exactly welcomed, at least employed as housekeeper by the pompous Reverend Robert Corder, whose daughters are sorely in need of guidance. But even the dreariest situation can be transformed into an adventure by the indomitable Miss Mole. Blessed with imagination, wit and intelligence, she wins the affection of Ethel and her nervous sister Ruth. But her past holds a secret that, if brought to life, would jeopardise everything.