The Sussex Downs Murder: A British Library Crime Classic

By John Bude

'Already it looked as if the police were up against a carefully planned and cleverly executed murder, and, what was more, a murder without a corpse!’

Two brothers, John and William Rother, live together at Chalklands Farm in the beautiful Sussex Downs. Their peaceful rural life is shattered when John Rother disappears and his abandoned car is found. Has he been kidnapped? Or is his disappearance more sinister – connected, perhaps, to his growing rather too friendly with his brother’s wife?
Superintendent Meredith is called to investigate – and begins to suspect the worst when human bones are discovered on Chalklands farmland. His patient, careful detective method begins slowly to untangle the clues as suspicion shifts from one character to the next.

This classic detective novel from the 1930s is now republished for the first time, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: May 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781464203725

John Bude

JOHN BUDE was the pseudonym of Ernest Elmore (1901–1957), an author of the golden age of crime fiction. Elmore was a cofounder of the Crime Writers' Association, and worked in the theatre as a producer and director.

Reviews for The Sussex Downs Murder

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mysteries are my favorite genre and I especially love those set in the Golden Age. The Sussex Downs Murder is a great example. The book was easy to read - although a little slow in places. The clues were laid out well and there were some good plot twists that kept things interesting. I enjoyed Superintendent Meredith. I will certainly try to read more by John Bude.I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude is a 2015 Poison Pen publication. (Originally published in 1936)This Golden Age mystery was saved from obscurity with the help of the British Crime Library and is now available via Poisoned Pen Press in digital format. Any avid, contemporary, mystery reader will have absolutely no trouble at all figuring out, well in advance, 'whodunit', and maybe a whole lot of the ‘how’ part too. While that would ordinarily bug me to no end, it wouldn't be fair to judge this novel by our wizened and jaded modern day standards. I think it is obvious the author put some serious thought into the plot, with some truly novel details, but, still, I’m not even sure the more innocent 1936 audiences would have been entirely baffled by this plot. Nevertheless, I did enjoy seeing how Meredith pieced all the bits and pieces of the puzzle together to finally solve the crime he investigated for months. This is my first ‘Meredith’ mystery, and while it certainly didn’t blow me away, I did enjoy reading an old Golden Age mystery by an author I was not familiar with. Meredith has some nice dialogue and observations in the story- and takes a few jabs at the detectives featured in popular novels of the day-“But when it comes to a proper detective yarn give me something that’s possible, plausible, and not crammed with a lot of nice little coincidences and ‘flashes of intuition’. Things don’t work that way in real life. We don’t work that way. At least, sir, that’s how it seems to me anyway.”Oh snap! I do detect a bit of snark there! Of course, this is a quick, gentle, clean mystery, I can’t think of anything I found offensive, though the story is very much a product of its time. I found the book mildly entertaining, with most of the novelty coming from its rescue from obscurity. I’m so happy to see these older detective and mystery novels reaching new audiences, though, and even if some of the material isn’t nearly as challenging to readers as it was when first published, they are still fun to read!! I will definitely look for more “Meredith” mysteries in the future!