The Crime at Halfpenny Bridge

By George Bellairs

The waterfront pub is closing up and the sailors are staggering home. World War II means a blackout in the English port town of Werrymouth, but the locals have no trouble finding their way over the Halfpenny Bridge, where a small toll shaves a mile off their drunken walk. A group of them are about to cross when a ship comes into the channel, and the lighthouse snaps on to guide its way. As the beams rake across the harbor, the sailors see two men struggling by the shore. One overpowers the other, killing him in the surf.

The murderer escapes, and Detective-Inspector Littlejohn ventures down from London to find him. Two more murders follow, bringing this center of shipping to a halt just when England needs it most.

• Language: English
• Publisher: mysteriouspress.com
• Release date: May 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781784979331

George Bellairs

George Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902–1985), an English crime author best known for the creation of Detective-Inspector Thomas Littlejohn. Born in Heywood, near Lancashire, Blundell introduced his famous detective in his first novel, Littlejohn on Leave (1941). A low-key Scotland Yard investigator whose adventures were told in the Golden Age style of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Littlejohn went on to appear in more than fifty novels, including The Crime at Halfpenny Bridge (1946), Outrage on Gallows Hill (1949), and The Case of the Headless Jesuit (1950). In the 1950s Bellairs relocated to the Isle of Man, a remote island in the Irish Sea, and began writing full time. He continued writing Thomas Littlejohn novels for the rest of his life, taking occasional breaks to write standalone novels, concluding the series with An Old Man Dies (1980).

Reviews for The Crime at Halfpenny Bridge

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two connected murders occur shortly after the book begins. The first is that of an old lady who is given an overdose and shortly afterwards smothered with a cushion. Later another murder occurs where the victim is bashed on the head with a blunt instrument. Detective Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is brought in to investigate. The scene is the coastal town of Werrymouth where live a large cast of the usual eccentric characters who appear in many of George Bellairs crime novels.In this one we meet Titus Jackson,the Count Coroner,a man so small he has to be propped up on his chair or his head would not be seen above the bench. Also Mr Arnold Podmore,Deputy Headmaster at the local school.He rules the pupils with a rod of iron,shouting at his class "My word,I'll make you bounce! By gad,I'll dust your trousers!" The Reverend Micah Scewbody is the Pastor of the Burning Bushes Chapel and is another quite wonderful creation.Before the case is solved,Littlejohn is faced with several difficult decisions and is at one point in very great personal danger.