The Sleuth of St. James's Square

By Melville Davisson Post

Once considered by many to be the greatest American mystery writer of all time, Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) has begun to fall into undeserved obscurity in the near century since his death. The Sleuth of St. James’s Square, first published as a book in 1920, aptly demonstrates his strengths, and it makes a good place to start for anyone encountering Post’s work for the first time. This volumes includes 16 mystery stories, each connected—if sometimes tangentially—to Sir Henry Marquis, head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard, who is called upon to solve some of the strangest and most puzzling cases in Britain. It starts with a locked-room mystery and ends in Scotland, at a house by a Loch where more is going on than meets the eye. A first-rate collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Aug 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781479452064

Melville Davisson Post

Melville Davisson Post (1869–1930) was a West Virginia author and attorney best known for his stories featuring Uncle Abner, an amateur detective and backwoodsman who solves mysteries and hands out justice in the years before the Civil War. Post’s other iconic creation is the amoral lawyer Randolph Mason, whose exploits on behalf of his criminal clients helped to establish the legal thriller genre. 

Book preview