The Wychford Poisoning Case

A classic British crime novel from the Golden Age – perhaps the first ever psychological crime novel – by the founder of the Detection Club, marking 50 years since the death of the author.

Mrs Bentley has been arrested for murder. The evidence is overwhelming: arsenic she extracted from fly papers was in her husband’s medicine, his food and his lemonade, and her crimes are being plastered across the newspapers. Even her lawyers believe she is guilty. But Roger Sheringham, the brilliant but outspoken young novelist, is convinced that there is ‘too much evidence’ against Mrs Bentley and sets out to prove her innocence.

Credited as the book that first introduced psychology to the detective novel, The Wychford Poisoning Case was based on a notorious real-life murder inquiry. Written by Anthony Berkeley, a founder of the celebrated Detection Club who also found fame under the pen-name ‘Francis Iles’, the story saw the return of Roger Sheringham, the Golden Age’s breeziest – and booziest – detective.

One of two crime novels (with The Silk Stockings Murders) by Anthony Berkeley being released for the first time in paperback to mark 50 years since his death in March 1971.

Competition: inspector french;bodies from the library;howdunit;death on the nile;the cask;killings at kingfisher hill. by;agatha christie;philip macdonald;donald henderson;freeman wills crofts;john rhode;tony medawar;martin edwards;edmund crispin;e. c. r. lorac;sophie hannah;dorothy l. sayers;ngaio marsh