A ROGER SHERINGHAM MYSTERY. In a typical English country house, a murder is committed. The wealthy Victor Stanworth, who'd been playing host to a party of friends, is found dead in the library. At first it appears to be suicide, for the room was undoubtedly locked. But could there be more to the case? As one of the guests at Layton Court, gentleman sleuth Roger Sheringham begins to investigate. Many come under suspicion, but how could anyone have killed the man and gotten out of the room, leaving it all locked behind?
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Editorial Reviews
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‘Anthony Berkeley is the supreme master not of the "twist" but of the "double-twist".’ - The Sunday Times
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.About the Author
Born in 1893, Anthony Berkeley (Anthony Berkeley Cox) was a British crime writer and a leading member of the genre's Golden Age. Educated at Sherborne School and University College London, Berkeley served in the British army during WWI before becoming a journalist. His first novel, The Layton Court Murders, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case. In 1930, Berkeley founded the legendary Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and other established mystery writers. It was in 1938, under the pseudonym Francis Iles (which Berkeley also used for novels) that he took up work as a book reviewer for John O'London's Weekly and The Daily Telegraph. He later wrote for The Sunday Times in the mid 1940s, and then for The Guardian from the mid 1950s until 1970. A key figure in the development of crime fiction, he died in 1971.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Return to Mystery's Golden Age,
By Hong Kong Phooey (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Layton Court Mystery (A Roger Sheringham case) (Paperback)
A. B. Coxe (Anthony Berkeley) was a leading mystery writer in the 1920's and 30's and one of the founders of The Detection Club, an organization of Mystery writers who's membership also included the likes of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ronald Knox, among others. One of the credos of the club was the use of "fair play" in their writings, which means the reader is given all the clues necessary to solve the crime, nothing is hidden. There are no surprises sprung in the last chapter such as a hidden passageway that no one knows about, or a mysterious identical twin of a suspect.
The Layton Court Mystery is a good example of this type of fair play story. The book introduces the world to Berkeley's amateur sleuth, Roger Sheringham, in the first of 10 novels in which he appeared. In this story, Sheringham is a guest at a country home temporarily occupied by Victor Stanworth, a carefree sixty-something gentleman who is found dead, a victim of an apparent suicide. "Apparent" according to Sheringham, who is the only one, including the other house guests and the police, who can't accept the fact that a man who seemingly was happy and carefree would commit suicide. He suspects murder and the bulk of the book is his attempts to convince friend and fellow house guest, Alec Grierson of the same. The path is a windy one, full of missteps, wrong conclusions and incorrect solutions until the final explanation is given. Any serious mystery fan who has a sense of the history of the detective novel should read this. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Berkeley's books, and this one in particular, does not read like an "old-timey" novel that is outdated. It is a timeless novel that the reader will enjoy. If you liked this book, any of Berkeley's Roger Sheringham stories will equally satisfy. Berkeley also wrote under the name of Francis Iles, and I can also recommend Before The Fact and Malice Aforethought which were written under that nom de plum.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Layton Court Mystery; Classic Detective Story,
By Carol Bell (AL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Layton Court Mystery (Paperback)
"The Layton Court Mystery" is the first detective novel by Anthony Berkeley, one of the Golden Age writers. It is delightful! And this edition is quite nice.
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