Tenant for Death [Paperback]

Cyril Hare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1981

Originally published in 1937, Tenant for Death is the first novel by Cyril Hare, one of the best-loved Golden Age crime writers. Two young estate agent's clerks are sent to check an inventory on a house in Daylesford Gardens, South Kensington. Upon arrival, they find an unlisted item - a corpse. Furthermore, the mysterious tenant, Colin James, has disappeared. In a tale which uncovers many of the seedier aspects of the world of high finance, Hare also introduces his readers to the formidable Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard. Upon first publication the Times Literary Supplement praised Tenant for Death as 'a most ingenious story' while the Spectator celebrated its 'wit, fair play, and characterization' and also declared that 'a new star has risen'.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cyril Hare was the pseudonym for the distinguished lawyer Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. He was born in Surrey, in 1900, and was educated at Rugby and Oxford. A member of the Inner Temple, he was called to the Bar in 1924 and joined the chambers of Roland Oliver, who handled many of the great crime cases of the 1920s. He practised as a barrister until the Second World War, after which he served in various legal and judicial capacities including a time as a county court judge in Surrey. Hare's crime novels, many of which draw on his legal experience, have been praised by Elizabeth Bowen and P.D. James among others. He died in 1958 - at the peak of his career as a judge, and at the height of his powers as a master of the whodunit. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Dover Pubns; First U.S. Edition edition (January 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486241033
• ISBN-13: 978-0486241036
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,742,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Cyril Hare's First Mystery is Quite Good - Introduces Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard, April 10, 2007

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tenant for Death (Inspector Mallett Mystery S.) (Paperback)

Cyril Hare describes Daylesford Gardens, S.W., located where South Kensington borders on Chelsea, as a refuge for retired colonels, County Court judges, ex-civil servants, and half-pay naval officers. Somewhat incongruously, Lionel Ballantine, a spectacularly successful business man, missing for several days, is found murdered in an unpretentious, leased house in Daylesford Gardens.

To supplement his somewhat limited salary in the years immediately prior to WWII, Judge Gordon Clark, under the pseudonym Cyril Hare, tried his hand at mysteries. His first story, Tenant for Death (1937), was called "an engaging debut" by the respected critic, Jacques Barzun, and received praise from the Spectator for the "extreme skill of the writer".

Tenant for Death is well-crafted, offers interesting characterizations, and provides a credible surprise ending. This is a good story, and yet Cyril Hare's later mysteries like Suicide Excepted (1939), When the Wind Blows (1949), An English Murder (1951), and Untimely Death (1958) are perhaps even better. For readers familiar with Inspector Mallett, this competent Scotland Yard investigator first appears in Tenant for Death.

Cyril Hare's mysteries have been occasionally reissued, and with some persistence can be found in used book stores and library book sales, or purchased online. My copy of Tenant for Death is a slightly yellowed, 1982 Harper & Row Perennial paperback (ISBN 0060805706). In 1991 HarperCollins released a reprint paperback edition under the same ISBN. In 2001 House of Stratus reprinted Tenant for Death in a larger, soft cover format (ISBN 1842326538). Good luck in locating Cyril Hare's first Inspector Mallett mystery.