Tenant for Death (Inspector Mallett Mystery S.) [Paperback]

Cyril Hare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001 | Series: Inspector Mallett Mystery S.

An Inspector Mallett mystery - Daylesford Gardens, South Kensington, is an unlikely address for the discovery of death by strangulation. Even more unusual is that the house does not belong to the deceased financier. In the meantime, the mysterious tenant, Colin James, has disappeared. Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard is brought in to unravel a complicated trail.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cyril Hare was the pseudonym of Judge Gordon Clark. Born at Mickleham near Dorking in 1900, he was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. At the bar his practice was largely in the criminal courts. During the Second World War he was on the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions; but later, as a County Court judge, his work concerned civil disputes only - and his sole connection with crime was through his fiction. He turned to writing detective stories at the age of thirty-six and some of his first short stories were published in Punch. Hare went on to write a series of detective novels. He died in 1958.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus Ltd (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842326538
• ISBN-13: 978-1842326534
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,986,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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.