THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR

BRAT FARRAR

It was eight years since 13-year-old Patrick Ashby vanished and was thought to have drowned himself. Now it seemed, he had returned - just in time to claim the family inheritance. But if Patrick really had committed suicide, who was this mysterious young man claiming to be him and calling himself Brat Farrar?

THE DAUGHTER OF TIME

To lighten the boredom of convalescence, Inspector Alan Grant investigates a crime of the time of Richard III by reconstructing it and considering it with his critical policeman's eye. The result is surprising. Was Richard III the monster the history books have portrayed?

THE MAN IN THE QUEUE

Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto. Inspector Alan Grant investigates and tenaciously pursues his suspects throughout the length of Britain and the labyrinth of London.

MISS PYM DISPOSES

Leys Physical Training College is famous for its discipline and its athletic students. Miss Lucy Pym, expert psychologist, is flattered to be invited to lecture there - even if the Olympian splendour of the students leaves her feeling just a little inadequate. But a nasty accident spoils the occasion, and suddenly Miss Pym must turn her intellect to the suspicion that, among all these healthy young students, there lurks an incurably sick mind...

A SHILLING FOR CANDLES

Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful young film actress is found lying dead on the beach one morning. Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive - just like murder...

THE SINGING SANDS

On his train back to Scotland for a well-earned rest, Inspector Grant learns that a fellow passenger has been found dead. It looks like a case of misadventure - but Grant is not so sure. Teased by some enigmatic lines of verse that the deceased had apparently scrawled on a newspaper, he follows a trail to the remote Outer Hebrides. And though it is the end of his holiday, it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin's death...

TO LOVE AND BE WISE

It was rumoured that Hollywood stars would kill for the privilege of being photographed by the fashionable portrait photographer Leslie Searle. But what would bring such a gifted figure to the English village of Salcott St Mary? And why, and how, did he disappear? If a crime had been committed, was it murder, fraud, or simply a macabre practical joke? Inspector Alan Grant determines to uncover the truth.