The Groote Park Murder

When a mutilated body is found beside a railway tunnel in Groote Park the tragedy appears a straightforward case of accidental death, but Middeldorp police Detective-Inspector Vandam senses foul play. Vandam begins an investigation into the dead man, Albert Smith, which takes the case from the wilds of South Africa to mountains and glens of Scotland, where a near-identical crime has been perpetrated… ABOUT THE AUTHOR Freeman Wills Crofts, the ‘King of Detective Story Writers’, was one of the pre-eminent writers in the golden age of British crime fiction. Acclaimed by his contemporaries, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, he wrote more than 30 detective novels and was a founder member of the hugely influential DETECTIVE CLUB. Crofts’s most famous creation was Scotland Yard detective, Inspector French (‘As near the real thing as any sleuth in fiction’ THE SUNDAY TIMES). Born in Dublin, Crofts became an engineer and wrote his debut novel, THE CASK: A DETECTIVE STORY (‘An imaginatively ingenious mystery’ THE EVENING STANDARD) in 1919 during a long absence from work due to illness. He became a full-time writer in 1929 and moved to England with his wife Mary to live in Guildford. He died in 1957. PRAISE FOR FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS ‘One of the classics of modern crime fiction’ NEW YORK TIMES; ‘Exactly what a detective novel should be – ingenious, lucid, reasonable, intricate and exciting’ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH; ‘The author who goes from strength to strength with every book he writes. The construction is flawless’ THE DAILY MAIL; ‘Yet another instance of his unfailing ingenuity’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT; ‘If there is a better writer of detective stories alive, I would like to know his name’ GLASGOW CITIZEN; ‘A detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts is always an event’ THE DAILY EXPRESS; ‘Freeman Wills Crofts’ crimes are solved with dogged diligence and attention to detail… they seem to have improved with age.’ THE INDEPENDENT; ‘Supremely good’ YORKSHIRE POST; ‘Freeman Wills Crofts is the only author who gives us intricate crime in fiction as it might really be, and not as the irreflective would like it to be’ THE OBSERVER ; ‘Brilliant… will delight all lovers of detective fiction’ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH