The Case of the Amateur Actor

There was no mess: just a dark stain one could see on the waistcoat. What was horrible was the contortion of the face and the tortured eyes. But even then I thought I knew him.

There can be few people who would wish to go so far as to murder a literary agent. Which one takes the trouble to impersonate a well-known author and lure George Posfort of that calling to his violent end in an unlikely London hotel? And why, about the same time, should Richard Alton, a nice young schoolmaster and gifted amateur actor, apparently disappear behind the Iron Curtain? There are several possible motives for Posfort’s murder; among them an ugly rumour that he had been responsible for the suicide of his secretary, Caroline Haze. But Alton’s vanishing trick seems altogether inexplicable until Ludovic Travers joins forces with Superintendent George Wharton—the ‘Old General’ of Scotland Yard—to arrange the pieces and show that what at first appears to be two problems is in fact one.

The Case of the Amateur Actor was originally published in 1955. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

“Solid detective interest” New York Times

“Another Travers mystery to delight the most critical reader . . . a swell story” Montgomery Advertiser