The Lyttleton Case

The latest in the series of classic crime novels from the vaults of HarperCollins for the detective connoisseur is the only novel by the Welsh writer R.A.V. Morris.

The chance discovery of a young man’s body floating in a Sussex stream provides the first clue to the mysterious disappearance of Sir James Lyttleton, who sent his daughter a curt wire announcing his departure for America before completely vanishing. But this is no ordinary missing persons inquiry – when Sir James’s body turns up inside another man’s coffin, journalist James Dawson and Chief Inspector Candlish of Scotland Yard find themselves on the trail of a particularly ruthless and ingenious murderer.

This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by author and editor Douglas A. Anderson, whose authoritative books on Kenneth Morris led to the discovery of R.A.V. Morris’s true identity.

Reviews

‘An entertaining crime story, brimful of interest.’ South Wales Argus

‘A cleverly constructed crime story, with the dramatic situations well sustained.’ Sheffield Daily Independent

‘A complicated detective story.’ The Times Literary Supplement

‘An early specimen of the well-written, slow, carefully plotted puzzle … a tale of murder, impersonation, and abduction, with entertaining asides about the contemporary scene.’ Barzun & Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime

‘Clever and appealing’ Martin Edwards, author of THE GOLDEN AGE OF MURDER

About the author

Ronald Arthur Vennor Morris wrote The Lyttleton Case in his forties, inspired by his younger brother, the seminal Welsh fantasy author Kenneth Morris. Despite its success as one of Collins’ earliest detective novels in multiple editions, this was to be R.A.V. Morris’s only book, although he wrote numerous articles and poems as an active member of the Theosophical Society and the Order of the Golden Dawn.